Rub Brick

Having never seen one before, I bought a (MasterForce) "Rub Brick" (6"x3"x1", $9.99 at Menards) thinking it may help to clean up my concrete garage floor which is to be my workshop floor. I "applied it to about 6 square feet in an inconspicuous area using also a bucket of water and a towel. It provides decent exercise. I may try using it to smooth some Quikrete repairs someone else did in the past--actually, I tried it in one spot and the result looked pretty good (not sure if I weakened the repair, but I'll be mixing some Quikrete, sand and vinyl, in the spring anyway.).

I am thinking now that I may work around the edges (and the water softener, etc) with the plan of bringing in an electric concrete grinder in the spring to do the rest of the floor.

I think the rub brick may be giving me a good idea of what I might expect from the concrete grinder (true?). Don't they use the same sort of stone (although I know "diamond" is available for the powered units)???

I noticed in the last few minutes, online, that the tool is often used to help prepare concrete for tiling. Is there anything inappropriate with the way I am using it? P.S. I wore a dust mask, but, once I started using water to help get the dust out of the brick, I don't think there was much need. Should I be concerned about how flat the cutting stone stays (I'm mostly only taking off paint, grime, etc.--that is, I'm not cutting deep)? I am probably doing things the hard way, no? :)

Thanks! Bill

Reply to
Bill
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On Oct 12, 8:34=A0pm, "Bill" wrote:

Reply to
Luigi Zanasi

"Luigi Zanasi" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@j9g2000prh.googlegroups.com... On Oct 12, 8:34 pm, "Bill" wrote:

Reply to
Bill

A 5,000 PSIG washer will clean your concrete slick and claen, no soap or cleaner req'd.

If you get careless, it will blow your drywall off the wall.

You don't want to go there.

Anything less than 3,000 PSIG is little more than a toy.

BTDT.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

IME, even the lower pressure ones work OK, they just take longer. But go rent a good one, cover your drywall with plastic & go for it. Like Lew said, no soap or other stuff needed, just water. And it doesn't use all that much, so you don't need to expect a flood.

After that, Lew will direct you to what zero-emission/no-smell/ hypoallergenic epoxy you could use on the floor. :-)

Luigi

Reply to
Luigi Zanasi

I'd still cover the walls with plastic and tape down the edges - there is overspray, and point the spray out the garage doors. A push broom will help with moving the water and paint chips out the door when necessary.

Do you mean the self-applying one or the glow-in-the-dark?

R
Reply to
RicodJour

I'd still cover the walls with plastic and tape down the edges - there is overspray, and point the spray out the garage doors. A push broom will help with moving the water and paint chips out the door when necessary.

Actually, I seem to be able to get away with using epoxy. Ammonia fumes are different. I'm not sure why.

Since the floor needs some grinding over 2 or 3 long cracks (which resemble"peaks"), and pitted areas, and old repairs, I think that's the approach I'm going to take. I can grind the steps and around the edges by hand during the cooler months, then one day with a rented power unit and that part will be done. Otherwise I need to spray and grind.

Related question: the garage floor extends about 1 foot outside--beyond the garage door. I intended to apply the epoxy covering up to the point of the door. It seems like I am likely to have trouble at that point as rain and snow are sure to be of some issue. Is there an easy way to make sure it stays dry inside (I can imagine a rubber-based strip of some sort)? I apologize for not having looked before I asked.

Bill

P.S. Finding the "rub bricks" was empowering because it allowed me to start cleaning without renting some incovenient piece of equiptment. As a friend of mine used to stay, "It will make you strong like bull". : )

Reply to
Bill

I double-checked and it seems that there is a piece of rubber on the bottom of the (electric) garage door which makes darn good contact with concrete. Even though it's convincing, it seems like too much to expect it to be leak-proof. I'll keep learning about stuff, seems to be plenty of stuff to learn...

I noticed that Quikrete has an interesting book: Guide To Concrete, Plus Masonry and Stucco Projects. I added it on my amazon wish list. Maybe I'll pour a nice place to stand at the base of my deck next summer. Now, there's just 2 steps down leading to grass.

Bill

Reply to
Bill

Empirical Knowledge concerning rub brick:

It is at least 6 times easier to remove heavy paint (a type some people paint trailer hitches with) from the driveway with a Rub Brick than it is with a new wire brush. Not only that, the wire brush approach requires, for proper clean-up, a strong magnet. I practically "wore out" a wire brush, and my magnet demonstrated that those little metal strands don't sweep-up well at all.

SWMBO arrived home to witness me performing this experiment under atmospheric condtions of 34 degrees with very light rain and quickly drew a erroneous conclusion concerning my mental well-being! Perhaps (but unlikely) she may have understood better if she had any knowledge of the fact that I had arrived home an hour earlier with a new wire brush acquired just for the sake of this procedure/experiment..but she didn't wait around long enough to find that out. Later questioning revealed that SWMBO could not have even described the color of the paint on the driveway, or where, if anyplace, we even had paint on the driveway--even though I drew adequate attention to it more than once during recent months.... ; )

On a serious note: If you need to remove paint from a driveway--try a "rub brick" or a wire brush! Or, use a power washer if you have one. As I menioned in an earlier post, a rub brick can be had for as little as $9.99 and "will make you strong like bull!". My wife said one of her relatives used to use that expression too, so it wasn't just my friend, any idea where it came from (probably from someplace in the early 80's)?

Bill

Reply to
Bill

From anyone who lived in a country that had cows. The phrase has been around forever.

R
Reply to
RicodJour

My last post had a typo..fixed below:

Reply to
Bill

From anyone who lived in a country that had cows. The phrase has been around forever.

R

My friend said it as if he were from the Soviet Union (he wasn't). But I'm sure they had cows there... Me, I grew up in the city--what did I know about cows? ; )

Reply to
Bill

The version I heard is said with a Russian accent: "Strong like bull, smart like streetcar."

Luigi

Reply to
Luigi Zanasi

I like that!

I've heard Italians, Spaniards, Mexicans, Portuguese, etc. say the phrase, and that's no bull.

R
Reply to
RicodJour

Here in western Canada, it's with a Ukrainian accent, and "Strong like bull, smart like tractor."

Reply to
Dave Balderstone

Supposedly the phrase originated with the character "Uncle Tonoose" played by Hans Conreid on the Danny Thomas show "Make Room For Daddy" back in the 1950's.

Conreid later when on to do voices of characters on "The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show" cartoon and the phrase was used by the character "Boris Badenoff".

Reply to
Nova

You can say it even better after you've pushed the rub brick around for an hour or so.... or the equivalent, of course! It should come from way down deep. ; )

Reply to
Bill

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