TL;DR
A broom finish is the slip-resistant concrete surface created by dragging a stiff- or soft-bristled broom across the slab after floating and troweling, while the surface can still hold the fine parallel ridges. It is the default exterior texture for driveways, sidewalks, patios, and pool decks because the grooves channel water away and grip shoes and tires when wet.
What it means
A broom finish is the slip-resistant concrete surface created by dragging a stiff- or soft-bristled broom across the slab after floating and troweling, while the surface can still hold the fine parallel ridges. It is the default exterior texture for driveways, sidewalks, patios, and pool decks because the grooves channel water away and grip shoes and tires when wet. Coarseness is tuned by bristle stiffness and timing, with strokes run perpendicular to traffic or in a uniform direction, and on slopes a heavier texture is common. The pulled lines also help disguise minor finishing marks that would show on a smooth steel-troweled surface.
Where it sits in the glossary
Broom finish is part of the Certifications group inside the ProFix Directory glossary. Browse every term in this category from the glossary index.
Why Ohio homeowners should know it
This is a term Ohio homeowners encounter when reading contractor quotes, hiring paperwork, or inspection reports. Understanding it well enough to ask one good follow-up question is usually all the protection a homeowner needs.
ProFix Directory keeps definitions short on the index page and saves the longer context — Ohio-specific rules, where the term comes from, and which ProFix tools touch it — for these per-term pages so the term is easy to cite and easy to share.
ProFix tools that touch this term
See also
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