Cutting a channel in a concrete floor.

[P.J.]

I have a concrete ground floor - 1980's 3 bed detached house.

I need hot/cold water supply and waste water connection for an island kitchen sink unit and plan to cut a channerl in the floor to carry the pipes in a rectangular plastic conduit. Then screed back over the top. Floor will be laminate.

I plan to cut 2 slits with an angle grinder in the floor, then chop out the middle to leave the channel. Channel size will need to be about 4 inches wide with a varying depth of 2 to 4 inches for the run-off towards the outside wall.

Does this sound feasible ? - any better suggestions welcome.

Thanks,
P.J.

 

[duxster]

Hi

Sounds ok but you will need more than 2 slots.. Idid a similar thing in our house but I was hiding cables (network, audio, video etc etc). I used a petrol cutter hired from the local hire shop as my 8" angle grinder struggled...

I think you will find you will need to cut lots of slots and then chop them out with either hammer and chisel or like me use an SDS hammer drill.

Hope this helps.

 

[masona]

Won't be a nice job, it will be a very very dusty. I have done the same with central heating pipes and have put sheets out everywhere plus also wetting the floor help. A helping hand with a hoover is a bonus !

 

[P.J.]

Thanks very much - sounds like it's more or less the right method with the dust being the main problem.

Nice point about cutting a few slots with the grinder first

Got myself an 850W chisel action drill so hopefully that will see off what's left in the channel after the slots are cut.

Thanks again,

P.J.

 

[P.J.]

Update on the channel cutting :
Using a 115mm angle grinder with diamond cutting wheel. I just cut one slit for each side of the channel and then chopped the middle out using a cheap impact drill with chisel attachments from B&Q (£30).
The dust was a nightmare but quickly clears and I found it OK to do the job in 3 stints of a couple of hours each, taking half an hour to clean up after each one.
Goggles and a good dust mask, of the correct type for that kind of work, are essential, as are gloves and kneepads.
I'm sitting the copper pipes in a plastic channel and thought I'd bed the channel and waste pipe onto some mortar for support, then mortar on top of the waste pipe with the channel lids exposed for access.
Cheers,
P.J.