Remember when we all used to fight the clock on big pours before laser screeds?

Honestly, I was on a 40 yard pour for a warehouse floor in Boise about eight years ago. We were hand screeding and bull floating like madmen, and the sun was baking it. The foreman from another crew showed up with his new laser screed rig. He let us run a section with it, and we finished our area in maybe a third of the time. It was dead flat, no low spots. After that day, I saved up and bought a used one within a year. Does anyone else still have a soft spot for the old hand methods, or is it all about the tech now?

3 comments

3 Comments

emma6841mo ago

Oh, a soft spot for hand screeding is just nostalgia for bad knees and sunstroke. That tech is a straight-up life upgrade, like going from a shovel to an excavator. I'll keep my soft spot for a cold beer after the pour instead.

evan_morgan811mo ago

Remember reading about how those laser screeds can mess with a pour's timing? Emma684 is right about the tech being a huge step up, but I heard they can push the crew to go too fast before the concrete is ready. That cold beer after still sounds like the best part of the day.

parkerb751mo ago

@emma684 nailed it about the nostalgia thing, but I gotta say, there's something about the rhythm of a good hand crew that tech just can't replace. A buddy of mine still hand screeds his driveways and sidewalks because he says it forces the whole crew to read the mud together. He did one last summer with a laser screed and said it was faster but the slab felt "robot flat" with no character.