Grinding Concrete

Sanding a Concrete Floor 

California Bob is improving his domicile:

I rented a floor machine with abrasive disc last weekend for the slab floor on my ground floor.  The slab is old, rough, uneven, stained, and I wanted to see what a floor grinder would do.
The machine works well.  Apparently concrete is much softer than I thought (at least mine is), and the disc eats right through it.  I didn't anticipate how much dust it would produce, and my little shop vac was not equal to the task.  And the filter inside the vac failed, forcing me to revert to the Eureka and use about 20 bags.
Overwhelmed by the cleanup, I didn't do as thorough a job as I would have liked, so it's another instance of "could have done it better, but not going to revisit, it'll have to do."  I probably disposed of about 40 lbs of concrete dust.
Lessons learned:

1. Obviously, good respirator and disposable clothing.
2. Do a good job of masking off the clean areas of the house.
3. Options are to get a cross breeze flowing and emit huge plumes of concrete dust into the neighborhood, or keep doors closed and work blind in the sandstorm.  I had the doors open and a big fan going. Fortunately I live in a slum, and the orcs don't know or care about toxicity.
4. Machine generates a ton of dust, but dust is heavy and sinks out fairly quickly, compared to drywall dust which hangs in the air forever and gets into every nook and cranny of the building.
5. Have a huge and powerful shop vac on wheels, with good filters.
6. If you have two people and a huge wet-vac, it might be smarter to grind it wet and suck up the slurry, though it would require some rinsing.