Pro tip: Stop using wood floats on high-spec floors unless you want callbacks

I watched a crew put down a 20,000 square foot warehouse slab last Tuesday using wood floats the whole way. Owner called me Friday complaining about surface unevenness and a cloudy finish. Wood floats leave a different texture than mags and they drag fines up in a way that changes the cure. Test a small area yourself with a resin float on the next job and see if you don't get a flatter result. Anyone else dealt with this crew argument about tools?

3 comments

3 Comments

baker.holly1mo ago

That 20,000 square foot warehouse slab sounds like a nightmare waiting to happen with wood floats... did the crew give you any reason why they refused to switch tools? I've run into that same stubbornness before and it's always some old timer saying "we've always done it this way" without realizing the spec calls for a different approach. The cloudy finish alone tells me the fines got worked up too much during the cure, which is exactly what happens when you drag a wood float across a high-spec mix. Was the owner willing to pay for a corrective grind or are they just stuck with that uneven surface now?

jamie_webb671mo ago

I used to think wood floats were fine for just about anything, but watching that cloudy finish come up changed my mind real quick. How do you even talk sense into a crew that won't budge on something that obvious?

michael_green441mo ago

Watching a crew ignore cloudy finish is like watching my brother ignore a leaking roof, @jamie_webb67, until it caved in on his brand new truck.