Talked to a 30 year finisher and he changed my mind on power trowels

Had a job last Tuesday in Tacoma and the site super, a guy named Dale who's been pouring since the 80s, saw me hand floating a small pad and asked why I wasn't using my machine. I told him I only trust hand work on anything under 2,000 square feet. He laughed and said half the problems he sees now come from guys who skip the hand pass and go straight to power, but the other half come from guys like me who baby the machine entirely. He showed me his trick: run the power trowel dry on a low angle first, then finish the edges by hand, no bull floats needed. We did a 400 square foot walkway that way and it came out flatter than anything I've done by hand in five years. You still do the prep work, but the machine just knocks down the high spots faster. Has anyone else found a middle ground on small pours or is it all one way or the other for you?

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