Grooving concrete

[newshound]

Does anyone have experience of putting anti-slip grooves into worn concrete? The problem is in a livery stables with aisles about six feet wide between the boxes. I'm told they had grooves ground in a few decades ago. I can find machines on the web that would be suitable for extended areas like a cattle yard but these would only be able to do longitudinal grooves here, and you need transverse ones. It seems to me that diamond disks used in either a normal or a large angle grinder would be too narrow.

I doubt if "industrial" epoxy paint would stand up to shod horses.

The problem has come to light after removal of rubber matting which had become badly split and torn. Replacement matting is obviously another option, but I'm not sure the owner would stump up.

[Andrew]

Given the cost of keeping horses, I think the owner needs to get his priorities right.

You can hire machines like drum sanders that have a diamond barrel, and are used for reducing the height of a concrete slab. Whether it would leave a suitably rough surface is another issue.

Or get an angle grinder, some ear protection and a diamond grinding attachment and make some channels in a series of sweeping arcs.

[GB]

I've never done this, but how about a layer of concrete on top, and make grooves in it whilst it's still soft? Using a rake, perhaps?

[newshound]

It's a commercial business, the owner only keeps a couple of horses there and they are not really affected.

I don't think you want a smooth surface

This was the sort of thing I was thinking about. I was looking for someone who had actually tried it.

But the observations are appreciated.

[newshound]

Trouble is the aisle is between two rows of stables and serves as the drainage route, so you don't want to increase the level.

[Bill Wright]

It would break up in no time.

Bill

[tabbypurr]

I've no experience on this. But I did something a bit related once: making a shallow narrow groove with an SDS by holding it at a fair angle & letting it bounce slowly along the surface. The resulting channels were quite unev en, but might reduce the amount of angel grinding required. Or perhaps one could sds it oversize & put a layer of epoxy in to even the bottom of the s lot.

I suppose what you're left with is ground angel dust.

NT

[Rob Morley]

Just running a scarifier lightly over it can break up that slick greasy surface that tends to build up on untreated concrete, and leave a rough surface rather than grooves. The problem with that is that it's maybe an hour's work but hire for a day is something like £300.

[GB]

Does it depend how thick the layer is?

[Tim Watts]

You're going to have trouble bonding that to the original concrete - it's at risk of delaminating.

An easier solution might be to put down some epoxy floor paint (after jetwashing the concrete until it's bright) and applying sand - or mixing in sand???

[Tim Watts]

I didn't pay anything like that when I hired a tungsten flail concrete scarifier. In fact, given how it scratched up my floor I'd say it was worth a try.

[Tim Watts]

It would need to be full slab thickness - another 3-4".

[newshound]

Now that's a thought!

[tabbypurr]

or use epoxy mortar, that can go very thin, but isn't cheap

NT

[Brian Gaff]

Really? I'd have thought it might be health and safety related or affect insurance. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Remember if its noisy, you have to remove the horses well away before its done, or you will have a lot of annoyed owners at the very least. Brian

[Tim Watts]

And you'd probably have to scrabble the surface anyway to give the epoxy a clean edge to bond to.

[tabbypurr]

Clean then acid should expose a raw surface.

NT

[Marland]

Are these horses shod?

Drill a series of holes, then buy a large quantity of magnets on eBay and drop em in the holes,may have to experiment for the optimum amount of attraction between slipping and being stuck to the spot.

No , I?m not really being serious.

GH

[newshound]

Nice bit of lateral thinking! Something I have always missed since moving out of a research environment.