Top 3 Mistakes You Could Be Making When Grinding Concrete

July 22, 2019by Jerald Sargent0

Concrete, of all things, is used more than any other man-made material in the world. Which means you should probably know how to take care of it. Surface preparation is a pretty competitive industry. Making sure you’re choosing the right concrete grinding services is vital if you want a quality outcome. Maybe you are experienced and feel confident in your own ability to prepare your garage floor, for example. Either way, here are three common mistakes that you want to avoid whether you’re a professional or not when you get down to the concrete grinding phase in your construction or home improvement projects.

 

1. Ignoring Scratches

 

When concrete grinding, you’ll want to keep an eye on the finish that is being produced as you go. If you are seeing faint scratches appearing, you have to remove them as soon as possible. Hoping the little nicks and scratches will go away on their own will only contribute to continued manifestation as you polish your concrete floor. If you start to see scratches after using your first resin, you should never assume that your second step in the process will “fix it”. Basically, do not leave the cracks and hope they go away because, inevitably, they won’t, and as a result, your final product will suffer.

 

2. Grinding Too Fast

 

A common mistake that operators make is running the grinder too fast. All commercial concrete grinding services should know not to do this. However, this tends to happen when the operator wants to produce results faster, so they will turn up the speed of the grinder in an effort to get more done in a shorter amount of time. However, the increased speed can overheat and glaze over your diamonds. This happens more often than not on harder concrete. This glazing over prevents them from cutting properly. Of course, finding the right speed is important but speed on its own doesn’t equal better production rates. At the end of the day, greater downward pressure equals faster grinding. A heavier machine will obviously allow for more head pressure. The opposite is true of larger machines where a double segment offers better performance due to the fact that it is grinding a larger space at one time. Concrete floor grinding is a competitive industry as well as being something of an art. Knowing that you’re choosing the best concrete grinding service, or being fully informed when doing it yourself is what is most important for a great outcome.

 

3. Not Inspecting Beforehand

 

While it sounds silly and probably seems impossible, you would be surprised how easy it is to look at a surface and assume the process. Especially if you work for professional concrete grinding services. You’ve pretty much seen it all before. However, that is not an excuse to not examine the surface you’re working with before you do anything to it. You need to inspect the floors for anything above grade and cut it off, hand grind it so it’s level, or hammer it to below grade. Address any crack repair you may need, and once you’ve eliminated any and all above grade issues, you can begin grinding it with the concrete, which results in an interesting detail which can add personality to the floor. If you DON’T inspect the floor and address the above grade parts before you start, you will almost surely damage your machine. Concrete floor grinding is probably a task that is best left to the professionals, call local concrete grinding services to get quotes and expert advice.

 

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