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Let's face it - manual screeding is a physically stressful job. The bending and pulling strains just about every joint and muscle in your body. But screeding is the key to achieving a level concrete slab. The industry offers a few good options for screeding small and medium-sized jobs. From a driveway, to the handwork on a large commercial floor, power screeding will help you achieve a better slab.

Vibratory screeds
The evolution of a concrete contractor starts with casting aside the hand-held striker, standing up straight and taking hold of a hand-held vibratory screed. Vibratory screeds have a relatively low entry price, allowing contractors to see a quick return on their investments when you consider the physical advantages to workers, the speed in which one machine can perform screeding and vibrating, and the quality of the finished product.

Joe Lindley, president of Jlin, says his company has tested concrete quality with hand screeding vs. walk-behind vibratory screeds. "If the jobsite requires 4,000 psi concrete and the contractor places it by hand, the best strength the concrete may reach is 3,000 psi; that's because it's not vibrated," Lindley says. "If they run a hand-held screed over it and vibrate to get that trapped air out, then they'll come back up to the strength they're asking for. With the vibrating screeds, the vibration covers the whole area so you don't have hit-and-miss consolidation."

Vibratory screeds are designed for form-to-form screeding or wet screeding. The DuoScreed from Multiquip has a reversible blade that handles both screeding processes. "Form-to-form, you run it with the straight, slightly concave edge toward you," says Ben Wiese, product manager with Multiquip. "The triangle, or chisel nose, is for wet screeding. The purpose of that is to actually draw that shape out. The chisel nose will cut the concrete to that level."

Vibratory screeds are available in sizes from a few feet wide to more than 20 feet, with larger sizes requiring dual power heads. This equipment is ideal for flatwork jobs up to about 5,000 feet, such as pole barns, basement floors and other small, flat slabs. They're also handy on large flatwork pours for handwork and getting into small spaces or upper decks where larger equipment cannot go. This type of equipment works best on wetter mixes, with a 4-inch slump or higher.