A guy on a job in Asheville made me rethink my whole finish on a stamped patio

I was working on a big stamped concrete patio last fall, and I was dead set on using a heavy steel trowel for the final pass. This older finisher, named Carl, who was helping with the coloring, just shook his head and said, 'You're gonna burn the pattern right off. Use a magnesium float, let it set up for another 20 minutes, then hit it with a light hand trowel.' I argued, but he was right. The magnesium float gave it just enough texture to hold the stamp detail perfectly, where my way would have slicked it over. I've done it his way on every stamped job since. Anyone else have a finish tip that seemed wrong until you tried it?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_cora1mo ago

Know that feeling of being so sure your way is right. Stubbornly argued with a guy about using a water cure on a driveway in July. He said to use burlap and keep it soaked, I was all about the plastic sheeting. Plastic cooked it and gave me crazy cracks. Switched to his burlap method and never looked back.

patricia_king231mo ago

Yeah it's wild how the old ways come back around. We get so caught up in new materials like plastic sheeting, we forget why burlap was the go-to for decades. That stuff lets the concrete breathe just enough while keeping it damp, where plastic can trap too much heat and mess with the curing. Makes you wonder what other "improvements" are actually a step back.