Power Trowel and Concrete Finishing SWMS

Suits concreters and slab finishing crews who use walk-behind and ride-on power trowels to float and finish slabs. It covers planning the finish, slab edges and access, checking machines, fuelling, hand finishing and wet concrete burns, operating both trowel types, fumes, night work, heat and noise, and clean-up. Concreting in general is covered by a separate SWMS.

Item 14 (movement of powered mobile plant, WHS Regulation s 291(o)) is ticked because the SWMS covers ride-on power trowels, which are operator-controlled, self-propelled plant, and because concrete trucks and pumps usually move near a pour. A hand-guided walk-behind trowel is not self-propelled in that sense, so if the job uses only walk-behind trowels and no other powered mobile plant moves in the area, untick item 14. Tick the other items the job involves, such as a fall of more than 2 metres from a slab edge, a road or traffic corridor in use, energised electrical installations, or a contaminated atmosphere (item 11) if grinding or cutting the hardened slab creates silica dust.

New to SWMS? Read What Is A Safe Work Method Statement?

What Is Covered In Our Power Trowel and Concrete Finishing SWMS?

After the standard pre-start checks, the job steps run from “Plan the finish: timing, access and lighting” to “Clean down, shut down and pack up”. The hazards and controls include:

• Blade and rotor contact causing crush and cut injuries
• Loss of control and kickback of walk-behind trowels
• Ride-on trowel runaway, tipping or striking workers
• Carbon monoxide and petrol fumes in enclosed areas
• Alkaline burns and dermatitis from wet concrete
• Fire during refuelling and starting
• Falls from slab edges and openings
• Noise and vibration from machines
• Poor light, fatigue and vehicles during night work
• Heat illness and sun exposure
• Kneeling, bending and manual handling strains
• Slurry and wash water pollution

High Risk Construction Work

These high risk construction work items (WHS Regulation 2011 (Qld) s 291) are already ticked because they are part of this work. Tick any others that apply to your job:

• Is carried out in an area at a workplace in which there is any movement of powered mobile plant

Licences, Training and Competency

• General construction induction training card (white card) for construction work, and site induction
• Power trowel operators trained and assessed as competent on the walk-behind and ride-on machine types used (Schedule 3 of the WHS Regulation has no high risk work licence class for power trowels)
• Concrete finishers trained in the safe handling of wet concrete and cement, including first aid for alkaline burns
• Supervisor or competent person to plan the pour and control the exclusion zone
• First aid equipment, facilities and trained first aiders (or access to them) as the work needs (WHS Regulation s 42)

Legislation and Codes of Practice Referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)
• Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Risks of Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Labelling of Workplace Hazardous Chemicals Code of Practice 2021
• Preparation of Safety Data Sheets for Hazardous Chemicals Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Noise and Preventing Hearing Loss at Work Code of Practice 2021
• Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Work Environment and Facilities Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Risk of Falls at Workplaces Code of Practice 2021
• First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks Code of Practice 2021
• Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld)
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): construction electrical equipment (s 140)
• Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2021 – Managing electrical risks in the workplace

What You Get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (15 A4 landscape pages). Type your business, client and job details once and they fill in on every page, with a space for your logo
• 11 job steps for this work, each with its hazards, controls, initial and residual risk scores and the person responsible
• PPE listed for this job: safety boots; waterproof gumboots tall enough to keep wet concrete out when working in the wet slab
• Emergency arrangements for: concrete burn or eye splash, carbon monoxide symptoms (headache, dizziness, nausea) and person caught in or struck by a trowel or machine runaway
• Plus the parts every Work Safety QLD SWMS shares, from the s 291 checklist to the worker sign-on sheet (see the layout in our free SWMS template)

Adjust it for your site, plant and crew, and talk it through with your workers before work starts. Please make sure you read our Disclaimer before downloading this SWMS.

Checked against the Queensland laws and codes of practice listed above. Last reviewed November 2026.