Tools & Equipment
Hand tools, power trowels, mixers, saws, grinders and vibrators — and which ones a small pour actually needs.
How to choose within tools & equipment
A small pour needs fewer tools than the catalogue suggests, but each does something nothing else does: a screed board to strike level with the forms, a bull float to flatten and embed aggregate immediately after, an edger, a groover for joints, and a hand float. A steel trowel belongs on the list only if the slab is interior — a steel-trowelled exterior surface is dangerously slick wet and more prone to freeze-thaw scaling.
Power tools change the economics above a certain size. A mixer earns its place above roughly ten bags, mostly by keeping the batch rate steady so earlier concrete does not stiffen into a cold joint. Power trowels and screeds are for slabs large enough that a crew cannot finish by hand inside the window.
Cutting and grinding tools carry a regulatory obligation. Dry cutting generates respirable crystalline silica, which OSHA regulates at a 50 µg/m³ PEL under 29 CFR 1926.1153, with Table 1 specifying water suppression or HEPA extraction per task.
What this category covers
- Trowels, floats, edgers, groovers
- Power trowels and screeds
- Mixers
- Saws
- Grinders and polishers
- Vibrators
- Concrete pumps
Manufacturers in this category
Listed alphabetically, in no order of preference. This site does not test products and does not recommend one brand over another.