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Expansion Joint leveling/sealing advice

aaronrotchadl

Member
Joined
Aug 2, 2021
Messages
10
Hello all- I'm sure the questions I'm about to ask have been answered many times over, so thanks in advance to anyone with the time to weigh in. I've spent many hours combing through this forum before deciding to post myself. So here's the sitch:

50 year old concrete floor that was a car port for the first 40 years. Garage is insulated and climate controlled. It's in good shape with a few ~1/8" cracks. My partner and I are turning this garage into a ceramics studio and metal shop, so we need it to be easy to mop in order to mitigate silica dust from clay. There's an uneven expansion joint(24' long) running down the middle with some fiberboard(?) as a filler and we'd like to make that smooth so that a cart full of fragile things can roll right over it smoothly and have it filled so it doesn't collect clay dust. We don't need it to be perfectly level, just smooth/filled. We have access to a 7" grinder/dust shroud for prep and our budget is pretty open for the right solution. Here's a photo:

IMG_6149.jpg

So my questions are:

Is it a reasonable task for the 7" grinder with a diamond wheel to knock down the left side of the joint?(probably 1/4" over 6" wide) Enough so that the joint could be filled?

The joint is about 5/8" wide once it becomes parallel ~1/2" beneath the surface. Once ground down, the joint would have a harder edge on the left, and the existing flare on the right. Would Spal-Pro RS 88 work well in this crack?(it looks like we'd need 3x 600mL tubes) Is there a certain paint/epoxy that this product likes to adhere to best? Or is there any paint that can go on top of it? We were planning to use enamel paint as my girlfriend has had success with it on patios(she's a professional painter). We're totally open to suggestions though.

Lastly- we do want to use an opaque paint/epoxy versus a transparent sealer, in order to cover up the visual texture of the concrete. Let me know if anything is unclear or missing. And thanks, sincerely, to anyone who has time to offer their thoughts!

Aaron
 
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LegacyIndustrial

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Joined
Jun 7, 2010
Messages
7,995
Location
deerfield, IL
ahh, now I can see the pic clearly.
I would cut out some of the fiber board, 1/2" or so, lower should be ok.
Yes, knock the high end down with the grinder, then fill, then grind again, should get it pretty close.
 
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472scout

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 18, 2010
Messages
1,284
Location
back 40
I'm not a pro, but I think I would build up the low side with something like top N bond. Easier than grinding. Search youtube for crack repair videos to see how it's done. Use an edging trowel to make the curved edge.
 

Armorpoxy

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 18, 2013
Messages
3,735
Location
NJ
A good diamond cup wheel on a hand grinder should make it not difficult to grind down the high side. Once level enough, you can fill that with our Flexible Joint Filler so this should make it much smoother to roll the carts over.
 
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