Using a concrete rake for the first time
geoffhazel
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
I recently acquired a concrete rake. The kind with a flat blade on top, and flip it over to some very wide teeth with 3/4″ V grooves between them.
I don’t do concrete much, but I have a small project coming up soon. In the past, I would use a garden rake or a hoe, but have never used an actual, official concrete rake. I’m wondering about how the smooth vs. toothed sides function? Or will it become pretty obvious once I get going?
Replies
Concrete rake?
Damn, that's gotta be heavy!
bump
J. D. Reynolds
Home Improvements
To my knowledge what you have is a landscapers rake.
The concrete "rakes' or "muck sticks' or "Kumalong" have no teeth, are about 20"-26" long at the blade and often have a hook on the top side that is used to hook the mesh or bar and raise it into the correct placement in the slab.
You can use what you have , just use the smooth side though, not the toothed side.
Link to what I am talking about
http://masco.net/web/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=696&Itemid=61
Edited 12/1/2008 6:37 pm by dovetail97128
Mine looks like this: http://www.capcityequipment.com/cplacement3966.html
To me that is an asphalt rake. Different regions terminology. Tines catch too much of the aggregate and the idea is to push/pull and level , tines work against that IMO.
They can't get your Goat if you don't tell them where it is hidden.
That's a sand trap rake, trust me, I've seen my share.
As DT said I've only seen a kumalong used and now I know how to spell it too! Thanks DT. Or - maybe a shovel. I'm not a concrete finisher but have hired out the placement of thousands of yards, and have played in it a bit myself. I think the reason for not using a rake is that it separates the concrete - you don't want that.
BTW - most kumalongs have a hook or prong on the top - you spin it around and use the hook to pull the wire up.
DT - why is it that kumalongs always have short handles? Seems like it would be harder on one's back. Thoughts?
Geoff: google for asphault rake.
Edited 12/1/2008 7:29 pm ET by Matt
Handle length?
So the guy using it doesn't poke the guys placing it in the eye.
A Great Place for Information, Comraderie, and a Sucker Punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
http://www.quittintime.com/
If the guy raking it has his back to the guy placing it cause he's gotta pull up more mud than a boot's drag worth or push with the face of the kumalong than the guy placing it deserves to get poked in the eye.
Then he does only have one good eye as his excuse.
Beats me-after a short stint on the barrow and the rake-they stuck my rear down with the screed. Kept my head down and my boot tops closed.
I remember getting my boot nicked once (tire patch), chewing the guy out and never seeing him again at my backside. Made the screed pretty heavy.A Great Place for Information, Comraderie, and a Sucker Punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
http://www.quittintime.com/
I've always waited to see I guy actually use the hook on the rake too.
Never seen it done and I figure that little welded stub would never really hold up, if it didn't just slip off the mesh anyway.
Around here we all use a 4' - 5' piece of 5 or 6 bar bent into a 4"- 6" J hook and a triangle bent handle with the bar end tacked to the shaft. These work good not only for mesh pulling but maneuvering pump hose bends and pump hose coupling sleds, pulling vibra screeds or getting a guys attention if need be.
I don't want to highjack the discussion...but just for a second. I was wondering if anyone has any experience with the SCRUTE Screed & Concrete Grade Tool? A couple of years ago I attended an ICF builder's seminar and a fella there was jumping up and down saying it was fantastic. Thoughts?
Is it a screed or a rake or a spoork?
If the carpenters cut the stakes below the forms for sidewalk it looks like it might be great. As a Kumalong, seems like to much wingspan, hard to balance.
But than for sidewalks if you have to much mud you'd still have to grab a kumalong to rake it back inwards it seems. As a one man sidewalk screed board it might be great but not for much beyond that.
You don't just lift with that little hook unless there are several guys lifting at the same time. We tend to hook and roll toward the backside of the blade. That lifts and stretches the mesh. Hold that position untill the mix pours up close, back up a few steps and do it agian. A lot easier than lifting. Two or three guys working together can keep the wire off the bottom it they know what they are doing.
I realize the precision technique I’m just waiting for a Geenie to yank away. With the shop fabed hook I described you can pull back 3/4 of a full sheet of mesh nearly folding it as mud is placed and let it slap back down.
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Typically we don’t really pull mesh, on smaller pours we fling down a mud mat and place mesh or if a Rod buster is on hand they’ll place as we pour. On bigger pours we’ll use sand chairs and or it’s a Rod buster’s job to hook and pull as we pour ensuring its mid mud. As it’s their responsibility for placement, including that no mesh or bar burns the forms.
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Sorta like it’s the plumbers responsibility to ensure rough in is where it should be before the rockers cover it or the carpenters to keep checking the frames for plumb and square as the Masons go.
I have never been able to keep up with a shop fabed hook. I've owned two or three of them over the years, but they always seemed to get away from me on bigger jobs. I agree with you that they are better than the ones on the kum-alongs, but knowone seems to steel them from me.
They end up in piles of scrap rebar or as extra rod in the pour, that's what happens to them. We'll usually have a dozen or so lying all around the side lines with piles of extra kumalungs and pump hose lengths, just incase someone ever wanted to just jump in and help. Never seen that happen though.
Another real handy and super simple tool, not for pulling mesh but for pulling pump hose sections around is chain.
We'll use about 3'-4' piece of chain with a snap ring on the end, run that under the hose back up to the chain so your choking the hose and than the rest of the length comes up and passes through a chunk of conduit and hooks back into the strait length of chain to form a triangle handle. Have these starting from the first guy back from the lead hose man every 5-8'. Work good for lugging that hose around, each guy wide stance straddles the hose and holds the conduit handle in front of them two handed like your jet skiing. Works for balance to when you feel an air pocket, every guy can jump on the hose and pull tight on the chain for balance. Limits the kick damage on the business end for the lead hose man.
Handle's short so when you step on it the handle doesn't flip up and bong your chimes. Unlike a garden rake, which bonged my chime, just like in the cartoons.
most of the concrete guys around here use that hook to hang em by,they never pull wire,it just lays on the bottom,no one will ever know.if a man speaks in the forest,and there's not a woman to hear him,is he still wrong?
Handle too long and you can't maneuver it in tight quarters, plus you really don't want to be smacking the guy behind you (especially if he is twice your size).
They can't get your Goat if you don't tell them where it is hidden.