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Walking through the new city hall plaza in Springfield and the finish caught my eye
They used a really fine broom finish, almost like a brush texture, and it runs north-south while the building faces east-west. My crew debated if that was a style choice or a mistake during the pour. What's your take on directional finishes for big public jobs like that?
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robinson.jake1mo ago
Saw that same finish on the courthouse steps in Oakdale last year. Our foreman swore it was a crew rushing to beat the rain.
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robinson.jake1mo ago
Would they really let a mistake that big slide on a city hall job? My crew once argued about a finish direction for so long we almost missed lunch, so maybe it's just a style thing that looks off to us.
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coran631mo ago
Devil's advocate here - that directional finish was almost definitely a mistake. Nobody credible specs a broom run north-south on a east-west facing building unless they want the sun to hit it sideways and show every single flaw every afternoon. Style choice my foot, that's a cover-up for a crew that ran out of daylight and had to pull the broom before the rain came. The city hall inspectors probably walked it at 8am when the light was flat and missed it, now they're stuck with it. Seen it happen on a county building in my area, same exact story - they blamed it on "architectural intent" for years until someone finally admitted the crew was hungover. If that was truly a deliberate choice, they would have matched the control joints or at least run it parallel to the main entrance sightline. Directional finishes only look intentional when they follow the building lines, period.
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