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Ideas for cutting concrete

Chireaux

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Sep 22, 2016
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Hello guys, we recently built a home and I am planning to epoxy the garage floors. Unfortunately the garage slab was framed incorrectly, where when the garage closes, it lands on top of the concrete floor ledge rather than past it. This allows water to get in to the garage rather easily. I would like to cut the concrete legge back a couple of inches so that when the garage closes it lands below the ledge. I was hoping to get a few ideas of how to go about this. I figured it would make more sense to cut the concrete before applying epoxy to the floor. Thanks so much.


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MScott

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I have used a skill saw with either a diamond blade or an abrasive disk. You might have to consider the saw as expendable due to the dust so don't use an expensive saw.
 

ItsNemo

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Just rent a concrete saw.


That said, I can't picture what you're trying to cut, can you take a picture?
 

hillbilly slim

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angle grinder or skill saw(worm drive)and have another person with a sprayer or hose using just enough water so no dust!!!! then u can use an angle grinder with concrete grinding wheel to give it a little bevel if want
 
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Chireaux

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I understand cutting down vertically into the concrete to the appropriate depth, but how would I cut horizontally into the side of the ledge to dislodge the piece. An angle grinder?

That was my original thought. Was to cut the vertical piece with skill saw and the horizontal piece with angle grinder. But was wondering if their were a better way, or another tool?


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Chireaux

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Larry. It was the framers responsibility. The board he used was 3 inches too short. Had it been the right size, the door would have overlapped the ledge. I can take a pic of it later. Unfortunately the framer was already paid, and I just don't feel like going there. Had I caught it ahead of time I certainly would have deducted something.


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Chireaux

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Threshold is actually a great idea, I didn't think of that. But the problem is there are windows at the top of the garage door and they don't fully come down, so it doesn't look right anyway


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machsnell

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Use your circular saw with a diamond blade and set your depth correctly or a shade high to grind flush later. Use a straight edge to guide you with cut. 7 1/4 will do it but pretty slow. If you have access to cut of saw would make quicker work but mark the side of the blade with a sharpie and don't cut to it then finish with circular for last bit to even depth.

Google flush cut angle grinder blade. Mk makes a nice one but a little pricey that can go on you 4 or 7 inch grinder. It's like a diamond blade for your grinder but it has a spacer sort of and will cut flat where a diamond blade will inevitably cut back towards garage at an angle.

If you aren't overly concerned start you horizontal cut a little high and then grind down with masonry abrasive or diamond wheel the front part of cut flush with apron throat and (hopefullly) the back portion of your cut.

Cut less and thin piece of concrete in corner will break and remainder easy to grind down.

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Chireaux

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Machsnell, trying to figure out what you meant here...."if you have access to cut of saw would make quicker work..."


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Chireaux

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Also here is a picture..... I just want to cut the concrete threshold back a few inches so the garage closes in front of the threshold, not on top of it.
f6147c8d0016963e473257615b2708fe.jpg


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EJM02

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Does that threshold drop back down behind the door? As in, is it basically a small raised curb? If so, how far behind the door does it extend? I'm not sure the door itself is 'submersible proof' - meaning, if you get that much water right there to seep past the door into the garage, the door dropping another 2 or so inches won't fix it. Might be best to leave as is. If you can, post that same pic with the door open.
 
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Chireaux

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The raised part that you see is the actual garage floor, it does not drop back down.


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Farmall450

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I think a seal will work just fine. A lot of garages end up like that; I feel cutting it out is a lot of work that might not end as you plan.
 
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Chireaux

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I may add some type of threshold once everything is finished, but one of the problems I'm having is when we get hard rains I'm getting water 1/3 of the way into the garage. The weather stripping on the garage door looks pretty stout but rain still finds its way in. I live in Baton Rouge and lately it seems to rain 24/7.


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wssix99

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Also here is a picture..... I just want to cut the concrete threshold back a few inches so the garage closes in front of the threshold, not on top of it.
f6147c8d0016963e473257615b2708fe.jpg


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This would be highly abnormal. It's hard to confirm from the picture, but what you are calling a threshold looks to me like a dust lip.

