Always been a broom finish guy until I watched this old timer on a job site

Last Wednesday I was pouring a driveway in Portland and this older finisher, must've been sixty five, was doing a swirl pattern on his slab. I always figured broom finish was faster and more reliable, but he bet me twenty bucks his swirl took less time. He was done ten minutes ahead of me and the finish looked way cleaner. Now I'm thinking about adding more pattern options to my regular work. Anyone else ever switch up their go-to finish because of something simple like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_sam21d ago

Funny you mention that @rowan262, my buddy runs a crew down in Salem and he told me about hiring this old guy for a patio job. Dude showed up with a stained brown mix and taught him a swirl trick that cut his finishing time by almost a third. Now my buddy swears by it even on plain gray jobs, says it hides mistakes way better than broom.

rowan26221d ago

That 65 year old finisher was probably using a concrete dye or stain in his swirl mix, not regular gray. I remember reading a study from the Portland Cement Association that showed colored swirl finishes can actually outlast broom finishes in wet climates if the pigment is mixed right. Might be worth checking the spec sheet on your next job if you're thinking about swapping finishes.