Concrete is used around the entire world for construction projects, and for good reason. This is one of the most widely used materials in the world, and it is also the oldest man-made construction material. Concrete can be poured into place to form a foundation for a building, and it is central for making highway overpasses and for creating sidewalks, among other things. But while concrete is tough and long lasting, it is not indestructible, and sometimes, concrete grinding services or concrete raising crews should be hired to touch it up. When is it time to hire concrete grinding services, and what does concrete raising entail, anyway?
On Concrete
The very idea of concrete dates back to the ancient Egyptians, who made a primitive model of it for some of their construction projects. There are surviving examples of it today. But of course, today’s concrete is much tougher and more carefully made, and it involves ingredients such as sand, aggregate, water, and cement. For transport, concrete is carried around in the rotating drums of concrete mixers, so it does not harden too much inside. Concrete often has a strength of 3,000 psi (pounds per square inch), though the strongest concrete boasts a rating of 20,000 psi for heavy-duty jobs. During the construction of a building, a foundation is dug,and then wooden board are set up to define the foundation’s borders. At this point, concrete crews arrive and pour the material, and workers will use rakes with long handles to smooth it out and remove bubbles as it hardens.
It should also be mentioned that concrete is an excellent material for flooring, such as in a warehouse or an auto repair shop. Even in commercial buildings such as banks or schools, concrete floors are becoming ever more popular, owing to their durability and high performance. Often, concrete floors take the place of marble, linoleum, or granite floors, and concrete flooring can have carpeting put over it. But what if that concrete flooring has suffered form age or damage? It is time to call in concrete grinding services, whose workers can put the concrete back into top form.
What Concrete Grinding Services can Do
A client, such as a warehouse or an auto shop owner, can call upon concrete grinding services if their building’s concrete floor is stained, cracked, rough, or bumpy, or otherwise impaired. Someone who buys an older commercial building may step inside to see a badly aged concrete floor, so hiring a concrete grinding service is a must. What happens next? These workers will bring large concrete grinder machines and smaller, handheld ones alike, and start scouring that concrete floor.
A concrete grinder features a rotating disk, and this tough disk rotates rapidly to grind away at the concrete floor’s surface to make it smooth and level. Such disks are often made of silicone carbide or tungsten carbide, and they may even feature diamond bits. The worker pushes the machine along like a lawn mower, and they may pass over the concrete floor many times to do a thorough job and remove all rough patches and upraised imperfections. Smaller, handheld models are used to finish the job along the room’s edges and at the corners. During such work, 1/8th of an inch of the floor’s surface may be removed to even it out.
Doing all this makes the floor ready for treatment, such as from epoxy. Such treatment makes the floor tougher and harder, and makes it smooth and stain-resistant as well. Treated concrete floors are also easy to paint on.
Concrete Lifting
Meanwhile, a sidewalk or a concrete patio may start sagging and cracking if the earth underneath becomes too heavy with water, and repair crews must be hired right away to fix it. Once on the scene, such workers will use a machine to inject material underneath the damaged material, and the expanding material will lift the concrete and return it to the proper level. Now, the workers can fill in any remaining cracks and imperfections, and the sidewalk is ready to use. Take note that this will not work for concrete patios that are attached to the house, however. On the plus side, once the sidewalk is lifted this way, it is ready for use right away.