Concrete grinding
Diamond grinding and surface preparation, sold on its own to builders and to other installers.
The build-up, step by step
Every concrete grinding job Shanks installs follows the same order, because skipping a stage is how floors fail. Taylor is on site for all of it.
Assess and select tooling
Bond and grit are chosen for the hardness of the slab and what is on it. The wrong bond either glazes or gouges.
Remove coatings and adhesives
Old paint, carpet glue, thinset and failed coatings come off.
Open the profile
Grinding to the CSP profile the incoming system needs, typically CSP 2 to 3 for resin.
Contain the dust
Everything runs on HEPA extraction so an occupied building stays workable.
Right room, right system
Trip hazards and slab high spots, glue and coating removal, and profiling for another contractor’s finish.
Where it is the wrong call
Very thick, elastomeric coverings that shot blasting or scarifying will remove faster.
Back in service: None. The floor is ready as soon as it is clean.
Compare the other systems
Why this floor costs what it costs
Nobody can price a floor over the phone honestly, because two rooms of identical size can be a day apart in work. These are the things that actually move the number:
Condition of the slab
A clean, sound slab grinds in a morning. One carrying old paint, carpet glue, or a failed coating can take a full day longer before anything can be applied.
Size and shape
Bigger floors cost less per square foot, because the setup, the mixing and the cleanup are much the same whether the room is 400 or 1,400 square feet. Cut-up rooms with lots of edges take longer than open ones.
Access
A walk-out basement with a door at grade is straightforward. Carrying equipment down a flight of stairs, or working around a building that has to stay open, adds time.
Moisture in the slab
If testing shows vapor moving up through the concrete, a mitigating primer goes down first. It is an extra step, and skipping it is how coatings fail.
What Alabama slabs do
Most of the housing around Anniston, Oxford and Jacksonville was poured between the sixties and the eighties, and those slabs were hard-trowelled to a tight, closed surface. They look clean and they take a coating badly until they are properly ground, which is why a store-bought kit so often lets go here within a year.
Newer construction around Trussville, Chelsea and Springville is usually a clean, flat pour that takes a coating beautifully, as long as the concrete has had its twenty-eight days. Coating green concrete is one of the few genuinely unfixable mistakes in this trade.
Where the trailer goesWhat the days actually look like
The schedule matters as much as the finish when it is your garage or your shop. A normal run:
Agreeing the spec
Profile, moisture limit and flatness get agreed in writing before anything starts, so there is no argument later about whether the slab was ready.
Containment
HEPA extraction on every machine, and sheeting where the work sits next to an occupied area.
Grinding to the profile
Grinding or blasting to the agreed profile, with joints and cracks handled to your detail.
Handover
Vacuumed, documented and ready to coat, with the moisture numbers written down for your manufacturer warranty.
Keeping it looking new
Nothing to maintain here, because there is no finish. What matters is that the slab is coated reasonably soon after prep: an open, profiled surface left for weeks picks up dust, moisture and traffic, and may need a light re-grind before the finish goes on.
Anything Taylor installs comes with a walk-through at handover covering exactly this, plus what to avoid in the first two weeks while the coating reaches full hardness. If something does go wrong later, tell him about it rather than living with it.
The owner is the installer
Shanks Concrete Coatings is Taylor and Heather Shanks, working out of Anniston. Taylor trained directly with Brian Phillips, The Epoxy Dude, in southern Indiana, and he runs the grinder and pulls the squeegee on every job himself. Licensed and insured, Alabama #2602341.
If a concrete grinding floor is not the right answer for your room, he will tell you that on the first visit rather than sell it to you. More about how Shanks works, or send over the details of your floor.
Concrete Grinding questions
Do you grind for other contractors?
Yes. Prep-only work for builders, flooring contractors and other coating installers is a standing part of the business.
How much dust?
Very little. Grinders run on HEPA vacuums, so the work happens in occupied buildings routinely.
What profile will I get?
Whatever the incoming system’s data sheet calls for. Send the spec and the tooling is matched to it.
Can a trip hazard be ground down?
Small slab offsets, yes. Large differentials are a concrete repair rather than a grinding job.
Do you charge by the square foot or by the day?
Both, depending on the work. Straightforward open-area profiling prices by the square foot; glue removal and coating removal are unpredictable enough that a day rate is usually fairer to everyone.
Four questions worth asking any installer
Ask these of Shanks and of whoever else you are talking to. The answers separate a floor that lasts from one that looks good for a season, and a straight installer will not mind being asked.
How are you preparing the slab?
The only acceptable answers involve a diamond grinder or a shot blaster. Acid etching and a scrub with degreaser is not preparation, and it is the single most common reason a coating lets go.
Are you testing for moisture?
On any basement or ground-level slab this should be a yes with a number attached. Vapor pressure will push a coating off no matter how good the product is.
Who is actually on my floor?
Worth asking whoever quotes you. With Shanks the person who quotes it is the person who grinds it and coats it, and that is not true everywhere.
What is the topcoat?
A UV-stable polyaspartic or aliphatic urethane holds its color. A cheap job leaves a standard epoxy as the top layer, and it will amber in daylight within a year or two.
Other systems for the same room
Concrete Grinding is one of twenty-two systems Shanks installs. If the room is telling you something different, these are the closest alternatives, and Taylor will happily point you at the cheaper one if it is the right answer.
Concrete Sealing
Another system Shanks installs across the same sixty-mile area.
Floor Prep
Another system Shanks installs across the same sixty-mile area.
Overlays
Another system Shanks installs across the same sixty-mile area.
Start with a look at the slab
Square footage, what the room is used for, and what the slab looks like now. That is enough to get you a real number on concrete grinding.