Embedded Dust Post Grinding

[frankieskiller]

Howdy!

New homeowner here with a great 500sq/ft garage floor I'm refinishing and was having some trouble removing some embedded dust. I did quite a bit of searching on the forums but, couldn't didn't find much regarding my issue so, if there is a thread feel free to send me a link!

Anyway, I went through the process of doing a couple grinding passes on my garage floor and it looks like I did a pretty good job but, there is still quite a bit of embedded dust that I can't get out. I think one of the issues is I didn't get all the dust up before the second pass of grinding and it really ground in the dust. The photos below show post pressure washing with 3300 PSI and you can even see the horizontal marks where it didn't get it all the dust out. I also tried a surface cleaner attachment on a small area which may have helped a bit but, maybe I need to go over it again.

I was wondering what other options are out there in getting out all the embedded dust? I can get on my hands and knees on a small area and scrub it out with some synthetic steel wool but, it gets fill with dust too quickly and spreads it to other areas if that makes sense.

My plan is to put down a coating of densifier and polish after that so, maybe the dust won't show? I'm concerned if I don't get the dust up the densifier layer may fail.

Let me know what y'all think! I have the time to do it right so, whatever it takes I'm up to the task!

Thanks!

 

[frankieskiller]

I'm also wondering if renting a 17" rotary brush might help? Maybe I could also spray some hydrogen peroxide down while using the brush to help float the dust particles and then pressure wash it all out? Just spit balling!

 

[James-W]

Welcome to the forum. Since you have tried pressure washing the floor and it didn't remove the dust, I am at a loss as to what to try next. Possibly a buffer with a wire brush along with a good detergent might work out, but then again, I don't really know.

 

[tncatadjuster]

I don’t know that you will ever stop the dusting, it is the concrete turning back into its natural form, it is never going to stop. You need to talk to a supplier about consolidating the matrix and go from there. I suspect someone will guide you to the proper product, the concrete polishing industry brought us much knowledge in this area.

Good luck.

 

[CJDave]

Could there have been a sealer already on the floor that softened from the heat of the brushing and trapped the dust? Just a far out guess. I can't imagine the dust resisting removal without some type of binding agent. Weird. CJDave.

 

[frankieskiller]

Thanks for the replies!

"consolidating the matrix?" Not sure what that means.

It is possible there was some sealer I wasn't aware of. Water didn't bead before griding but, that doesn't mean there wasn't something.

I tried the surface cleaner attachment again with the pressure washer on a section and it looks like it got more of it up which is promising but, I went over it 3 times which is using a lot water. Maybe it doesn't matter but, I can't imagine my next water bill being all the cheap.

I am thinking of buying a nylon floor stripping brush attachment and rent a rotary tool to see if that might loosen up the dust. I'm also going to try a stiff nylon brush and scrub a small area by hand first to see if that helps. I feel like it just needs a good deep scrubbing.

Getting some advice from a local concrete cleaner service is also a great idea.

Thanks for all the leads fellas!

 

[Sammytime]

I ran into the same issue when I epoxied my 4500 sf warehouse. Had the Sherman Williams rep guiding me through the entire process and I was super **** making sure I followed every detail to the T!

We vacuumed, scrubbed, mopped, pressure washed and wet vacced for a week and couldn’t get the fine dust out of the concrete. I noticed that wetting the floor and soaking it up with a spunge gave the best results but obviously this method was impractical for 4500 SF.

Ultimately I hired a guy/company to come out and “steam vac” (for lack of a better term). It worked perfectly! The machine that he used is meant for cleaning commercial tile, grout, etc. it basically shoots steam at a high PSI into the ground, while scrubbing and sucking it back up at the same time.

I can’t remember exactly how much he charged for the warehouse but I used him again when I did my 460 SF garage and he charged me $180. That’s here in Florida but I’m sure it’ll be about the same anywhere. Here’s a link to something similar so you can get the idea but this guys machine was hooked up to a truck


I believe this type of cleaning usually entails them spraying the floor with phosphoric acid first. Just make sure you make it clear that they can’t leave any residual acid behind. You probably don’t need the acid part anyway

 

[Sammytime]

Forum won’t let me post links but I’ll shoot you an I’m. Again this is just to give you an idea of the type of machine.

 

[frankieskiller]

Yeah, same here. I think you have to have at least 5 posts before you can send links.

 

[frankieskiller]

I ran into the same issue when I epoxied my 4500 sf warehouse. Had the Sherman Williams rep guiding me through the entire process and I was super **** making sure I followed every detail to the T!

We vacuumed, scrubbed, mopped, pressure washed and wet vacced for a week and couldn’t get the fine dust out of the concrete. I noticed that wetting the floor and soaking it up with a spunge gave the best results but obviously this method was impractical for 4500 SF.

Ultimately I hired a guy/company to come out and “steam vac” (for lack of a better term). It worked perfectly! The machine that he used is meant for cleaning commercial tile, grout, etc. it basically shoots steam at a high PSI into the ground, while scrubbing and sucking it back up at the same time.

I can’t remember exactly how much he charged for the warehouse but I used him again when I did my 460 SF garage and he charged me $180. That’s here in Florida but I’m sure it’ll be about the same anywhere. Here’s a link to something similar so you can get the idea but this guys machine was hooked up to a truck


I believe this type of cleaning usually entails them spraying the floor with phosphoric acid first. Just make sure you make it clear that they can’t leave any residual acid behind. You probably don’t need the acid part anyway

Dope! I'm going to call around tomorrow and get someone to do just that. I think the key is sucking it all back up after the scrubbing rather than just spraying it off. There is probably so much of the dust on my driveway at this point. Hopefully I will be able to get that clean too but, that can wait.

 

[rburke65]

How about a steam carpet cleaning company? Good luck.

 

[frankieskiller]

So, I poured some hydrogen peroxide down on 5x5ft area and scrubbed with floor scrubbing brush and got some of the dust up.

I ordered a rotary scrubbing brush that I can attach to the home depot floor polisher rental and 4 gallons of hydrogen peroxide to speed up the process. I'll be doing the scrubbing this sat so, I'll post some photos when I'm done.

https://static.grainger.com/rp/s/is/image/Grainger/3U955_AS01?hei=800&wid=935

It may be pride at this point but, I really wanted to do the work myself for the sense of accomplishment. If the scrubbing doesn't work I will probably have to hire someone get the dust up.

Thanks!

 

[frankieskiller]

Got all the dust up! The rotary scrubbing brush worked awesome. I ended up going over it a couple times but, it's super clean now. There are a few spots I'd like to scrub by hand but, at this point I'm trying to decide if I want to have the floor professionally ground. There are a few spots where the single head grinder did a really good job but, I would love to get the whole floor clean and down to the bare concrete.

What do you guys think? Should I call it a day and move forward with the densifier? I think it will look great as is especially after polishing the densified layer.

Posted some photos after the first scrubbing pass:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/140922258@N07/albums/72157675266344587/with/32751746998/

 

[areawideconcretepolishing]

nice to see someone polishing not epoxy.feell free to email me if you need advice.google what is better polish or epoxy by lake side painting before you epoxy concrete.