My concrete kitchen floor is too high, and not level, and I want to tile it, now I don't want to break it all up completely and relay it, but I do want to shave it down and then level it with a new layer of concrete, but what tool and I best using?
I was thinking of a diamond cutter set to a shallow depth, followed by a compressed air chisel, if there is indeed such a thing??
There are such things - but they are basically intended for roads. I'm not aware of any equipment that will do this, at least not without removing the house first :) It's almost certainly easier to remove the existing floor, and replace the concrete, adding insulation before it.
I fitted an abrashive wheel into a circular saw once .......
It may work, or you may get a diamond cutting disk to fit.
Cracking the floor out & starting again sounds MUCH easier, you may indeed end up with too little left.
Rick
If there is such a thing as what? Air chisels range from the little ones that you use for chopping out rusty car panels to the big ones that you use for digging roads. For your floor you might find a Kango (electric breaker) would be more manageable, or even an SDS drill.
concrete, but
followed by a
Hire shops do a concrete planer that takes off a thin layer at a time. Not too expensive to hire but there is a hefty resharpening charge for the cutters. These machines turn up on ebay from time to time.
AWEM
"Andrew Mawson" wrote in news:d94d5n $lb$ snipped-for-privacy@nwrdmz03.dmz.ncs.ea.ibs-infra.bt.com:
I think what I want to do would constitute abuse for one of these, as they appear to be "For smooth finishes on concrete surfaces or leveling of concrete seams"
Rick wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
I'm scared of what pipework I may uncover/damage, that is why I'm trying to avoid this obvious solution.
At the school I work at, the builders that built the new classroom used one of these to try and level out the badly laid concrete. The concrete unevenness was not entirely their fault, as it arrived late and with not enough water. The result was a very uneven concrete base and two builders with severe concrete burns on their legs.
Back on subject. Though the floor was planed down, it could never be described as flat and the cleaner that had to maintain that floor, after the vinyl sheet was laid, was never happy with it.
You mentioned maybe using a diamond cutter, though - wouldn't that be a bit drastic if you did have hidden buried pipes?!
Can you not trace whatever pipes might be buried there, eg from the adjacent walls? What sort of pipes are you thinking? Would a metal detector help? As in, if it doesn't pick any pipes up where you think there might be some, then either they are absent or hopefully buried deep enough not to concern you?
You didn't give any indication of how much you need to remove - and how high are your highspots? Do you really have to lower the floor; can you not raise the low points instead, even if that means raising the next room (I'm guessing) as well?
Do you have any idea how deep the slab is currently? I agree with Rick's concerns about ending up with too little, so digging out the whole lot (together with soil or rubble from underneath that might indeed be the preferred option). If you really don't know - how old is the floor? Does it have a DPC membrane underneath? If it doesn't - and someone may well shoot be down in flames for this suggestion! - then maybe you could drill a small hole straight down, to see how deep it goes? Wouldn't have thought it would matter if there's no DPC to rupture).
SDS drill with Rotostop so you can use a chisel attachment will remove the concrete nicely once you have cut your grooves. Not too sure about the best tool for the groove cutting, but a diamond wheel sounds a must. I'd hate to use such a device indoors without water, because of the dust/clogging problems/heat generated otherwise. I imagine a conventional angle grinder stone-cutting wheel would be OK dry, though the dust will still be horrendous, and you may need several disks????
Andy.
No need to worry. They are easily fixed if you've got the floor up, and think how much more convenient it is than if they broke later!
You can get a small "windy" chisel for around =A320.00 from screwfix complete with chisels -
I used one of these to cut some channels in a concrete bathroom floor and it worked like a charm.
It may take some time to carve down the floor as the chisels are only about 25mm wide - but they are very controllable and wont smash the floor to pieces.
Lobster wrote in news:jimte.20615$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe4-win.ntli.net:
Well it's a house built in 1905 and the kitchen floor is the only solid floor in the house, and at one point, there is a tapped off gas pipe.
I would only be looking at taking a centermeter off the surface, because as it stands the floor is flush with the rear step, and I want to lay tiles, but also the floor sloaps towards the door, and tiles will snag on the door as it swings open. So probably up to an inch in places.
I would need to drill through it to test it's thickness, but based on the age, I'm sure there is no membrame under it, but it could be a foot thick.
Would it not be a lot easier to fit a raised threshold in the doorway (and possibly raise the step a little)?
And/or use rising butt hinges so the door lifts clear of the floor eg
David
Whatever pipework you might encounter, should probably not be there.
How about a trip to the hire shop for a metal detector ?
Rick
I think you are on to something here.
criss-cros juts and simplye a cold cisel may do mots of it - there are electric chisels for hire also.
Then lay levelling compound.
Hi,
I think you can use a concrete scabbler:
cheers, Pete.
They're designed to dress the surface, although I suppose they would remove high spots eventually.
Pete C wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
Thanks for that, I'm looking into this.
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