1)      Cage Mixer manufactured by Smith Industries in Dade City, FL. for $84.00

Why we like it – If you’ve ever mixed a 50 lb. bag in a 5 gal. pail, you’ll love this mixer. It pulls the mud down, instead of throwing it all over your legs. The design allows you to smoothly scrape the round sides of your bucket and ride the bottom. No chunks of mud are left unmixed.

What we would change – offer a threaded head to connect to hand- held mixers, not just the flat hex head for ½” drills.

2)      Steel Squeegee (epoxy finisher) manufactured by Bon Tools in Gibsonia, PA for $37.00

Why we like it – It’s like a trowel on a stick. We hate bending over or working on our knees when we can stand up straight and save the back.

What we would change – Change the angle of the blade; make it straight, not angled on the handle. Offer rounded corners to prevent tracking.

3)      Baby Chapin (1 ½ qt. hand sprayer, model 1046) manufactured by Chapin in Batavia, NY for  $22.79

Why we like it – For detail work it beats lugging around a hefty sprayer with a clumsy hose. The Baby Chapin is even equipped with Viton seals. It will spray most anything.  The pump action saves the repetitive squeeze of other hand sprayers. The handle design allows you to hang the sprayer from a back pocket while working.

What we would change – Make it last longer, they tend to break down all too quickly.

4)      Flex Bed Spiked Shoes manufactured by Midwest Rake in Warsaw, IN for $96.00

Why we like it – Because we like our feet even more. Comfortable and flexible are what we want when walking through a wet job. Why wasn’t this thought of sooner?

What we would change – The price. Come on, $96.00 is steep!

5)      SP pump-up acid sprayer (2 gal., model 02SP20A) manufactured by SP Systems in Santa Monica, CA for $108.00 (OK it’s over a hundred bucks)

Why we like it – This sprayer not only handles acid well, it puts out the volume that a pro needs. We prefer the fan tip for volume and the cone tip for coloring. Since we’ve sworn off acid for staining, you’d think we’d find a replacement for the SP. But when you need to dampen a slab to put out a coat of any cement based overlay, you can’t beat this sprayer.

What we would change – The price. And the handle. Although the handle has a locking position after you pump it up, it will unlock and the sprayer will drop the length of the shaft that the handle attaches. This feature is rather annoying, but not a deal breaker.

These tools are, at best, only among a longer list that will make installing easier. You no doubt have your favorites. If you haven’t tried these, at least consider it. What have you got to lose? At most a hundred bucks!

Next we will tackle an issue that is problematic in decorative concrete: color matching. Live long and cementitiously prosper.