Home Improvement Today?

Well that son of a .... He deserves anything you want to call him for doing that.

 

You can definately get that finish with a polisher, you just have to use different finishers on it, like changing out sand paper, you start with 60, 80, 100, 120....... until it is the smoothness you are looking for.

 

Ok cool its decided then I will rent a polisher this weekend. Do they get different "grit" of polishers by the size of diamond grains? Do you have a recommendation on approximately how fine I will need to go? I will likely have to drive 40 miles one way to rent one and don't want to have to make multiple trips if avoidable.

This might be more of a question for OZ, but if I finish the floor with a acrylic or urethane sealer and place a pedestal type freestanding wood stove on top will the finish hold up to the radiant heat of the stove? I may place a hearth pad anyway but I think it may look cleaner if I don't.

You guys have been a huge help.

 

I havent the foggiest idea on types of "grit". I would recommend going to http://www.concretenetwork.com/products-polishing/
Good website for information on it. They have tips, what to get, etc.

 

I have a pedestal type woodstove in my basement that sits directly on a coloured slab that is sealed with a Xylene based sealer , I burned that stove for 6 months straight while building my house with no issues

 

No new pics of my curved trim project but all the curved trims except one have been laminated so by the weekend I will be installing them .

I had to create a shallow table for my biscuit joiner in order to be able to use it on my doors , lol

Build the tools to build the house , haha

 

Well damn. I would have to drive 200+miles to rent a cement polisher. Sometimes, only sometimes, does it pay to live near an urban center. I can rent cement grinders (no diamonds, rough grit-I was told around 8 grit by the rental guys) as close as 10 miles away. United Rentals is one of the places I can rent a grinder, they do not carry a polisher. I will put epoxy down before I drive 400 miles total for this project. I also am not willing to pay anyone to come do the work.

So, what do you think my chances are for success with a grinder? My thoughts are that with a grinder I would still be removing the troweling and glue marks, thus eliminating the majority of my problems. Although I don't know how cement compares with say wood for leaving visible scratches with rough grit sanding/grinding. I realize the floor will not shine like it would with a 1500 grit polishing. I'm not so much worried about the shine as I am blemishes left by the coarse grit.

Something else I am considering is buying diamond cup grinding wheels that I could use on an angle grinder. I found some listing the grits as coarse,medium,fine.

Thanks for the advice

 

Any time you use a course grit, it's gonna leave marks. smaller number grit is designed for removing material. That's why you start with a small number and work your way up to the bigger number. Each increase, you want to remove the "damage" left by the courser grit.

 

You will definitely see swirl marks from a grinder. Thats the bad thing about concrete, you would have better luck staying with a sander to get the clue off.
If you have a United Rentals near you they can deliver to that location if they dont have it. You should at least ask them, they will even deliver to you. Obviously I have a different relationship with them because I order alot of big shit so they try to keep me happy. I even get Giants and 49ers tickets.
The only way your going to get it to look anything like that picture is with a polisher, so if you not going that route I would look into things like epoxy as you said.

 

I understand. Perhaps it was a foolish question, but I thought that maybe cement was different from wood and metal in that a coarse "polishing" would produce less luster but not any visible "scratches". i.e. just a rough surface. In fact, I have found examples on the internet that seem to confirm my thoughts. Contractors are offering concrete grinding services as a means of providing a slip resistant floor.

 

Oh if you polish it, it will be slipperyer than Canada in winter if you get it wet. Ever walked across a smooth marble floor and didnt know it was wet? That slippery

 

If you get Niner tix, you had better call me dude

 

Ok thanks. I suspected as much. As a last ditch effort I will call United tomorrow but online I was not looking at my specific store. Perhaps they have more for rent than they list online. BTW my post immediately following this quoted post was written before I read the quoted post.

 

Lamination phase complete

1 radius , 4 different sizes , 7 pieces total over 7 days

Install starts now

 

LOOKS WARPED?^^^^^^

 

I would not mind if he did some warped molding in my home.

 

you would be buried before he finished it

 

There is that. I believe he has been working on the one house since I became a member in 2009. I do know that this is for his own home.

 

FU2

Almost disaster , I forgot to reset my biscuit joiner lol

Almost came out the top of my round applied stool trim which would have meant making a new one , I had already cut all the biscuits in the jamb liners at this setting so I had to cut all 16 biscuit slots in the round trim this close to the top and then be extremely careful getting it all aligned and clamped

That would have been a bad time

 

Now i see why you needed to make the custom fence, i figured you needed a lower depth than the regular fence allows but i couldnt figure out why. I had one of those disasters today, messed up some measurments on my cut list this morning, ended up losing 3 hours and now i have 6 raised panels that are 3/4" to small