[2021] upgrading should be faster.

The speed of the tool hardly matters when you have to wait for the concrete to dry for two of those stages anyway. I made what I consider a large base with reinforced concrete everywhere, and I found the nail gun worked as fast as I could aim at the next block in sequence.

Originally posted by Mardoin69: Are you using a good quality hammer? Not the stone axe. Personally, I feel like it builds pretty fast. Any faster and you start getting into that "oops" I made concrete when I just wanted cobblestone dilemma. I've done that in past version's. Sometimes I just want to keep things in cobblestone cuz is cheaper to repair.

I feel your pain, but there is a workaround. Plan ahead and only carry the materials needed to make the upgrades you actually want. If you want to end with cobblestone, take concrete mix out of your inventory before you start.