I am working on a mid-century home in Warrenville. One of the projects involves renewing an old concrete patio that had been enclosed to make sunroom. In the past the concrete had been painted green then red. In addition is had quite a bit of residual glue from a prior all-seasons carpet.

My goal was to create a glue and paint-free surface for the customer. I have done this type of work in the past and knew that I would need a special type concrete grinder that uses diamond pads.

I initially started the project using a grinder that had 150 grit pads. My idea was to provide the customer with as smooth of a surface as possible. However, this did not prove to be effective. By trial and error I eventually used a much heavier machine and diamond pads that were 40 grit. These pads did great job at removing the old glue and paint, but left visible scar marks on the concrete surface. This required additional passes with 80 grit and 120 grit diamond pads.

The whole project took much longer than I initial anticipated, but the final results were impressive. I was determined to give my customer the best possible outcome.

Here you can see both the red and green paint as well as the yellow carpet glue.
The green paint was especially tenacious to remove.
Installing the diamond sanding pads.
The sanding was done wet, which increased the sander’s effectiveness and also kept the cement dust down.
Overview of the sanded patio.
A beautifully sanded patio.