The concrete floor in my shop is less than ideal. It has a few cracks that are easily repairable, but the main issue is the heavy broom finish. It is impossible to sweep clean and I make a lot of sawdust out there. I've had a few people come in and give me quotes to grind it but they are about $4/sqft and I have almost 1K sq ft. Has anyone rented the equipment to DIY this job? I'm not sure what a reasonable expectation is on how long it would take, how many abrasives you would consume, rental costs, etc? I'm sure its cheaper to DIY it, but by the time I take a couple days, breathe a bunch of dust, etc is it really worth the time?
IMO based on what I looked into one time $4 sq.ft. is a pretty good price. I have cut, ground and drilled a lot of concrete and it is one heck of a mess. Yes they have vacuums but it is going to make a mess. You will be hacking up all sorts of interesting stuff. Being you just want to knock down a rough broom you might get by with one medium grit and be happy. If you want to go to smooth you will need a lot of different grits and by the time you are done between time and materials and the abuse of your body you will wish you would of paid for it done. My shop is too smooth, I wish I would have left a little texture. Have you tried a small hand held blower that is what I use not great but gets it all into one area.
Thanks for the advice. I have a small electric blower. It works good but kicks up a lot of dust that ends up all over everything.
Float finish is about perfect for garage/shop IMO. I wonder how much an epoxy coating would help over top a broom finish....
Exactly my thoughts. We did this at work 20 something years ago when we moved into a different building. Granted epoxy wasn't cheap either, but there was no laborious grinding beforehand, only some cleanup/prep work. We still had some texture to the floor afterwards too, but the floor cleaned up well with a broom and mop.
Does that ever work out, long term? All the overlays I've seen failed long term...some pretty quickly, but I dunno the particulars of the job either, so there may have been corners cut...
I work for a redimix company. I ain’t no engineer but it seems like it could work. Prep work would probably make or break the job. Maybe use 6 1/2 or 7 sac and perhaps some fiber mesh. Traffic load would need considered also