If you cut that back and put your door outbound of the dust lip, it won't do its job properly and your dust lip will be effectively behind your garage wall, and inside your actual garage. This will lead to more dirt in the garage, worse performance on the weather sealing and if you aren't perfect with the saw, you could create a tendency for water to pool under the door.

If you cut that down more, then you will also have to extend those garage door side seals. If they are color matched, that will be hundreds of additional expense. (We screwed up our order on some color matched ones and had to pay freight to have new ones ordered! - because they are so long)

Do you have a wide angle shot of the doors and the bottoms? You look pretty good/normal as-is. Is your problem really alignment of your windows and not necessarily the bottoms of the doors?
 

APEowner

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I'm not clear on what it is that you're trying to accomplish. If you're trying to do what I think you are then you shouldn't do it but if you do do it then a rented concrete saw is the the tool for the job.
 

Justind97

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Based on the picture, you're missing the threshold for the door. Install that and it should tighten the seal up right away.

Option 2, If you're hell bent on cutting back, why not make life easier and ADD cement and remove the 3 different heights down to 2.
 
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Chireaux

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Thanks fellas. I will attach a pic of the entire garage later. The threshold from Home Depot may be a good option to keep water out. The only problem that remains, is the windows on the garage door still sit a little high, and it looks just a little bit awkward. Both the contractor and the garage door installer both said that the garage door usually falls below that lip on the concrete and not on top. In my last house the driveway and garage were flush with each other. Not really sure why they did that.

Justin, it's just two levels not three. It kind of looks that way in the picture.

If I were to cut it, would the epoxy maybe hide the imperfections?


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Kevin54

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Chireaux....if the contractor said that the door should set below the lip, then I would let the contractor know that he screwed up, and let him fix it. Isn't he the one that scheduled the concrete guys? If so, they should be able to work something out.

The reason that I say this is that no matter what you rent, whether it be a concrete saw which is needed, or a grinder with a diamond blade, if you don't know what you are doing, it's going to look like a *********** of a mess. It's easy for a lot of people to say that "all you need to do is....". It's not that easy, period. With a concrete saw, it's hard to keep a straight line going, and it's hard to control depth. If you get a blade for your circular saw, you'll have the cost of the blade, and chances are that when you are done, you'll have a ruined saw ready for the trash. You will have a ton of dust unless you run water, then you will have a ton of slurry. And that is just for the vertical depth cut. If you can get that cut done with no problems, then you have the horizontal cut to take care of. They don't make a concrete saw to do that. So you either have to grind everything down to the correct depth, or you'll have to make a series of vertical cuts down, all to the same exact depth, then knock out the small rows between the cuts. And once you bust them out, some will break above your depth, and some will break below your depth of your cuts. So you will need to grind. And seeing that this is outside, you can't fill and epoxy over it as it will look very odd. And if you do nothing but knock out the pieces, then it will look like ****, even after grinding because this is what you will see at the bottom of the garage door.

So I would let the contractor deal with it, and if he doesn't, I would look into changing the seal somehow. If your window looks out of place because it is higher than it is supposed to be, then you'll have to learn to live with the looks of it. Sorry.
 
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Chireaux

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Kevin. Thanks for your opinion. You may be absolutely right. As others have also said, it may turn out looking worse than it did to begin with. One problem is the contractor is my father in law who was working for free. Lol. We did have trouble with concrete guys who did a horrible finish, as well as one other sub and he did deduct a reasonable amount for their mistakes. He freely admitted he didn't catch the framing error and we decided not to go down that route and pursue it.
Here is a pic of the house, just don't have the garage in it.
16a43fb48b1b3c36f8529919920e3c65.jpg



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Chireaux

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It has 3 car garage and a woodworking shop attached to back.


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ssdave

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This is fairly easy job with a diamond blade and concrete saw. I make a guide out of a piece of 1/4" plywood and two 1x2's. In your case, you can put a block on the underside of the guide, that rests on the driveway and makes it level.

