The 6 Essential Tools You Need to Finish Concrete Like a PRO!
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- Опубліковано 10 лют 2025
- #howtofinishconcrete #concretefinishing
These are my top 5 tools for finishing concrete plus a bonus tool you should also have in your toolbox.
When we pour a concrete slab and apply a broom texture finish, we always use five concrete finishing tools.
When the concrete has firmed up enough and is ready to finish, we take some steps to finish it properly.
First, we cut in our joints using a Missel Groover.
Second, we clean up the joint using a walk-behind groover or jointer.
Third, we use a concrete edger and round off the slab's edges.
Fourth, we mag float (and/or funny float) the surface of the concrete to smoothen it.
Fifth, we pull a concrete broom across the surface to apply the broom texture.
We follow these same steps on all our exterior broom-finished concrete.
The 6th tool, actually a couple tools that do the same thing, is a steel trowel and a fresno. Some concrete finishers like to steel trowel the surface before using a broom to add texture.
We don't do that in Maine because our concrete has air-entrainment. (I talk about that in the video).
But, if you live in an area that doesn't get freeze/thaw cycles and your concrete doesn't have air-entrainment, using the steel trowel is another good option for a nice broom-textured finish.
#concretefinishingtools #misselgroover #concreteedger #magfloat #funnyfloat #concretebroom
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Near to Pittsburgh Pa. 45 yrs. doing concrete work ! Now retired due to needing 2 new knees and 1 new hip ! But miss doing the work and seeing the guys everyday !
Hi Mike,
I'm from Burlington Mass.
I watch all your videos and use to do concrete in a family business. Our specialty was putting up block buildings but time to time we did flatwark like you do. Just not as big.
You and your crew are masters of your trade and you have one of the best channels.
Happy Holidays to you and the crew and have a great 2025 year!!!
Appreciate it! Thanks for watching.
Did my first 12x16 pad by myself and it actually went pretty well. Great tips
Asheboro ,North Carolina I wish I had this channel when I started,in my opinion it’s invaluable for diy or beginners to understand the steps involved.Thanks Mike
Kia ora Mike, Phil here from Auckland, New Zealand. I love your videos and have learned a lot from watching, thanks for your hard work producing and sharing them. I am a DIY weekend warrior, not a craftsman like you and your team.
Bobby from Rochester NY. Love the channel. I just love how you make it look easier than it actually is. I was going to do my garage floor coating by myself then I watched your videos. People just don't understand, you make it look easy.
I love all your videos Mike I own and operate a handful of businesses and we're slowly opening up a concrete business to we're inspiring to build it to be a reputable concrete business like yours
Ronnie from The Netherlands 😊. Love you're videos Mike😊
I'm Dan, and I'm from the central valley of California. I have only poured small areas of my own concrete. My wife and I jacked up our 12'x13' tackroom and poured a slab ourselves. And I helped my older son pour a slab and sidewalk in his backyard. These were my largest pours. I'm just curious for small jobs for my little ranch.
Jacksonville, FL - checking in. Nice work as always.
Vancouver Island Canada, Great video, simple, straight forward, all meat and potatoes ,,
Love any discussion on additives, slump and specing the concrete to order.
Up here that's a 4 1/2 easy,, closer to 5. Plants up here also provide different feel to supposedly the same slump mix.
Yeah, the mixes are a little different everywhere you go.
Great job, very quick
Bristol , Tennessee . Hey Mike my name is Bryan Owens really like your videos and i have done concrete finishing and watching you and your team hand scret in sinc really takes me back to doing it in the 80's and 90's . Thank you again for the videos
Hi Mike Plainfield illinois love your videos I install swimming pools and we do everything from start to finish your content is so helpful Thank You
These videos are awesome. Do you have any videos installing anchor bolts to a slab on grade. Going to do a slab for my single story cabin
Buffalo NY. Thank you for all the great videos! I have used your tips/ teaching to make myself pretty good. Every job is coming out better and better. I mostly do sidewalks or pads for sheds or bleachers for a school district. I love it! What is the funny float you use?
Northern VA here. But my wife's family is from Bangor, Maine. Really enjoy your content Mike. Thanks! Question, is a fresno and a pool float the same thing?
