Hot take: control joints matter more than your finish, and my old foreman finally convinced me
I used to think a clean trowel finish was the whole job until my old foreman Ray caught me skipping a layout check on a 40x60 slab in Topeka last week. He said "nobody remembers your burn marks, but they sure remember the crack running through their garage floor." Anybody else had a cut order come back to bite them, or is it just me?
Oh man, Ray sounds like a smart guy lol. I used to be all about the finish too, spent hours getting that slick look, and then watched a slab crack right down the middle six months later. That was a rough lesson. Now I spend way more time on layout and making sure my cuts land where they need to. Your foreman is right, nobody ever points at a floor and says wow nice trowel job, but they will call you about a crack every single time.