Battleangel

Never out of work. Just ambition. Here is the thing … the two adjoining garages in the basement are both directly on top of the main concrete fundament. Hence, some sort of coating was necessary to protect the material from crud and petroleum products. The coating of choice became a sort of Self leveling floor compound. However, the lesson that I never quite seem to learn is that lack of preparation can ruin even the perfect compound. Either that or the material just can’t stand for studded tires.
Anyway, I had to apply another layer of coating, and before I could do that I had to grind the old layer down or at least roughen up the surface. Normally I should have just been able to apply primer and do the coating but it seemed like the floor was suffering from discoloration and suspected petroleum breeches. Besides, it is unlikely that even the primer can protect against a really greasy surface.
Aaaanyway, and as always, a rather poor / outdated set of hardware made the work cumbersome. The concrete grinder (like an angle grinder, just with a more robust design, a metal / diamond grinding disc and dust extraction) I borrowed from a local contractor was nice but a little too small for a garage floor (the tendency is to leave an uneven result) and a bit of overkill. Worked almost too well. The compound coating just melted away, got stuck in my nostrils and in big dunes on the floor. Goddamn unpleasant. Should have worn a full mask. The dust extraction on the grinder had no chance of keeping up with that amount of dust nor had I expected it to.

Hopefully the newly coated floor will withstand normal usage for a couple of years more. Next time it fails, I think it’s time to consider a completely different floor solution altogether.