What's the difference between a float and a trowel?

A float has a thicker base than a trowel and is usually made of plastic, sponge, rubber, wood or magnesium.

There are two types of scrapers used in tiling

• Floor scraper (to remove all remnants of the previous messy trade from the substrate)
• Small adhesive notched scrapers, for tight corners.

Old Stonemasons Ramblings: Wood float finished floor is the 100% prefered finish for tiling. Do you know the difference between a splash trowel and a gauging trowel and why were they invented?? In the old days, a splash trowel was used 1st to apply very wet sand and cement with a splashing action from a bucket over wire netting. Then a gauging trowel was used to measure the amount of Lime, Cement, Sand and mix the Stonemason mud to apply the tile over the chicken mesh. To apply the mud to the back of the soaked tile, either type of trowel was used.