• Most concrete tools aren't this heavy duty or expensive.Concrete mixer image by zalisa from Fotolia.com
  
  There are many tools used in the process of mixing, pouring and shaping concrete that range from cheap to expensive. However, with the right knowledge and general experience with concrete, tools used to mix, pour and shape it can be very cheap and standard devices that are relatively easy to use.
  
  

Floats

• Floats are flat pieces of metal, usually steel, with a handle in the middle of them on the back. This tool is one of the most important ones when working with wet concrete, as the flat metal side is used to smooth the wet concrete in a universal way. These floats are often carried by concrete workers in many shapes and sizes, since they need to effectively smooth surfaces of all kinds. For example, some floats are wide for larger surfaces of concrete smoothing, while others are narrow and pointed at the end for corners and thinner areas where wet concrete has been poured.
  
  

Hand Edge Tool

• Hand edge tools are another important tool for finishing a project using wet concrete. Once the float has been used over the majority of the concrete surface, the edges of the freshly poured concrete need the hand edge tool run over them, to round out the edges or separate the cement from drying against the wall of a structure next to where concrete has been poured. These hand edge tools consist of a piece of steel with a handle on the back, much like a cement float. However the major difference is that one side of the hand edge tool is curved downwards, in order to create naturally rounded edges to drying, moist cement. These hand edge tools also have different designs, depending on what type of edge you want.
  
  

Tampers

• Tampers push the coarse concrete down into the surface of the concrete after it has been poured, making it denser and less likely to have air bubbles or form cracks once it has dried. These tools consist of a rectangular metal grate which is about 2 to 4 feet long with metal pipes that come out of each side and connect at the top. Tampers are placed on top of freshly poured concrete that has begun to dry. The grate is then stepped on and pressed (or tamped) down. This should be done across the entire fresh concrete surface.