Help smoothing a poorly laid base

[Broadback]

Ok, hands up I messed up. I laid a concrete base for my shed yesterday, no trouble getting it level, but tamping did not smooth it very well. One of 2 causes, or maybe a combination of both. I had to mix the concrete myself, which took over 4 hours, so the first part was probably going off, secondly I realised after a while that the mix was too dry. Anyway what is the best way of smoothing it, so that I can seal and paint later? A strong mortar mix, or self levelling compound maybe? The base is approximately 3 X 2.5 meters. TIA

[Lobster]

Self-levelling compound wouldn't be much cop as it's not intended to be walked on (assuming that's the intention here) - the instructions usually advise you to lay the floor covering PDQ after it's been laid.

David

[dg]

It may be still relatively soft, so you may be able to grind a bit of the surface away with just a [engineering] brick used in a circular scrubbing motion to get some of the high spots out.

Otherwise, self leveling may be the best bet - but try and work a bit faster this time lol ;o)

dg

[fred]

In article , Broadback writes

9" angle grinder with (number of) stone disk(s)? It would take a while, probably a day. I saw it done for a pretentious exteriors programme but it did look pretty good when it was done, sold as a polished concrete finish.

[Mark]

Presumbably you made some sort of shuttering to frame the base. Could this be raised up an inch or so then you have another go with the concrete. I'd suggest 10mm shingle with sand so that the stones can be lost below the surface. It's a lot less volume so you should be able to control it ok.

mark