DAE see people not cleaning their tools properly at the end of the day?

I watched a new guy on a site in Charlotte just toss his trowel in the back of his truck with mortar still caked on it, and now the edge is pitted and useless for a smooth butter joint.

4 comments

4 Comments

felixhenderson20h ago

My first trowel looked like a fossil after one lazy Monday.

kelly.patricia23h ago

That's a fast way to ruin good tools... seen it too many times. A quick five minutes with a bucket and a stiff brush saves so much money and hassle. Letting mortar dry on a trowel wrecks the temper in the steel, makes it impossible to get a clean edge. Some guys just never learn that basic care.

shane_bell22h ago

How many trowels have you seen completely wrecked that way? I'm guessing it's a lot.

nancy_king2920h ago

My buddy Jake left a trowel in a bucket overnight after a long day. The mortar set like concrete, and he tried chipping it off with a screwdriver. Totally wrecked the edge, had deep scratches all over it. He ended up having to buy a new one the next morning. It's exactly the kind of thing @shane_bell is talking about, just pure neglect. Why do people think tools can handle that kind of abuse?