Photo courtesy of Multiquip, Inc.

Choosing a Power Trowel for Decorative Concrete
The type of equipment you use should reflect careful consideration of the surface you’re working on and the region you live in.
by John Strieder

Picking the right power trowel for the job is something a decorative contractor needs to consider carefully.

A power trowel will save time and sweat, but the machine is not known for its delicacy. Between its weight and the heat of its steel blades, the wrong choice can wreak havoc on a decorative concrete floor. So do your homework.

Ride-on vs. walk-behind
Power trowels can be divided into two categories: walk-behind and ride-on.
The first consideration in picking one or the other will be the size of the job. A ride-on power trowel’s greatest strength is its productivity — it contains more blades and pans on its underside. Its greatest liability is its size. It is simply too big and heavy to maneuver into a residential basement and along the edges of walls. It also costs much more than a walk-behind.

Photo courtesy of Hover Trowel, Inc.

The high productivity of the ride-on helps with the fast-curing concrete used in commercial applications. But the heavy machine would obliterate a thin overlay system.

So a decorative contractor, who is typically working a relatively small residential job, will probably be using a walk-behind power trowel. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a ride-on on something smaller than 2,500 square feet,” says Ed Varel, engineering project manager with Stone Construction Equipment Inc. “And ride-ons are such large-ticket items that the only way they pay for themselves is to use them quite a bit.”

A walk-behind power trowel handles like a waxer, Varel says. “The trowel is constantly trying to push you over. They are tough to operate. You have to find somebody willing to build up the calluses and muscles to operate that guy.”

Not all walk-behinds are created equal, of course. Weight is an issue here too. In some climates, even a walk-behind may be heavy enough to sink into green concrete. “In the cold North, you want it light, or otherwise it will dig into the finish,” Varel says. “Northerners want as little weight as possible, because things don’t set up real quickly. Down in Florida, they can’t get enough weight. They want the biggest.”

There are specialized power trowels that are designed for use on polymer-modified systems. For example, the HoverTrowel is lighter than a conventional walk-behind, which allows it to be operated on a thin-coat system that won’t take a heavier machine. “The HoverTrowel is really the only lightweight trowel on the market that can handle overlayments,” says HoverTrowel Inc. president Drew Fagley.

The HoverTrowel is pneumatic, which makes it a good choice in jobs where a gas-powered machine can’t be used. If a contractor wants to switch to a gas-powered engine, the HoverTrowel can be retrofitted with one.

“It’s a power trowel that also does things that a man can do,” Fagley says. “It’s sort of a hand trowel standing up.”