The object of the guide is to allow the saw to cut in a controlled depth, within a range of sideways motion. The 1x2's are screwed to the plywood the width of the saw guard/guide + the width of cut you want to remove. Then, saw out the plywood in the range of blade area between the two guide 1x2's. You clamp down or glue down the guide to your floor, and make the first cut, to full depth, against the garage side of the guide. Then, make a parallel cut 1/2 inch away. This gives 2 cuts with about a 1/4" fin of concrete between them. Continue moving over a 1/2" at a time until you have all the lip cut away. Then, take a block hammer and/or masonry chisel and break out the fins off. This will leave a roughly flat ledge for your door to close against. You can now use the saw as a grinder. Just move it back and forth, side to side, and at an angle to grind away the remnants of the fins to full depth. If you're really into neatness, get a diamond grinder and grind it smooth when done. This goes really quite fast, a lot faster than it sounds.

I have a 14" Bosch flatwork concrete saw. It would do this job in an hour or so, and use up about 1/3 of the life of a cheap $75 blade. You should be able to rent the saw from your local rental yard; you'll have to buy the blade; it's cheaper than paying them for it.

The same job can be done with your cheap 7 1/4" circular saw and a diamond blade (or a few blades) but it will probably ruin the saw. One saw might not last through the job.

To make the appearance better, you can cover over the fins with a rubber garage seal, they're made specifically for this purpose and cost about $35 to $50. Here's a typical one:

http://www.elitegaragefloors.com/xtreme-weather-guard-garage-door-threshold-3-12-kit/?utm_source=AdWords&utm_medium=Search&keyword=&utm_campaign=Shopping&gclid=CKaxrbmOps8CFchefgodWkMDYQ

Adding a postscript: The hardest part is the ends next to the door opening walls. You can cut perpendicular to the door with the big saw and remove some of the material, but ultimately you end up using a 4" blade on a makita grinder to do a lot of the close work. And, chip it out. This takes as much or more time than the main cuts.
 
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Slednut

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Chireaux, I was going to say don’t worry about it but after seeing the size of the soffits on the house I can see where it would be nice to have a small angle to keep the water from running into the garage.

Like a lot of others I have the same set up and the sprinkler runs on my garage door a couple times a week. I adjusted my opener so it really pushes down hard on the seal and the only time water enters the garage is when the seal gets some type of debris on it. If I keep the seal and floor clean I have no problems.
 

tthornto

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One problem is the contractor is my father in law who was working for free. Lol.

Have your wife ask the contractor (Daddy) to fix it. Just be prepared to help out with whatever labor is required for the fix, Oh and your bill to the contractor may go up from free to whatever this costs to fix, which is still a great deal!

To make it look right I think you would have to make the cut where the lip should have been, then jackhammer it out and repour the entire apron.
 
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harleybear66

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everything in the enlarged photo looks normal. what is usually done on garage concrete slabs is where the overhead doors are the concrete finisher sets the form boards around a 1/2 inch lower so that in the width of the stem wall in the door openings he pitches the concrete 1/2inch to outside. it sounds like this was not done. maybe try an angle grinder with a concrete grinding wheel to pitch concrete out. 1/4 maybe all you need. this may take a few hours per door on your knees eating dust. diamond saw cutting wheels are too hard to control in a situation like this. this is a new home and whatever done here with this situation will be there for a long time.
 
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Chireaux

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Here some better pics. Sorry it took so long. I'm starting to agree that it probably won't look so good trying to cut it out.
08c3aa2f3b2cfaa9bf2a02af50015337.jpg
dcd7e755d0d5e31ad9850ddae209a774.jpg
e99029934e4636985495b27290db886e.jpg



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ssdave

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Check if there is a concrete cutting contractor where you are. This is not a hard job, and it can be made to look okay. A competent contractor with correct equipment can do it easily. Some places there is one, and some places there isn't.
 
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Chireaux

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Ok. I will do that. It may be well worth the price.


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Firebrick43

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Don't bother with the glue down thresholds. The neighbor was getting water under the door due to his idiot concrete guy. It helped for a while but the glue failed whithin a year. Then it still needed cut out and the glue removed to boot
 

370

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At my house the garage floor and apron are all one pour all the same height. My parents and brothers are the same way. The shop is the same way. I don't understand why you'd want a bump to have to roll things over.
 
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