Grinding of concrete. tools and surface preparation

28-06-2018

Building

It should be immediately noted that the grinding of concrete with your own hands is a rather labor-intensive process, so if you are not confident in your abilities or if there is too much work to be done, then the involvement of specialists will be reasonable. Most often, the floor is polished, and after finishing the work, an absolutely smooth, sparkling surface is obtained that looks great and does not require the use of additional coatings. The technological process has its own characteristics, it is them that we consider in this article.

After finishing the work, it’s hard to believe that the floor in the room, as in the photo, is ordinary sanded concrete.

Types of grinding and their main features

Since the smoothing of the surface can be done in two ways, you need to choose the best option for your conditions. To make everything as clear as possible, let's present a comparative analysis in the form of a table:

Dry grinding	Wet grinding
This option is best suited for homogeneous materials without inclusions of coarse rubble or harder stones.	It can be used in any cases, even when using granite or marble chips, due to the use of water, the process is much faster and easier.
In the process, a huge amount of dust is generated, therefore, the use of a protective suit and means of protection of eyes and respiratory organs is mandatory.	When working, a wet mass is formed - sludge that rises into the air and closes clothes and eyes, so the use of protective equipment is also mandatory.
The workflow is quite slow, so using this method makes sense with small amounts of work.	Grinding is carried out much faster due to the greater performance of this type of equipment.
In the process, no additional components are required.	For best results, you need to use special components. Thanks to them, everything will turn out much better, but the price of the project increases markedly.

As noted above, the floors are most often treated, but if it was necessary to grind concrete walls, it is better to use a grinder, since you will hardly lift a special grinder.

Another good option is a special grinder for concrete, it looks like a grinder, but it has design features and a special handle that improves usability.

Grinder - a special device with which you can handle hard-to-reach places and walls

Tip! It is better to choose a tool of well-known manufacturers, the only way to ensure the declared power and performance. The equipment is subjected to high loads, so the quality is very important.

Proper workflow organization

The result of the work depends not only on compliance with the technology, but also on the quality of the equipment used.

Tool

After you have chosen a specific version of the equipment, you need to collect all the necessary and consumables.

Special grinding machine, if the amount of work is small, then you can do without it.

The equipment is quite heavy, it is unlikely to be able to move it yourself.

For work in hard-to-reach places and corners of the room it is best to use a grinder or a grinder in its absence. If the area is small, then you can get by with these tools.

Note! Remember that when using grinders for grinding concrete it is impossible to achieve such a result, which provides a complete grinder.

Diamond grinding disc for concrete is an important element, without which it is impossible to carry out work. Pay particular attention to the quality of the product: the diamond coating must be uniform and durable, otherwise it will fail very quickly.

Sanding disc for concrete - an important element that directly affects the quality of work

It is best to consult when buying a disc - experts will advise than polish the concrete in order to achieve the best result. Spraying can be arranged in different ways, and the choice of a specific option depends on the characteristics of the concrete.

Surface preparation

Before you grind the concrete, it is necessary to conduct a number of preparatory activities:

The first step is to check the strength of the entire floor. This is done by tapping, if weak areas are detected, they must be removed and re-concreted, work can be continued after the patches have completely dried.
If there are potholes on the floor, they can also be eliminated, the easiest way is to cut reinforced concrete with diamond circles, cut a rectangular area to a depth of at least 2 centimeters, and fit into it a specialized solution for sealing potholes. Works can be continued after full drying.
With cracks, the situation is a little different: you need to cut the entire damaged area at a distance of at least 1 centimeter from the fault in order to remove all unreliable parts, and the depth must be at least 5 centimeters. After that, the seam is cleaned and filled with mortar, again, the work can be carried out after complete drying.

It is important to remove all unreliable fragments.

If the surface is prepared, it is necessary to clean it from dirt, stains and remnants of the old coating, after which the base is treated with a special compound - hardener, it closes all the pores on the surface and makes it resistant to moisture.

The hardener allows you to achieve excellent quality work

Main stage

Consider how to grind concrete:

Work should begin with discs with coarser grains - from M40 and above, after which the option with an average gradation is used, and the last stage is carried out with disks М1300 - М1500. This allows for a perfectly smooth, glossy surface. Do not forget that the instructions for the use of power tools are required to study even before the start of work.
The work is carried out in one direction; in most cases, to achieve an excellent result, 3-4 passes are needed.. It is important to carefully treat each area of the concrete surface so that there are no poorly ground areas left.

The surface becomes smoother with each pass.

After the work is completed, it is necessary to vacuum the floor and thoroughly wash it. To improve the appearance and increase the strength of the concrete floor, you can cover the surface with polyurethane varnish in 2-3 layers.

So, we have examined in detail how to grind concrete and how to organize the workflow correctly. Sometimes diamond drilling of holes in concrete may be necessary, make it better before grinding, so as not to spoil the surface with chips.

Conclusion

Grinding concrete makes the surface very attractive and makes it literally sparkle. The video in this article will tell some features of the process in more detail.