Finishing Concrete
Screeding concrete Problems and Solutions!
A concrete screed is a tool used to smooth concrete when it comes out of a concrete truck wet. Wet concrete must be smoothed when pouring projects like driveways, sidewalks, and flat work. Screeding can be as simple as using a wooden two by four. Wooden two by fours are the most commonly used method of screeding concrete today. It’s readily available anywhere, can be cut to any custom length for your specific projects, it’s light weight, and just works best as time has proven.
Several screeds have their place in the market. Some like to use vibe screeds, some like to use Magnesium screeds and of coarse there are the huge expensive Truss type screeds and mechanical screeds for highways and huge projects. Most of these companies still end up using the trusty two by four wooden or magnesium screeds for cutting around the detail work like plumbing stubs or narrow areas where the huge equipment can’t reach or the project is just to small to justify large equipment.
Over the years concrete screeds have had many designs, handles, attachments, etc. to make the favored way of screeding a little easier. The problem most experience is that when you add handles so you can screed while standing in an upright safe position you lose the control and strength, the longer the handle the less control. Adding handles is something that has been attempted so many times by various contractors all over the world, but you still see many just working somewhere in between the standing and bending methods trying to find that happy place.
So the problem is this; bend while being unsafe and abusive to your body to get the project done properly, or make a compromised attachment of some sort to make it easier and safer on the body but with less than perfect product results.
The solution is this; make it’s so you can somehow stand in a normal ergonomically upright safe position without compromising the body or the tool all while ending with the quality results.
These are some complicated scenarios to change without compromising one for the other. Now from a business prospective we needed to add yet another scenario that complicates matters even more. We need to design something solving the first two scenarios and do it in an “affordable” manner so all contractors/workers can afford to obtain the product.
In just one year 28,000 workers in concrete manufacturing experienced a job-related injury or illness.
OSHA recommends Implementing appropriate work practices and /or controls to help reduce or eliminate potential back injuries from twisting, turning, lifting, awkward postures and whole body vibrations along with chemical burns from wet concrete.