Fresno and pool trowel are similar
Ok so I live in Corpus Christi (South Texas) im new to concrete, so when finishing concrete should I use a mag float or is a steel trowel or pool trowel. I know and I e seen videos where finishers carrying both mag trowel and pool trowels they’ll mag it and then go over it with a pool trowel and then broom it. Down south we have no issues with freezing just extremely hot temps. And good job by the way appreciate the video.
Thanks for sharing champion. Nuggets of advice for concreting.
I Love Your Channel! I'm from North Carolina
Nice job Mike
Love this channel so much information in doing the job. Mike from Northern WV just south of the Mason -Dixon line.
Sid from S. Fla - Palm Beach to The Keys, approves 👍
Holy smokes, that must be a huge generator.
PNW.
If I have been paying attention....on the joint.....I think you said in other vids that the depth needs to be 25% of the overall thickness....and elsewhere said that you only get like 1" from this tool--and why you like that torpedo-like joint cutter that gets deeper.
Am I confusing tools?
Now I am just trying to work up competency to do a 4' x 4' pad for a CBU mailbox mount, so won't need a joint, but I want to know if I have been understanding everything. I want a broom finish with picture frame (love that look).
And would appreciate it if you could point me to jobs where you set threaded anchors. I have to put in 4 anchors in a relatively precise 4" x 10" rectangle. Have you filmed anything like that?
--Appreciate the vids. Respect the teamwork, the efficiency, and high standards you maintain.
Melbourne, Australia. Concreter by trade.
Love your videos, I guess I'm still wanting to learn! David T. from Anadarko, OK
Freezen and tharen !
Bostarnian ! 😊
I watch just for the accent.
Scotty P from Lee's Summit, Mo. Love the channel.
Hey Mike - how come you don’t jitterbug the concrete?
Blueprint is necessary to learn for beginners to start concrete finishing?
i live in new york city, how should i order the concrete for driveways or side walks?
Spartanburg, SC. I love your video, and I have a question: Why do you not put rebars on the saddles besides pulling them up?
Usually we do, the supplier didn't have any today.
Sir, the job looks good. Can you please explain the foam board. In the South I'm not sure if that is ok for two reasons, foam floats in water, foam deteriorate underground over time = slab cracks, becomes unlevel. You are the pro. I'm just trying to learn, so I don't know what I'm talking about, but I also don't understand how possible freeze protection outweighs those two things I mentioned. I'll appreciate your response. Thank you.
The biggest deterioration factor for the foam is UV light where it’s obviously protected from in this type of application. Otherwise the expected life span of the foam is roughly about the same as the concrete itself or ±100 years.
Did you do this video in the summertime or
Where are the links to the funny float and walk behind jointer?
Does that foam board make it easier to calculate the concrete and make the order more accurate? I wonder if the flatness make it more exact with yield?
A nice flat bottom would make the calc a little more exact but you never want to cut yourself short. On a small pour like this I would do the exact calculation and then round up. On larger pours of 15+yds, foam bottom or not, I would always round up and add a yard.
Did you do this video in the summertime or winter time
T-shirts, sunshine and warm-weather haircuts wants to go w/summertime.
Looks great 👍. Where's the young Luke?
I have a question, and as this is the most recent video I'll ask here. Why in almost all the foundation slab/basement floor pours I see on youtube, are there no footings showing? Do people not have supports in the middle of their buildings for columns and such? I seem to be missing a big piece of the puzzle.
They have thickened areas for columns sometimes. Check out a few more videos, especially of basement pours. They get away with some pretty wide spans these days with the engineered lumber products or the use of steel beams. Architects love wide open spaces, so that they are able to dictate wall location rather than placement being obligated due to column location.
@@psidvicious Makes sense thanks!
What’s the point of pulling up on the mesh if Slim stomps back flat on the foam.
Once the wire or rebar is lifted it’s got concrete under it. You can jump up and down on it all you want the wire will never go back down where it was. Slim…
Canada Alberta
My name is Mark ostrowski I am from Chicago IL 😊
aye yo before the first minute
On this job u obviously didnt need them but what about knee boards?
That slab is gonna need sunblock it looks so warm there..........
Narrow pour yet the lazy guy still wanted to stand in the middle stepping on the rebar. SMH.
First