Grinding concrete floor - types, tools and equipment used

Before laying the topcoat, the concrete floor needs some preparatory work. One of them is grinding. What it is for and how it is carried out, we will analyze in this article.

Process description

Grinding of the concrete floor is performed to remove small protrusions, chips, stubborn dirt, ripples, chipping and sagging. If the coating has cracks from time to time and significant loads, then the entire top layer is removed.

Tip: sanding will not cope with strong surface differences, as the corresponding equipment will follow its contours during movement. Therefore, you need to fill leveling screed.

Types of grinding

The technology of grinding a concrete floor can be done in two ways:

1. Wet. Required mainly for the treatment of coatings of mosaic or concrete chips. With the help of abrasive segment brings them to perfection. The price of this method is much higher.

1. Dry. This grinding is longer and harder. It is usually used in the case of classical concreting. This leads to the appearance of a large amount of cement particles in the air, but it is still better than a wet dirty haze that makes it difficult to evaluate the results of the work and clogged up in the pores.

Tip: It is recommended that construction vacuum cleaners be used during work in parallel with the grinding equipment. They will significantly reduce the dust cloud.

Applied tools and equipment

What to grind concrete floor? It all depends primarily on whether you are repairing your home at one time in many years in a small area, or if you need frequent treatment of large surfaces.

You can go two ways:

1. Professional devices will cope with large volumes, reducing the required time and effort, although they are quite expensive. Possess the following auxiliary elements:

• Planetary gear system. It is a special wheel with wheels in which diamond tools move. This design ensures a very high quality grinding.
• Speed ​​control, which allows you to choose a more correct approach to each surface.
• Automatic assembly of dust and water supply. Required modes for wet-type polishing.

Tip: when choosing equipment, keep in mind that its large weight has a positive effect on the quality of processing. This is because in such a case, the pressure exerted on the surface increases, and the knives are more stable.

1. For a small amount of work, it will be more rational to purchase an angle grinder, also known as “grinder”. Of course, it will be harder to grind a concrete floor than with the unit discussed above. But she better gets to hard to reach places and allows you to significantly save the family budget.

Tip: Be extremely careful when handling diamond and abrasive wheels. If unsuccessful tilting and excessive pressure, they can crack and fly apart, which can lead to serious injuries.

Preparatory work

The instruction requires some preliminary operations on the concrete surface to make it suitable for further grinding:

1. If there is an old finish coating, then completely remove it.
2. We check the presence in the upper layer of cement reinforcement or metal mesh. If they are found, it will be necessary to cut the reinforced concrete with diamond circles to remove all the iron elements, since they can damage the planetary mechanism of the machine.
3. We crack up cracks and gaps of various kinds with epoxy mastic, trying to lay it flush with the rest of the coating. Otherwise, in order to level up, more consumables will be needed later.

Sanding

1. First of all it should be noted that the work can not be started earlier than fifteen days after pouring concrete. This is very important, as the incisors simply begin to tear gravel, granite or marble from an immature mortar, depending on what you used.
2. We perform grinding with diamond discs having a grain size of 40. At the same time, we move the equipment without haste, smoothly and without stopping. Constantly monitor the quality of the traversed track left.

1. We clean the floor of the settled dust and treat it with a hardener for concrete. This substance forms a mineral-binding layer on the concrete surface, which overlaps the pores, which increases the strength of the material and its water resistance.
2. We carry out the final processing of discs with a grain size of at least 400, creating an ideal plane.

Conclusion

Grinding work with the availability of suitable equipment is easy, it’s not diamond drilling of holes in concrete that requires certain skills. Even the usual “Bulgarian” will be suitable for a small area. Follow the basic recommendations, and you will succeed.

The video in this article will introduce you to additional materials.

Successful to you repair work!