Can a concrete grinder be used to lower a high spot on a slab. The slab is the age of the house: 40 years old. It slopes up slightly and gradually at the south and north ends. I’d like to bring those ends down about 3/4″ so the new hardwood floor will match the floors it meets in other rooms.
Thanks for any ideas!
Replies
If the slab has subsided it might be better to get the low spots mud-jacked.
grinding would be a hard way to go not to mention the mess...
rent a large demo hammer and chip the concrete down to where you'd like to be...
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3/4" is not much of a threshold between rooms compared to the work of grinding or chipping 40 year old concrete. My vote is to use self-leveling cement on the slab, depending on the area of the slab you need to level. Be sure to clean the slab and use the primer before you pour the SLC.
Bill
yes, go rent a terrazo grinder, its a big walk behind concrete grinder
Gonna rent a big grinder on Saturday and take that thing down. It's the only way to make the rooms flow together once we open up the walls. I'll let'cha know how it goes.
Thanks for the perspectives!
Cover everything, including the cat, with plastic. And tape it down good.
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. --James Madison
Thanks, Dan. Is it just dust, or do bits of concrete come flying out? I've got a couple windows I plan to cover with plastic. Should I use plywood?
It's going to be just dust if you use a walk-behind grinder. Lots of dust. Dust everywhere. Use visqueen and tape to close off every room that you are not working in. Use a large fan to suck air out through a window or door. And wear a respirator.
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
Use the terrazo grinder wet, no dust.
3/4" is a LOT to take off with one of those, make sure you get extra abrasive bricks.
Out here in Indiana we found place that rents a grinder called "Surefire" that's supposed to be able to take a concrete slab down.
find a guy in your area who does shot blasting. they will typically have a grinder and vac setup to do the work easily. i had a similar thing done right before christmas last year. it was approximately 100 sqft. it was too small for a shot blaster so he ground the entire floor in about 2 hours...paid $500cash. money well spent. otherwise a 6" wheel will cost you about $140 and the dust will kill you. don't even think about using your own shopvac...it isn't made to handle that much dust.
I rented a grinder last spring worked great, they offered two different
types of grinders take the high-end (diamonds tipped).
I tapped plastic up everywhere, I also gerryrigged my wet/dry vac to the grinder to take in most of the dust. Got pretty noisy.
Used some self leveling later to finish it up.
good luck
Well, we used a #5 scarifier to take down the slab 3/4" but couldn't get it right against the walls. So we rented a terreza with the diamond tipped blades, but it worked veeeeeery slowly. Resorted to a handheld grinder. Cut into the slab, then broke it out with a hammer and a chisel. Very zen. 8-hour day. Another one like that on Monday and it should be right. What a freakin mess, man.
Here we are working on the slab. Got her down 3/4" so the transitions are smooth.
Looks like a scene from "Sands of the kalahari"
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
You're referring to the baboon in the picture?
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. --James Madison
At one point, we started singing the tune to the Flintstones.
No, the dust.
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
How are your lungs feeling? Those disposable masks don't work too well in an environment like that, in my experience. Maybe I just have a fat face.
The masks worked OK, as long as we took breaks every few minutes. But yeah, dirty job.