Hand trowel vs power trowel on a big slab, what's your call?

I had a 3,200 square foot garage floor in Columbus last month and went back and forth on finishing method. Hand troweling gives me that tight, dense surface I trust, but my shoulder was screaming by hour six. Power trowel would have cut the time in half, but I've seen too many guys leave washboard marks when the mix is sticky. I ended up doing the edges by hand and rented a walk-behind for the middle, and honestly the transition lines bug me. Next time I might just eat the extra hours and go full hand finish. Anyone else wrestle with this choice on bigger pours, and what pushed you one way or the other?

1 comments

1 Comment

jake_owens22d ago

That "transition lines bug me" line hit hard, man. My buddy Rick did almost the exact same thing on a 2,800 square foot shop floor outside Dayton, rented a walk-behind for the middle and hand troweled a three foot border around the whole edge. Looked fine from a distance but when the light hit it at sunset you could see this weird wavy seam right where the two met, like the slab was two different colors. He said the power trowel left the middle slicker and shinier than the hand work, so it didn't even blend in texture wise. He's been doing floors for fifteen years and told me next time he's just gonna hire a second guy with a hand trowel and double up on the pads, split the slab down the middle and each take a side. Says the extra four hours of labor beats the headache of trying to match finishes that don't want to match.