Trends in the Concrete Finisher trade
Products
There is a trend toward specialty concretes, including high performance concrete.
There is a greater emphasis on safety and the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) when working with materials in this trade.
In the area of vertical repairs, there is an increasing use of high performance repair materials.
There is a growing use of self-levelling underlayments for floor levelling.
The use of superplasticizers increase workability and reduce drying shrinkage. Macro-synthetic and steel fibres in cast-in-place concrete increases durability, and reduces cracking and movement. Concrete finishers may be required to add these materials to the mix on-site and the texture of those materials can cause some difficulties during the placement and finishing processes.
Increasingly, construction specifications are calling for floors with higher floor flatness and levelness (FF and FL) numbers. These tolerances mean that concrete finishers must have skills and experience in the installation of these floors.
There is an increase in architectural designs in concrete installation, which involves dyes as a topical application to concrete, similar to acid staining.
Diamond-polished concrete is becoming more common as an interior finish.
Tools and Equipment
Concrete finishers have access to an increasing variety of machines. Some machines spread materials, resulting in more accurate distribution. Laser-guided, mechanically operated screeds increase flatness and levelness of slabs. 3D-imaging equipment has been introduced to scan floor flatness and give instant feedback on tolerances of concrete. Edge machines used to finish edges are reducing the amount of overall handwork necessary. Technological advances in riding equipment have resulted in less physical strain to the concrete finisher and have increased productivity, flatness and improved quality of the finish.
In the field of curb and gutter construction, GPS technology to guide curb extruders has been introduced.