Concrete

Removal

Getting the old floor, adhesive, and fasteners out without damaging the substrate.

• Cutback Adhesive & Asbestos ID

  Black cutback adhesive and old resilient tile can contain asbestos, and you can't tell by looking. What OSHA and EPA presume, how to get it tested, and what ...

Grinding

Diamond grinding to profile, level, or remove residue.

• Grind, Shot Blast or Scarify? Choosing a Prep Method

  Diamond grinding, shot blasting and scarifying compared: the surface profile each produces, what each removes, and how to pick one for the job.

• Edge Grinding Along Walls and Columns

  Grinding the last inches along walls and columns with a shrouded hand grinder or a planetary's edge mode, matching the field, and OSHA Table 1 for handheld g...

• Metal Bond, Resin Bond and PCD Tooling Compared

  What metal bond, hybrid, resin bond and PCD tooling each do, where one hands off to the next, and why PCD is a removal tool only.

• Diamond Tooling: Bond Hardness and Grit Selection

  How to match diamond bond hardness to the slab, which grit does what, when to use PCD instead, and how to tell your tooling is wrong.

• Grinding Off Thinset, Mastic and Glue Residue

  Getting thinset, mastic and glue residue off concrete: testing first, choosing between PCD, metal bonds and floor-machine attachments, and handling the dust.

• ICRI Concrete Surface Profiles (CSP 1-10) Explained

  What ICRI concrete surface profiles (CSP 1 to 10) are, which prep methods reach which profile, and how to check yours against the chips.

Shot Blasting & Scarifying

High-production profiling and removal on large slabs.

• Scarifying: Cutter Types and When to Use Them

  How scarifiers work, which cutters to use for coatings, leveling and general prep, setting depth on National's Spartans, and the CSP, silica and noise rules.

• Shot Blasting: Shot Size, Travel Speed and Profile

  How shot size, travel speed and machine setup control the profile a shot blaster leaves, plus magnets, dust collection and edges.

Coating Removal

Taking off epoxy, urethane, and other bonded coatings.

• Removing Epoxy and Coatings: PCDs vs Scarifiers

  Choosing between PCD grinding, scarifying and shot blasting to remove epoxy and other coatings, based on thickness and what goes down next.

Surface Prep

Patching, leveling, and testing so the new floor has something to bond to.

• Concrete pH and Alkalinity Testing

  How the ASTM F710 surface pH test works, why the limit comes from your adhesive, and why you test after surface prep, not before.

• Silica Dust & Respiratory Safety (OSHA Table 1)

  What OSHA's construction silica standard requires for floor grinding, tile cutting and dust cleanup, including the Table 1 controls for the tools flooring cr...

• Subfloor Moisture Testing: Calcium Chloride vs RH Probes

  In-situ RH probes (ASTM F2170) vs calcium chloride (ASTM F1869): what each measures, how to run them, and why you can't convert one to the other.

Repair

Cracks, joints, and spalls fixed before anything goes down.

• Crack and Joint Repair Before Flooring

  Moving vs dormant cracks, which joints must carry through the flooring, rout-and-fill basics, and why no fill guarantees against telegraphing.

Polishing

Grit sequence, densifiers, and finishing a polished slab.

• Polishing Concrete: Grit Sequence and Densifier

  The grind-hone-polish sequence, when and how to apply densifier, lithium vs sodium silicate, gloss targets, and dust and slurry rules for polished concrete.

Equipment & Tooling

Choosing and setting up the machines and consumables for this work.

• Dust Extraction: Matching a HEPA Vacuum to Your Grinder

  Sizing a dust collector to a grinder under OSHA Table 1, what HEPA and filter cleaning mean in practice, and the setup mistakes that kill airflow.

• Loading and Transporting Floor Machines Safely

  Strap ratings, tie-down counts, and National's rules for moving ride-on scrapers: no ramps, lift gates rated for the load, and blades off.

Shop the tools

• Floor Grinders & Buffers
• Planetary Grinder Tooling
• Scarifiers & Shot Blasters
• Dust Collectors & Vacuums
• Materiales de preparación de superficies
• Floor Patch & Levelers
• Moisture Meters