Concrete Rakes

Three terms circulate for tools that look similar and do different jobs. A concrete rake has tines and spreads the mix. A placer or come-along has a plain blade and pulls material along, which is what you want when taking off surplus rather than distributing it. An asphalt lute is the plain-bladed equivalent for hot-laid material, usually wider than anything used on concrete.

The tools differ from garden rakes in everything but outline: a working width of 500–915 mm against a typical 400, enough stiffness to move a dense material, and a pole built to take pulling rather than only sweeping. A garden rake pressed into concrete work generally lasts one pour.

The choice of material is not about price or preference but about what the tool has to work against. Asphalt is laid hot and clings to metal — magnesium holds it least, which is why asphalt rakes are made from it. Concrete does not stick in that way but is abrasive and loads the working edge heavily, so the stiffer and cheaper aluminium wins there.

Magnesium rakes are noticeably wider than the aluminium ones — 762 and 915 mm against 500–508 mm. That follows from how the work is done: asphalt is spread over larger areas in a thinner layer, so width buys output, and the low mass of magnesium makes that width manageable through a shift.

The steel model sits outside this division. Steel is heavier and less comfortable over a long day, but it tolerates contact with aggregate and stone that aluminium will not — which is why the 500 mm version also covers sand and sub-base work, where the tool scrapes against gravel.

This is what decides how the tool treats the material. Tines let the mix pass between them, so the rake distributes concrete instead of pushing the whole mass ahead of it. For spreading fresh mix off the truck that is the only sensible option — a plain edge at this stage gathers everything into a ridge that then has to be broken down again.

A plain edge works as a pull bar and earns its place later: taking off surplus, levelling ahead of the screed, and gathering the last of the material at the edge. Hence the Dual Face version with tines on one side and a plain edge on the other, which turns the change of stage into simply turning the tool over.

With asphalt the division runs differently. Sharp tines break up material that has started to clump in transit or at the edge of the drop. Blunt tines spread without disturbing the structure of the layer, and are used where the mix is still plastic and needs no breaking up.

The version with brackets and hook answers a separate problem. The hook lifts reinforcement mesh during the pour so it ends up around mid-depth of the slab rather than lying on the base — which is the difference between reinforcement that works and steel that merely rusts underneath.

Aluminium forms a thin oxide film of its own that protects it from further oxidation. Anodising thickens that film deliberately in an electrochemical process — the surface becomes harder than bare aluminium and considerably more resistant to abrasion and to the chemical action of fresh mortar, which is alkaline.

In practice an anodised tool keeps a smooth working face for longer, and that translates into two things: less material clings to the edge during work, and what does cling washes off more easily afterwards. The colour — Gold or Blue — comes from dye held in the pores of the anodic layer, not from a coating that could flake away.

The stage after spreading is screeding to level — that is the job of bull floats, and on larger areas of vibratory screeds. The full order of work on a slab, from spreading through to non-slip texture, is in concrete hand tools.