Concrete Grinding & Polishing.........Large or Small Jobs

Concrete Grinding and Polishing System from Gap Power

Edco Grinder Lineup
What is the difference between grinding concrete and polishing concrete?
      
Concrete grinding is for removing unwanted coatings or concrete features. Grinding is nearly always a step you do before another process. For example removing old adhesives in order to get down to the surface before installing tile, paint, epoxy, linoleum or another floor covering...............or, concrete polishing. The purpose of grinding is to get the concrete surface back to it's original condition after pouring and troweling.

Concrete Polishing is the process of making concrete "shine", i.e. the process of beautifying concrete. It is achieved by using finer and finer diamond polishers until the desired look is achieved, then "locking it in" with densifiers and sealants. Polishing is often followed up with staining in order to achieve patterns, artwork, company logos etc.

Can one machine do both grinding and polishing?
Yes. You can use a machine to grind, then remove the grinding attachments and install polishing attachments. This is an easy process using simple tools and takes only a few minutes.

Small Floors.
 
For - sq ft or less the Edco single and double head concrete grinders do an excellent job of prepping a concrete floor at a reasonable price.  Diamond dots, matched to the type of concrete, provide excellent &#;dirty&#; concrete removal and preparation for paints and epoxies.  Strip Serts, sharp carbide inserts on a holder are an excellent way to remove mastic style coatings (glue, black gunk, etc&#;)  Spreading sand is an integral part of removing mastic coatings with strip serts.  The mastic balls up on the sand and prevents the grinding head from getting caked with the mastic and losing its effectiveness.  A good way to know if strip serts will work on your job is to try and cut the mastic with a utility knife or scrape it up with a putty knife; if you can do this, strip serts on an Edco Grinder will do the job.
Polishing Pucks on Lavina

Big Jobs.

For floors over - sq ft the Lavina Propane 25GX Planetary Grinder and electric Ermator Vacuum Kit is the way to go.  This Grinding Packaged comes ready to go in a 5x10 Enclosed Trailer.  Because of the speed and weight of this grinder it is critical to use the free loaner Mohs Hardness test to check your concrete to determine which bond of diamond tooling is appropriate for your concrete.  
A typical grind for a coating will be with 30 Grit diamonds, dropping down to 14 Grit if you need more of a profile for some industrial floor epoxies.
Lavina w/ Included Ermator Vacuum


How Can I Remove Oil Stains From A Concrete Floor?

  The Oil Remediation System from Ameripolish is a great addition to floor preparation to remove oils so your paint coating adheres properly.  In some situations like shop floors, a simple 30 Grit grind and seal (no paint or epoxy coating) is sufficient to restore and preserve a floor making it durable and easier to maintain/clean.

What Can I Expect To Pay Per Square Foot To Grind A Concrete Floor?
 
Approximate cost per square foot for a Basic diamond grind (not including sealers or coatings): $0.30/sq. ft. when doing sq. ft. or $0.23/sq. ft. for sq.ft.

An example of a diamond grind for a shop floor including the Oil Remediation system, a heavy duty sealer, sq. feet, pricing would be approximately $0.87 per square foot or $0.52 per square foot for square feet.

What Can The Lavina Machine Do?

The Lavina Grinding package is also an excellent polishing system.  To polish an existing concrete floor on average you&#;re going to start with 30 Grit diamonds, the same as doing a standard grind before a coating.  70 Grit and 120 Grit diamonds follow before moving to 100 Grit transitional pucks with Velcro backing then proceeding to 200 Grit polishing/honing, then 400 Grit, 800 Grit; up to Grit.

 Most of your time spent doing a polish is in the diamond tooling (30-120 Grit).  It&#;s extremely important to work completely through each of the steps and vacuum or use an auto scrubber in between to remove any grit from the previous step.  Its also important to move slowly, only as fast as the tooling/concrete will allow.  A good gauge of speed is seeing a half inch in between the dust lines left by the grinder from the circular motion of the planetary.
Finished Floor

Densifying Concrete.
 
