Dedusting concrete floors

How to dust a concrete floor?

Liquid concrete hardener ULTRALIT HARD

Repair of concrete floors in a warehouse

Concrete dust removal

Repair of industrial floors

Concrete dust removal

Dedusting of concrete floors is an urgent and urgent issue for all branches of human life.

• It is not a very pleasant experience to work in a room in which concrete dust is constantly present.

• Cement dust, workers and maintenance personnel have to breathe, 24 hours a day. 

• Cement dust is very dangerous and harmful to human health, so its elimination is required.

• One of the traditional solutions for concrete dust control is wet mopping of concrete floors.

• At many enterprises where industrial concrete floors are used, for wet cleaning, they use scrubbing machines or manually, with a mop, in the old fashioned way.

• Naturally, if the problem of cement dust formation is not eliminated, it can be cleaned around the clock. 

• Thus, to have an additional item of expenditure for business.

 

Dusty industrial concrete floors

Why does cement dust appear on concrete or topping floors?

1. This is due to the rapid wear of the top layer of concrete floors or the initially low wear resistance of the concrete floor.

• The top layer of concrete (1-3 mm) is the weakest point in concrete floors. In the upper part of the concrete floor, after pouring, laitance is formed. Even with high-quality grouting of the concrete floor, a few millimeters still remain before the filler appears.

• It is the filler that is responsible for the wear resistance of the concrete floor. 

• In industrial concrete floors, it is crushed granite, marble chips, sand, of a certain fraction and granulometry.

• Cement, in industrial concrete floors, is responsible for the strength and grade of the concrete mix.

• So, during the operation of industrial concrete floors, from an intense load on the floors, the top layer of concrete floors, consisting of cement and sand, begins to wear out, because it is much weaker than the filler. 

• Microcracks appear, pores open in concrete. 

• They contribute to the release of the first dust from concrete micropores. 

• In the future, the concrete pores open up and the dust becomes more and more. 

• Surely, many have come across this process, when they swept the concrete floor, but the dust still remained.

 

Worn industrial concrete floors in a warehouse

2. The formation of shells, potholes, chips, delaminations, holes 

• When heavy objects fall on a concrete or topping floor, small dents and shells are formed.

• Subsequently, they also cause the formation of dust, as the tightness of the upper layer of the concrete floor is broken.

• To solve such problems and eliminate, there are many repair compounds for repairing industrial floors.

 

Damaged industrial floors

3. Formation of large and small cracks in industrial floors

• In the process of shrinkage of concrete floors, shrinkage cracks may form , get your signature.

• The device of expansion, temperature, shrinkage joints, sealing of joints, a guarantee of the absence of dust on your industrial floors.

• To repair cracks in industrial floors, they use: epoxy, latex, silicate polymer compounds that penetrate deep into cracks, seal them and glue them together.

 

Cracking in industrial concrete floors

What to do? 

• How to prevent dust formation, at the initial stage, when installing new industrial concrete floors?

• In Soviet times, for industrial concrete floors, there was only one criterion: a high grade of concrete.

• "We have 500 brand of concrete, everything will be fine." 

• In the context of withstand compressive or bending loads, it is possible. 

• But this physical and mechanical indicator did not particularly affect the wear resistance of the concrete floor.

In the process of getting acquainted with world technologies, gaining European and American experience, many specialized contractors began to use cement hardeners for concrete industrial floors.

So in industrial floors, came TOPPING - a dry or wet cement hardener for concrete floors.

• Its main concept of application is that it is rubbed by helicopters into the top layer of concrete floors when pouring a new concrete floor.

• In fact, it fills the space where weak cement laitance used to be. 

• Due to the fact that the toppings have wear-resistant quartz, corundum, metal fillers, the top layer of the industrial concrete floor is used for a long time without the formation of dust. 

• It turns out a very dense, durable, waterproof coating, in the upper part of the concrete floor, 2-3 mm.

• With proper care, systematic and effective maintenance of such floors, and regular maintenance, it is possible to extend the life of such industrial floors for many years.

 

Dirty topped industrial floors

What else can be used to remove dust and strengthen concrete industrial floors?

This solution came from the USA.

Liquid silicate hardeners, water based

• There are the following liquid silicate impregnations for hardening and dust removal of concrete industrial floors, which have been used in recent years: sodium, magnesium and lithium.

• It is lithium hardeners that are very popular due to some advantages over others.

• Lithium hardeners for concrete floors, react faster with concrete (14 days).

• Deep penetration into the body of concrete, up to 8 mm, due to the smaller molecule.

• Convenient application.

• Small expense.

• With the help of silicate liquid impregnation, it is possible to repair concrete industrial floors of different ages.

 

 Application of liquid hardener for industrial concrete floor

Also, hardening impregnations are used when installing new concrete floors:

• At the stage of pouring concrete floors. When grouting a concrete floor with blades, impregnations are used as a membrane-forming varnish for concrete floors. Impregnation seals the pores in the concrete floor and prevents moisture from evaporating quickly, thereby eliminating the possibility of cracking.

• Carry out the application of impregnation after 14 and 28 days, the maturation of concrete. After 28 days, to harden and remove dust from concrete floors, together with impregnation, mechanical processing of concrete is used: grinding and polishing. 

