Protecting your Concrete Finishing Brush or Broom

But while brooming is as simple as sweeping, finishing brushes and brooms are not ordinary cleaning brooms. They have unique properties that make them specifically suited for putting a textured finish on a concrete slab. A concrete finishing broom is an artist’s tool, and like any important tool, it needs to be treated with care.

The Broom Cover/Protector, a new product from Kraft Tool Co., offers a snappy solution to the problem.

The Protector snaps around the bristle end of a broom, protecting its shape in storage. The tool fits Kraft aluminum finish brooms up to 48 inches wide. The open ends of the protector allow the broom to dry and keep its original shape. Snap-button closures secure the broom in place.

The brooms bristles should be held at a 45- degree angle to the surface, says John Wight, vice president of sales at Bon Tool Co. The tool should be pulled with light pressure appropriate to the job. It depends on how quickly the concrete is setting up, he says. “Most contractors don’t have a really good way to protect a broom,” says Kraft sales and marketing manager Steve Cook.

Magnolia Brush and Marshalltown Co. don’t make broom protectors. Wagman Metal Products doesn’t either, says Wagman marketing manager Robert Bower.

Wagman’s brooms come in cardboard boxes, which would be perfect for storage, but only after the broom is dry, he says. “You’re going to want to wash the broom, so optimally, you’re going to want some sort of air flow to dry it. I don’t know if putting a wet broom in a box is a good thing.”