Concrete Prep Guide

Diamond Grinders use horizontally rotating discs with diamond segments attached to level, smooth or clean the top surface of a concrete slab.

Grinders can be fitted with many different types of tooling to level rough surfaces, remove sealers, paints, mastics or glues from concrete slabs.

Primarily designed to work the top of the surface of a floor over large areas, grinders can also be used effectively to level uneven joints or high spots of 1-3mm.

These machines often can be used to also polish from 50# through to 3000# to produce excellent flatness and a high quality sheen or shine.

Grinders provide contractors a smoother finish than scarifiers or scabblers

Shot Blasting is a one-step surface preparation technique that removes, cleans, and profiles the surface in a single operation.

Shot Blasting can effectively remove laitance, paint, old coatings, dirt and other contaminates that are in or on the concrete. This process will prepare new concrete of steel for coating applications and will enhance and improve the bond for any type of coating system.

Shot Blasting is a dust free method of surface preparation in which thousands of steel shot particles are propelled at the surface, removing the top layer and contaminants and the shot then rebounds back into the system to be recycled. the steel shot profiles the surface while contaminants are removed by the dust collection system.

Fine shot is generally fastest and recommended for most preparation for coatings.

Scabblers use compressed air to hammer piston mounted bits onto the concrete surface.

Scabblers tend to roughen the concrete surface more than grinding or scarifying.

A Scabbler can remove up to 6mm of concrete in a single pass.

A typical removal rate for a machine with 250mm working width is 20 to 25 square meters per hour at 3-6mm depth.

Floor scraper can range from small push-type to heavier push-type to heavy self-propelled (pictured), and heavy ride-on machines such as Derecho and Twister.

Air powered chisel scalers and small hand held jack hammers can also be used for floor scraping when used with the correct tool. These use a hammering action that would takes the labour out of what would normally be done by hand.

For larger projects, propane (gas) powered ride-on scrapers are used for high productivity and rapid removal of tiles, wood, parquetry, carpets and glues.

Electric or battery ride-on scrapers are also quite common such as the Storm SS.

Scarifiers fling or impact multiple number of flails mounted to a cylindrical drum onto the concrete surface.

Tungsten or hardened steel flails strike the surface, leaving a clean roughened or textured surface.

Scarifiers allow you to control the depth of the cut more precisely than with scabblers. These versatile machines have various styles of interchangeable cutter assemblies that can be used for cleaning, scarifying, and light or heavy milling and also even grooving.

Production rates range from 35 150 square meters per hour depending on machine size and horsepower.

Bushammers are a set of three or more of tungsten teeth around them which rolls across the surface, breaking it up.

Bushammers are designed to remove or loosen coatings and membranes from off the concrete surface.

Bush hammers are also excellent at creating a non-slip surface on concrete and other hard surfaces such as bluestone

Bushammers can also be used to get down into the surface of hard concrete to assist in exposing aggregate.

Another use for bushammers is to remove road lines from bitumen or other road surfaces.