My exposed aggregate is too rough. I need to grind it down just a bit.

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Chuckiechan

Well-known member
Jun 10, 2014
610
Roseville, CA
This is not a new pool.

We have exposed aggregate that is rough as a cheese grater. I'm thinking of renting a concrete grinder to just knock off the worst of it, certainly not polish it or make it slippery.

Home Depot rents a concrete grinder that will do jobs like this.

Does anyone have any experience doing something like this?

Thanks in advance!
 
I have my doubts you will like the result. Concrete grinders are not designed for fine work and getting a consistent look over a large area may be difficult.

If you have a small area that's not noticeable experiment there and see what you get.
 

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Oh my goodness, I've been reading this thread thinking you meant the pebble plaster! I couldn't imagine draining the pool, etc. I wonder if there is a thick sealer that would help smooth out the feel? But that would probably make more of a mess with pealing over time. I'm curious to see what you come up with. Good luck!

Chuckiechan said:
It's not the plaster, it's the exposed aggregate walking surface surrounding the pool.
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I wonder about the sealer as well.

I too had a rough deck (old concrete) and was leaning toward a thick epoxy paint or possible re-coat of a thin
layer of concrete to deal with it, but probably not what the poster would want to do.
 
I got down and looked at it with my 10 power jewelers loupe:

The large pebbles that are obvious, are mostly smooth. But the cement that bonds, is a mixture of cement and crushed gravel. Tiny, but rough as a cob.

Attached is a close up. Note the parallelogram shaped stone is ~ 1/2" across. Closeup 2.jpg
 
philboyj said:
Got it. I recall seeing ads in Houston claiming to "fix" pea gravel concrete. Not sure what exactly they do. Probably put an overlay and stamp it.
Click to expand...

That would make the most sense.Grinding down exposed aggregate just seems like opening a can of worms. Grind too little and you now expose more sharp edges, grind too much and you have a slick surface (much like poured concrete flooring) that is a huge headache in wet areas. You can provide flipflops for every visitor for the next decade or so at a lot less cost and headache.
 
It wouldn't help for any rough stones, but for the rough mortar areas, an elbow-grease solution maybe to use full strength MA and some kind of a walk behind power tool with a spinning rotary brush (don't know if that exists). The MA would "soften" up the mortar and the metal (probably have to be stainless) rotating brush might take the roughness off of it. I have no idea really but who knows. As a test a drill with wire brush and MA (along with goggles, mask, gloves, long sleeves and long pants) could be used on a test area.

What I did do once is the following which is what gave me the idea. I had laid a brick patio in plastic trays on a sand base. I then brushed mortar mix over the bricks and watered it down to create a mortared in place brick patio. Problem was that the brick was a slight bit damp (not obviously damp) but it caused a skim of mortar to form on all of the bricks. It looked gray overall. So I used a drill with a wire brush and full strength MA and worked brick by brick. When finished, it was great and "antiqued" to boot. But a major PITA and time sink. That patio was probably 12 x 12.
 

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