Took me 5 years to realize I was overworking my concrete with too much troweling

I was out on a driveway pour last Thursday in Austin and my foreman just stood there watching me hit it with the power trowel for the third pass. He finally walked over and said 'you're burning the cream off the top, kid, look at that crust forming.' I had no idea that extra passes were actually drying out the surface and making it weaker. I always thought more finishing meant a smoother look but turns out I was creating dusting issues on my last three jobs and never connected the dots. Now I do two passes max and let the bleed water do its thing. Anyone else get told this late in their career?

3 comments

3 Comments

alexc9314d ago

Man I did that on a sidewalk once and my neighbor yelled at me for turning it into powder!

blakem3714d ago

Dude my neighbor's 7 year old kid saw me doing it on our driveway last summer and started screaming "YOU'RE KILLING THE WORMS" at me. I felt so bad I stopped halfway through and just had this ugly pile of half crushed leaves sitting there for a week. My wife still brings it up when we have people over. Honestly though the sidewalk thing is way worse because that powder gets everywhere.

morganhill14d ago

I mean, is leaf blowing really that serious? @blakem37 seems like the neighbor kid and your wife are giving you a harder time than the actual mess deserves.