Removing Thinset From Concrete With a Hand Grinder

Remove all contents from the room including furniture, window coverings and wall hangings. Lay tarps on the floor outside the room to protect the floor from accumulated masonry dust on the bottoms of work shoes.

Hang tarps or sheets of plastic over the doors and secure the edges with masking tape. Cover vents with plastic and tape the edges. Open the windows in the room.

Put on safety goggles, gloves, ear protection and a particulate-filtering respirator approved for concrete dust exposure. If you are using a dust collection attachment, a standard dust mask provides adequate protection.

Install a diamond wheel and a dust collection attachment in a hand-held grinder, if the attachment is available for your grinder. Run a hose from the dust collection attachment to a shop vacuum. Dust collection attachments significantly reduce the amount of masonry dust associated with grinding thinset mortar.

Turn on the grinder and position it on top of the thinset to grind the bed off the concrete surface. Move the grinder about the substrate, grinding the thinset layer off the concrete substrate. Work in small 6-foot by 6-foot sections at a time.

Turn off the grinder, and vacuum the debris off the surface of the floor if you did not have a dust collection attachment with a shop vacuum.

Continue to grind the thinset off the concrete surface and vacuum the debris until no thinset remains on the concrete floor.