Concrete Floor Machine Preparation

Leveling

• Before using a concrete slab as a sub-floor, you must ensure that the slab is level. If the concrete slab is uneven, any flooring you install above it will also be uneven. While you may fill in low spots with leveling compound, high spots in a concrete sub-floor are harder to manage. A rubbing stone effectively grinds down high spots in the concrete, but a mechanical floor grinder does the job much faster. Mechanical grinders use a grinding wheel embedded with diamond flakes to break apart high spots in the floor. You may use either a dry grinder or a wet grinder to level the concrete sub-floor.

Cleaning

• Like other types of flooring, a variety of products can build up on concrete floors over time. Concrete sub-flooring may also require cleaning. This is especially true if glue or sealant from previously removed flooring remains stuck to the concrete.

  Mechanical grinders clean away any substances stuck to the floor, including paint and glue. Shot blasting the concrete is also an option. Shot blasters pepper the floor with steel shot, effectively removing contaminants. Shot blasting is a cleaner option than grinding because it does not leave behind concrete dust.

Polishing

• If you like the high-shine of polished concrete, a floor buffer can help you capture that look. As you push the floor buffer across the concrete floor, a soft, rotating pad on the bottom of the floor buffer dislodges grime while simultaneously polishing the floor to a brilliant shine. You may polish your concrete floors with a dry floor buffer or rent a wet/dry buffer and use the machine in conjunction with liquid floor polish to give your concrete floors a glossy sheen.

Considerations

• You could spend hundreds, or even thousands of dollars purchasing the necessary equipment to prepare, clean and polish concrete floors. Unless you plan on using the equipment on a regular basis, you save a considerable amount of money renting what you need as you need it. Check with hardware stores, home supply centers and equipment rental depots in your area for rental rates on machines like grinders, shot blasters and floor polishers.