In this interview with Lee Davis of Liquid Floors we talk about diamond grinding as a preparation for Epoxy Floor Coating.
Interviewer:
We’re here with Lee Davis of Liquid Floors. Liquid Floors are the premiere industrial floor coating and concrete polishing company in the southeast and today we’re talking about something called “diamond grinding” which, as I understand it, is something you do to prepare a floor for epoxy coating that is unlike what anybody else would do to prepare their floor for that type of epoxy.
Lee:
Well diamond grinding is an industry-wide practice, so a lot a lot of people do it as it is a preferred method. Diamond grinding really came into play when everybody started getting away from chemical prepping. Chemical prepping, you just don’t want to do it anymore as a business owner. You’re generating hazardous waste of things you just don’t want to.
If people are looking at acid etching chemical prepping in an in kind of industrial environment or work environment I would say it is unlikely they don’t what they’re doing.
Diamond grinding has really taken the place of acid etching because diamond grinding gives you a good CSP on the floor and opens the pores and cleans the concrete. It allows for a great bond for your epoxy.
Now if you get into thicker floors and laying re-surfacers you get into shot blasting, it’s a whole different ballgame but diamond grinding is kind of the preferred method, it’s not abusive to the concrete but it opens it up, cleans it, prepares it for the for the epoxy coatings to bond.
Interviewer:
Now does it literally just as it sounds? Are you actually using diamonds to grind the floors?
Lee:
It’s literally diamond grinding, you’re using diamond segments. It’s a machine that is about 36 inches wide. It has a large head that rotates one way and then there are three or four heads on it that rotate the opposite way and you can put different diamond segments on there, they can be 40 grit, 80 grit, 100 grit. We typically use 40 grit diamonds to grind our floors with.
That grinding is producing concrete dust, so that diamonds grinders are hooked with a vacuum system to eliminate the the dust. With new OSHA regulations on silica dust we have to be very careful and make sure we’re using HEPA vacs and vacs that are up to date with current standards.
For more information on epoxy coating your facility contact Liquid Floors today!
