“A strong, consistent bristle makes a great broom.” “The bottom line is that the quality of bristle drives the quality of the broom,” says Strawn. The most important characteristic of each concrete brush and broom is the bristle itself. There are differences within this niche market too. “If you use the ends of the bristles on a slab, it pulls away the cream and exposes the aggregate.” What’s more, finishing brooms such as Marion Brush’s are designed to texture with the sides of bristles rather than the ends, Bolden says. “It digs into the slab, and doesn’t make it as uniform or as level,” Bolden says. It’s rougher than needed.”Ī push broom will also be too heavy compared to a finishing broom. “A lot of times a push broom exposes aggregate. There are five or six rows of bristle tufts on a push broom, compared to only two rows on a finishing brush, he says. The standard push broom is too stiff and has too much body to make a good finishing broom, says Gary Bolden, president of Marion Brush Manufacturing Co. “You want to finish, but you don’t want to dig into the surface.” “With a finishing broom, you don’t want it too stiff,” says Robert Bower, marketing manager at Wagman Metal Products Inc. While a typical broom is attached to a handle that is fixed in place, a concrete broom may be bolted to its handle with a “clevis adapter” so it can be adjusted for pitch.įinally, the typical bristles used in a concrete broom will be softer than those of a standard broom, although the coarsest concrete brooms can be rougher, Strawn says. The connection between the broom and its handle can be different too. “You’re actually texturing, not working to clean up the concrete.” Consistent bristles mean a more consistent finish, he says. The bristles of concrete finishing brooms have more consistent lengths and shapes than those of ordinary brooms, says John Strawn, product manager at Marshalltown Co. They have unique properties that make them specifically suited for putting a textured finish on a slab. “It depends on how quickly the concrete is setting up,” he says.īut while brooming is as simple as sweeping, finishing brushes and brooms are not ordinary cleaning brooms.
The tool should be pulled with light pressure appropriate to the job. The broom’s bristles should be held at a 45- degree angle to the surface, says John Wight, vice president of sales at Bon Tool Co. Photographs courtesy of Kraft Tool Company Less frequently, they swirl the broom for a “swirl finish,” which looks nicer but requires more work. For a “broom finish,” contractors pull a broom across the slab, preferably at a right angle to anticipated traffic. There’s not much of a secret in how a concrete broom is used, either. The shallow, grooved texture left on the surface by a concrete broom or brush will help keep shoes and tires from slipping or skidding on a wet or icy slab. Photograph courtesy of Wagman metal Products, Inc.Ĭoncrete contracting doesn’t usually lend itself to sweeping generalizations, but here’s a good one: If a contractor wants to give a curing concrete slab more slip resistance, the easiest, simplest solution is to drag a broom across it.
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