If you're interested in starting your own concrete grinding and polishing work, it's extremely necessary for you to know the ins and outs of the grinding process. The following will give you some helpful tips on how to grind a concrete floor more efficiently.

1. Remove existing coatings

The first step in grinding and polishing concrete is removing any existing sealers, paints, or epoxy coatings. Diamond grinding can remove most coatings.

2. Patch up cracks

Before grinding the concrete floor, you should first evaluate the condition of the surface. It would be best if you look out for low or high spots, minor cracks and blemishes, and joint spalling. For minor surface imperfections, diamond grinding can remove them easily. For major surface imperfections such as major cracking and joint spalling, however, you may need other remedial methods such as patching.

3. Rough grinding the concrete

When rough grinding, begin from one side and grind from west to east across the entire concrete floor. Be sure to overlap the grinding pass as close to the previous grinding pass as possible. After several passes over the concrete floor with the coarser grit metal bond grinding tools, repeat the process with finer grits metal bond diamond grinding tools. After grinding from west to east, you should change the direction and grind from north to south. Again, ensure that the grinding passes overlap one another as close as possible. It is advisable to grind the concrete floor in swing style to ensure that the grinding passes are well blended. Also, be sure to maintain a slow pace during grinding.

4. Solidify and densify the concrete

After doing the initial rough grinding with the metal bond diamond grinding tools, it's usually beneficial to apply a liquid chemical hardener to the surface. In addition to producing a better polish, the process provides the surface with extra protection from staining and water penetration. Leave the hardener for about 30 minutes to ensure that it penetrates deeply into the concrete floor. Remove any excess hardener using a floor scrubber. Allow the hardener to cure for at least 12-24 hours.

5. Polishing the concrete

After waiting for 12-24 hours, start polishing the concrete surface with diamond tools embedded in a resin matrix. The polishing process is very similar with previous grinding process. Begin by polishing with 50 grit or 100 grit resin bond diamond polishing pads, then switch to finer grits until you achieve the desired gloss. If you want to achieve an extremely high gloss finish, you should go up to a final grit of 3000.

6. Protect polished concrete

After obtaining the look that you are striving for, it is necessary to protect the concrete floor by applying a stain-guard product, especially if the concrete floor will be exposed to chemicals, oil, or grease. Using a commercial stain-guard protector makes the concrete floor more resistant to dirt and stain absorption. Also, the basic daily cleaning and maintenance is also essential.

After knowing the basic steps of how to get your grinding job started, all you need is some patience to experiment with different concrete floor diamond tooling and the repetitive grinding work. If you're looking for the right concrete grinding equipment and tools to start your job, be sure to check out TransGrind to get everything that you need.