Loading…
2
26 hours lost to a bad trowel blade setup on a garage slab
Got a call last Tuesday for a 400 square foot garage pour in Redmond. Showed up, checked my power trowel, blades looked fine so I didn't mess with them. Started floating and the surface kept tearing, little ridges everywhere. Spent 6 hours fighting it, tried different speeds, added more people to hand finish, nothing. Finally pulled the blades off and saw one was mounted upside down from the last rental job. Flipped it, did a test patch, and the difference was night and day. Finished the whole slab in under 4 hours after that. Who else has burned a whole day on something that dumb and simple?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
the_cameron1mo ago
Man I felt this one in my bones. Same thing happened to me on a driveway pour last spring, except it was a worn-out blade that had a lip on one edge. I must have walked that slab for like 8 hours trying to get it to close up and it just kept leaving these tiny ridges every pass. Even my finisher was looking at me like I forgot how to do my job. Finally I stopped, looked at the blade from the side instead of just glancing at the top, and saw the whole problem. Swapped it out with a spare from the truck and did a test patch that looked perfect in like five minutes. The worst part is I know better, I always check my equipment before big jobs, but that one time I got lazy and it cost me a whole day plus my pride. Now I check every blade edge and mounting point before I even start the engine, no exceptions.
8