Floor Buffers - Scarify Concrete

Floor buffing machines come into play if you've encountered a subfloor that may have been sealed and needs removal. This is especially important when gluing floors direct to concrete as some sealers may react negatively with new adhesives creating a bonding problem. Essentially, some are too slick to allow a good adhesive grab with wood and subfloor.

Buffers are also a strong recommendation when gluing over Terrazzo surfaces. In many cases these types of floors have Scarify concrete been waxed and the residue must be removed. My example does not show a Terrazzo surface but concrete. For jobs that may have an enormous amount of paint overspray on the concrete, this method works more quickly than having to hand scrape the entire area.

Machines and their accessories, like the one shown can be rented on a four hour or daily basis at nearly any rental center. When considering such, look around for the coarsest paper grit possible.

Rock Paper For Floor Prep

My latest research showed Home Depot offering a very course paper (12 grit) selling for about $ 6.50 each. It will almost appear like small rocks glued to a strong paper backing (shown). How many discs needed will depend on the condition of the subfloor and what's plastered to it. For waxed surfaces a good reference point to how many may be needed could be one for each 200 square feet, as the disks will gum up from 12 grit sanding paper the older waxes.

This great gizmo won't get into the corners and will damage baseboards if you're not careful. Actually it can get away from you rather quickly. If in doubt of how to use it, the rental center guys can probably offer tips or possibly put it on a small test run in the store.

The New Way - Diamabrush For Concrete

This tool called the Diamabrush prep tool is changing the way concrete slabs are prepared for glue down hardwood installations. In previous years it was mostly scraping floors by hand. Plenty of guys still do it the old way, but my opinion of using this tool does two things. One it scrapes away paint overspray and other contaminates. Two, it provides the best surface for any glue down installation in that it leaves a scarified surface for superior adhesive bonding; something hand scraping does not provide.

The setup is fairly easy to work with as long as you get the hang of using a floor buffer. Now you can find this great floor prep tool at most big box store rental centers and others. Costs will run in the area of $100 for a one day rental.

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