Floor not feeling like 100 grit

[loosegroove]

So I am prepping my garage for my Wolverine coating, but i am having the hardest time trying to get the floor to feel like 100 grit sandpapper.

Today I rented a dual disc Edco grinder with the diamond inserts and i used it for over 7 hours on my 450 sq ft garage. I ended up with almost 10 gallons of cement dust, but my concrete is still very smooth. I then decided that i might as well hit it with the Bondlok etcher, but that didn't make much difference at all.


Should I try the handheld grinder method or maybe a strong acid. Any suggestions?

I will try to post a picture in the morning when the floor is dry

 

[gkron]

i wouldn't go crazy....no grinding for me...just used the organiprep etch from wolverine and the floor turned out great.

 

[yzman720]

I had the same problem when doing mine last week, after grinding with diamond and still smooth I went to lowes and got the muratic acid in gallon bottles for like $6 per gallon took several home and hit it a couple times. You could see it opened the poors really nice - alot better than grinding, I came to my own conclusion that the 100 grit is just an expression because mine clearly had the pours in the concrete opened up very nicely and when setting 100 grit down and feeling that next to the prepped concrete it still didnt feel like the 100 grit so mainly get the pours visibly open and go from there! Oh and make sure you dont blow it out with an air compressor with silcone in the lines in any way shape or form or you will have fish eyes in your epoxy!

 

[loosegroove]

Thanks for all the help guys.

I went and bought a couple of gallons of muriatic acid and etched the concrete again with a 1:1 ratio. That acid is no joke because it started steaming the second it hit the concrete, but I am finally happy with the current status of the floor. I think it finally feels a little gritty, but more importantly I can see the pores of the concrete now.

I hit the floor with a couple of bottles of Ammonia afterwards to neutralize the floor and I think the smell from that was the worst part

It took four days to prep the floor but I am finally ready to start the epoxy!

Steps
1) Clean with Phosphoric Acid - 1:4 ratio (Specco Clean & Etch C27)
2) Grind with a Edco dual head grinder with Dyma Serts (7.5 hours)
3) Etch with Bond lok (ORGANIC ACID SALT AND SOLVENT)
4) Etch with Muriatic Acid 30% - 1:1 ratio