Densifying the surface is important to harden the surface of the concrete to help it maintain the high level of shine polishing will produce.  Densifying is typically done around 200 Grit.  Make sure the surface is cleaned thoroughly then simply use a pump style sprayer to apply the densifier and let dry for around 15 minutes.

Concrete Sealing After Polishing & Densifying.

After reaching your desired shine, apply a high gloss sealer for maximum shine or the heavy duty sealer for a durable finish then finish off with a burnisher or burnishing pads on the Lavina grinder.

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For more information, please visit concrete diamond grinding pad supplier.

Additional reading:
ER Collet Basics - Things You Need to Know to Get Started
How to Choose Custom Metal Mesh Filters?
Why Choose a Depressed Center Grinding Wheel?

LIGOOMBA said:

That's a big difference ! There is no way I will spend that kind of money!The HD by me wants 38.00 a day for the machine,its the floor buffer and 65.00 a day for the Diamabrush .If its gonna be about 200.00 for me to do it,then I will do it myself.Im already way over budget with this garage ! My wife is ready to kill me ! LOL !The floor was poured in early August.It looks like the sealer is already wearing out in lots of spots.Ive been all over the youtube on techniques.It does not look that hard.I seem some vs put a bag of sand over the machine to way it down.

Click to expand...

In my quest to learn more about grinding, I came across this link. Sounds appropriate given the fact you plan to rent the same equipment from HD. Notice the part where they suggest you buy a hand grinder and disc pads for the edges around the stem wall. Apparently the HD machine won't get those? The article uses Harbor Freight as their source for those tools, which isn't very expensive, but still something you need to plan.

Also, the article talks about renting a shroud (and possibly vacuum) to help control dust, as well as using a TSP after you are done to remove dust. Before I put any chemicals on the floor I would talk with the epoxy manufacturer you plan to use and ask their advise to ensure you get the best bond.

http://allgaragefloors.com/how-to-grind-garage-floor/

Unfortunately the article doesn't dive into time requirements for the work; however, sounds like an all day job according to the guys here. Maybe even 2 days for a shop your size.

We all have different expectations and budgets. I am on the fence myself about what to do as I mentioned earlier. However, one thing I realize is prep is everything with epoxy floors. So if I was going to splurge on something to make sure it was done right, the prep is where it would be. Plus you have to figure out what your own time is worth. Once you know all rental & misc material costs for DIY, then you can compare against a pro quote. If it's $500 more, is 8-16 hours of your own time worth more than that? Can you afford that? Theoretically, if you make $100/hr at work, you'd be better off working and paying a pro. If you make $10/hr at work, you'd probably be better off grinding yourself, assuming you can get the prep right so the life of the final epoxy floor is not compromised.

In my quest to learn more about grinding, I came across this link. Sounds appropriate given the fact you plan to rent the same equipment from HD. Notice the part where they suggest you buy a hand grinder and disc pads for the edges around the stem wall. Apparently the HD machine won't get those? The article uses Harbor Freight as their source for those tools, which isn't very expensive, but still something you need to plan.Also, the article talks about renting a shroud (and possibly vacuum) to help control dust, as well as using a TSP after you are done to remove dust. Before I put any chemicals on the floor I would talk with the epoxy manufacturer you plan to use and ask their advise to ensure you get the best bond.Unfortunately the article doesn't dive into time requirements for the work; however, sounds like an all day job according to the guys here. Maybe even 2 days for a shop your size.We all have different expectations and budgets. I am on the fence myself about what to do as I mentioned earlier. However, one thing I realize is prep is everything with epoxy floors. So if I was going to splurge on something to make sure it was done right, the prep is where it would be. Plus you have to figure out what your own time is worth. Once you know all rental & misc material costs for DIY, then you can compare against a pro quote. If it's $500 more, is 8-16 hours of your own time worth more than that? Can you afford that? Theoretically, if you make $100/hr at work, you'd be better off working and paying a pro. If you make $10/hr at work, you'd probably be better off grinding yourself, assuming you can get the prep right so the life of the final epoxy floor is not compromised.

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