After polishing a floor...

[TNToy]

So I'd previously decided not to bother polishing my garage floor. But I wandered into the tool-rental section at the local home depot anyways...

It's $86 to rent their concrete-surfacing machine for a day. Looks like an extra HD version of a floor buffer, with carbide stones instead of an abrasive pad. It can be hooked to a hose to do the floor wet (probably a nessecity) and to keep the dust down.

I know a couple of people around this forum (bmwpower?) have mentioned using something like this on their floor. Usually just before they did epoxy. How did it look? My floor has severe rust stains and old, weird non-automotive stains that a pressure washer & acid-etch simply didn't remove.

Will one of these get the floor anywhere near the smoothness of the floor at home-depot or lowes? That's basically what I'm after. I want it smooth, I want to erase the stains in it, I want it to not dust, and I want it to repel automotive fluids so they're easy to mop up.

Those last two requirements will be met with some sort of sealer, but will a day spent hard & heavy with this machine get my floor fairly smooth?

 

[TNToy]

Anyone... ???

 

[bmwpower]

You're not going to get a smooth Home Depot finish with the machine I rented. It is designed to rough up the surface. However, it sounds like the machine you looked at is different. I'm not exactly sure which model you looked at as mine did not have a hose hookup.

 

[BoostAddiction]

When doing my epoxy floor, I rented two different kinds of sanders. One was the floor-buffer style and it worked OK to rough up the surface. I was using the coarsest grit I could find (12 or 20, I forget which) which looked just like small rocks glued to the paper substrate. It sanded down the rough spots and the patching epoxy I used, and to grind down the sand I used in the floor, but I never tried it with a finer grit. I expect it would work to polish the floor with successively finer grits if you spent the time on it.

I also used a sander with a large rectangular pad (maybe 12" X 24"). It had a dual-action motion and might have been closer to what you are probably looking for. The rental guy said it was what all the wood floor people used to sand before refinishing. The benefits were the DA motion and the fact that corners were easier to get into compared to the big round discs. It was also a little smaller and easier to use because you didn't need the skills that a floor-buffer style sander requires.

How fine do you need to get the floor before you stain it?

HTH,

-Will

 

[TNToy]

It sounds like the machine you looked at is different. I'm not exactly sure which model you looked at as mine did not have a hose hookup.

Sound like that's the case. Did the one you used have carbide stones? Or abrasive pads/sanding discs?

When doing my epoxy floor, I rented two different kinds of sanders. One was the floor-buffer style...

I also used a sander with a large rectangular pad...

Doesn't sound like either of those are what the guy was describing, either. I really wish the unit hadn't been out for rental when I stopped in. It uses carbide stones to attack the floor, and it's designed to be used with water. Sounds like it has some serious potential.

His description of the surface you could get with the machine was that it was just like the floor at Lowe's or Home Depot, but with "more of a satin finish". Which makes sense, since their floors appear to have a sealer of some sort on 'em that gives them some gloss.

Boostaddiction, I'm not going to stain the concrete, I'm going to leave it plain old gray. I'll use a penetrating sealer of some sort to keep your usual automotive fluids from soaking in, and that's it. If the floor wasn't full of nasty-looking rust stains, I probably wouldn't bother resurfacing it, either.

I hope this thing works well. Paired with a good sealing product, it'd definitely be the solution for those of us that are harder on our floors than the show-n-shine crowd. I just want to be able to weld, and throw a couple feet of .120-wall rollcage tubing across the shop without ruining the floor. Is that too much to ask?

 

[bmwpower]

Sound like that's the case. Did the one you used have carbide stones? Or abrasive pads/sanding discs?

This is the one I used:

Not sure if my stones are considered carbide or not.

 

[TNToy]

Thanks for the pic.

Why doesn't that thing smooth the surface? Seems like no matter how abarsive it was, it'd do SOME smoothing?

 

[Winmon]

I used the same Edco surfacer that bmwpower used (with diamond stones) and while it is fairly smooth when you are done, it does leave scratches in the concrete.

 

[bmwpower]

Thanks for the pic.

Why doesn't that thing smooth the surface? Seems like no matter how abarsive it was, it'd do SOME smoothing?

You're looking for something that leaves a smooth-as-glass finish. Don't get me wrong, it does do some smoothing, but it does not leave a super smooth finish. They make different grit blocks. I got the rough ones. Not sure how they would fair. I'd would think an orbital unit might give better, smoother results. Plus you have more grits to choose from. Several people on here have used orbital, walk-behind sanders (krooser comes to mind). I would think that's what you'd want. Depot should have those as well.

 

[TNToy]

I stopped in their again this afternoon, and they had the machine in-stock this time. It's an Edco machine that looks different from the one you posted a pic of, BMWPower... but he confirmed my suspicions.

They rent it as a "concrete surface prep machine' and most use it to scour the surface before they lay down an epoxy. Not what I'm looking for.