At the stage of development and improvement of equipment for the mechanical processing of concrete: grinders, polishers, scrubbers, a sambiosis was formed and a new concept for the care, hardening, dedusting of industrial concrete floors is polished concrete floors.

Polished concrete floors

Durable, wear-resistant, anti-slip, decorative, glossy, waterproof and chemical-resistant.

Polished concrete industrial floor concept

Grinding of concrete floors - application of liquid lithium impregnations - polishing of concrete floors.

Benefits of Polished Concrete Floors

• Do not create coatings on the surface of an industrial concrete floor. 

• Any coating can subsequently peel off, wear out, shoot off.

• Polished concrete floors with lithium hardeners work as a whole. 

• A liquid hardener that penetrates into the pores of the concrete and seals the micropores, thereby compacting the top of the concrete floor. 

• Prevents dust from escaping.

• Increases wear resistance and water resistance.

 

Polished concrete floors impregnated with lithium ULTRALIT

ULTRALIT | Concrete dust removal

HARD*HARDER*MORE HARDER

Consider the system of hardening and dust removal of industrial concrete floors on the experience of TM ULTRALIT.

Not so long ago, 5-8 years ago, few people in Europe knew about polished concrete, about penetrating impregnations and their properties.

And today, it is already a really serious and big market.

As it turned out, it is profitable, not as expensive as it might seem at first glance.

Ultralit impregnations are produced in Poland.

The company uses advanced American experience, and also conducts its own developments.

This year alone, two new products are introduced, Ultralit Hard CURE and Ultralit FRESH.

Ultralit HARD CURE 2 in 1 is a fresh concrete lithium curing that completely replaces acrylic-based membrane varnishes on fresh concrete, and also hardens old and new concrete surfaces.

It does not leave stains or efflorescence.

Ultralit FRESH is a "helicopter-like" product that significantly improves the quality and elasticity of the concrete surface during grouting, and hardens it when dried.

Ultralit today is a real leader in terms of sales volumes, in terms of price-quality ratio in the countries of Eastern and Western Europe.

Although Ultralit is a professional-only product, sales have more than doubled in the past year.

The company sold over 200 tons of its products to 34 countries in 2019.

Company President Pavel Knecht believes that emerging markets, markets of Central and Eastern Europe are more promising.

Of course, the American and Australian concrete flooring market is ten times larger than the European one, but the long tradition of production, strong distribution networks, the habit of "using one's own, complicates the entry of new European brands.

 

 Ultralit in polished concrete floors

Let's study step-by-step regulations from ULTRALIT and the manufacturer of grinding equipment LAVINA SUPERABRASIVE, for obtaining various types of surface finishes.

It is possible to apply ULTRALIT lithium impregnations and strengthen industrial concrete floors with their help at different stages of work.

Here are the main models for applying ULTRALIT liquid hardener.

Fresh concrete (hardening)

1. Perform the most dense troweling of concrete with trowels on the blades.

2. Cover the concrete with foil.

3. Before cutting joints (usually on the second day after concreting), apply 30-50 ml/m2 of Ultralit Hard Standard or Ultralit Hard Premium.

4. Cut the joints after the surface is dry (usually 2-3 hours after applying the hardener) and cover the concrete with foil.

Fresh concrete (hardening and light gloss)

 

Industrial floor polishing

Existing concrete (dedusting and high gloss)

 1. Examine the initial state of the concrete using Moss pencils and a Schmidt hammer.

Application of products on concrete with a strength below 20 MPa? may not be effective.

2. Determine the starting grit of the grinding tool depending on the quality of the surface and the desired degree of crushed stone exposure.

• Use industrial vacuum cleaner  LAVINA V32-X or LAVINA V20E, in case of dry sanding. 

• Use a floor scrubber to clean the floor between different sanding/polishing steps.

3. Usually start with #30 grit diamonds on the metal.

5. Examine the surface for shells and gravel nests.

If micro-repair is needed, use Ultralit Latex.

6. Grit with #100 grit diamonds and apply Ultralit Latex (50-200 ml/m2) before  LAVINA L16E - 16" Grinder.

Let the floor dry for 3-4 hours.

7. Repeat sanding with #100 grit diamonds on the metal.

8. Polish the floor with #100 plastic diamonds.

9. Apply 80-100 ml/m2 of Ultralit Hard Standard or Ultralit Hard Premium.

10. Polish the floor with #200 plastic diamonds.

11. Polish the floor with #400 plastic diamonds.

12. Polish the floor with #800 plastic diamonds.

13. If a higher gloss is needed, diamond polish #1500 plastic.

If not, then go to step 15.

14. Polish the floor with #3000 plastic diamonds.

15. Apply 2 coats of Ultralit Gloss (20-30 ml/m2 per coat).

Polish the floor after each application with the LAVINA LB36G-GTS High Speed ​​Polisher and Shine Pro Felt Pad  for a high gloss finish.

Hardening, dedusting, repair of industrial concrete floors

Of course, the cost of 1 kg of ULTRALIT lithium impregnation is comparable to 1 liter of inexpensive Scotch whiskey. But the advantage of ULTRALIT impregnation is that after its application, you do not have a "headache" the next day, which cannot be said about whiskey.

"Dedust and harden your concrete industrial floors effectively"