How tough to grind down 100 sq ft of concrete floor 1/2 inch?

10 years ago

The concrete slab in half of the area where we want to put travertine tile is 1/2 inch higher than the other portion (adjoining rooms, now combined rooms). Initially, the tile guy said he could float it at a gradual slope. But then the floor won't be perfectly level and cabinets would need to be shimmed, etc.

How hard (or, expensive) is it to grind down 100 sq ft of concrete slab by 1/2 inch? I did a small portion using an angle grinder with a diamond blade which was slow made a lot of dust, but I imagine that professional contractor tools are much larger and faster (and have better dust control)?

Featured Answer

User

10 years ago

You rent a concrete saw and do 1/2" kerf cuts then chisel it out with an air hammer. Then grind it flat. There are no magical pro tools that make this any easier other than the concrete saw. There's only sweat, noise, vibration, dust, and a bottle of Advil.

Or pay someone a couple of thousand to deal with it and make it their problem. Their dust control is likely to be slightly better. But, it won't stop the dust from getting everywhere.

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Comments (8)

gregmills_gw
10 years ago
Tile is not my specialty and ive grinded my share of concrete. But 100sq ft and 1/2" is a lot of grinding. While yes there are more tools available to do this job.

Have you thought about pouring a 1/2" of new concrete to bring the shallow part up to level? Seems a lot easier. But i could be missing something major with that suggestion which would make it not feasiable
scorpionleather
Original Author
10 years ago
The shallow part joins an existing wood floor that we're planning to keep. So if we brought the level up, there would be a height difference between the existing wood floor and the new travertine floor where they meet. Unless we replace the entire wood floor in most of the house just to also bring it up to level.
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scorpionleather
Original Author
10 years ago
Sounds like a big dusty, sweaty job. I have four options, still not sure which one to pick.

1. Have the tiles laid with a gradual slope down toward the room with the wood floor; the floor won't be level, spilled water in the kitchen will head straight toward the wood floor, kitchen island will need to be shimmed to make it level.

2. or hire someone to grind down the slab region that is higher; big expensive messy job.

3. or tear out all of the wood floor and bring the other slab higher; very expensive re-flooring of almost the whole house.

4. or create a floor transition between tile and wood that has a step-down to the lower wood floor.

The divide between the tile and wood floor is an opening between two rooms that has an arch (like an entire wall that is open, with just an arch at the top).
StoneTech
10 years ago
Well, understand that floor don't care a rat's patootie about "level," They care about "flat." If you can live with it being a bit out of level, go for it.
andrelaplume2
10 years ago
why not a rounded transition form one floor to the other.....
scorpionleather
Original Author
10 years ago
Rounded transition sounds interesting. Do you mean something like in this youtube video where the tile is higher than the wood floor, and an aluminum piece makes a rounded transition?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lRj-jS5f3o
chrissyb2411
10 years ago
I'm not knowledgeable about any of this by any means but.... We recently bought a house that has a concrete basement that had a failed waterproof coating. Being OCD about doing things the right way hubby rented the tools over a couple of weeks to grind the coating off the walls before replacing it. Nowhere near a half inch, but work was backbreaking and the mess was horrifying. There was concrete dust in every crack and crevice in the (empty) house. It was a very time consuming and painful process, and cleaning up the dust was bad. Avoid it at all costs is my non knowledgeable opinion.