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OT: first time cutting concrete

drcoelho

Stainless
Joined
Feb 19, 2017
Location
Los Altos
So I had need to cut out a chunk of concrete from my shop floor. Decided to do this myself, never had any experience doing this before. Aquired a diamond saw, a Bosch hammer, and a diamond grinder and had it. Turned out pretty well. See progressive photos of the effort:

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Many diamond saws here from tool hire companies come with a water tank to keep the dust down.

Have a couple of 9” angle grinder together with diamond, steel and concrete cutting wheels in the store they get used a fair bit. Use a watering can on concrete.
 
Looks like you might already be done, but I would also say to never do this without water or a properly setup mask/filter setup. I've seen it shorten the lives of multiple people.

Our handheld stihl and the large walk-behind both have hose connections that feed to 1 or more sprayers directed at the blade.
 
Looks like you might already be done, but I would also say to never do this without water or a properly setup mask/filter setup. I've seen it shorten the lives of multiple people.

Our handheld stihl and the large walk-behind both have hose connections that feed to 1 or more sprayers directed at the blade.

I used a Hilti system with Hilti HEPA vacuum, also PPE and full face mask, and the entire operation was surrounded by a plastic hut with fan evacuation outside. The Hilti system eliminated most of the dust.
 
Ordinary circular saw with a diamond blade.
Dribble a water hose directly in front of the blade.
Makes a muddy mess but No dust.
I built or remodeled well over two hundred bathrooms in the last 30 years.
Had to move or run new drains in concrete floors in probably a quarter of those.
Spray the mud off the saw out on the lawn or in the laundry tub when you're done then spray it down with WD40.
Piece of cake.
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I should have taken pictures of the foundations we had cut up for two new cutters we got this year. The foundations had damn near as much rebar as concrete in them 4-5 ft deep. The guy we use had I believe a Hilti hydraulic saw that used 36" diamond blades.
 
Me too, . Is that a grout pad you're trimming back? Skil saw with a diamond blade could have been set at the proper depth and saved that floor damage.
 
I have a VERY tightly packed shop, and in this particular part of the shop the width of the walkway between my CNC machine and the wooden post was insufficient to allow rolling my Lista cabinet and other stuff past the post due to the little stub of concrete, so I cut it out. I chose not to use water on this cut as I have some sensitive equipment in there. The Hilti dry cut dust collection vacuum worked great, very little dust, and the little that was floating was taken out by the fan to outside. Also, I purposely cut a little below the floor in order to allow for thicker grout on the cut out section. I have since poured the grout and it has all worked out quite well. Will do one pass with the diamond grinder once the grout cures to smooth it out a bit and should be all done.
 
See attached photo showing final state of repair after I let the grout cure a bit and smoothed it over using the Diamond grinder. Turned out perfect, very happy with the results.

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