cutting grooves into a concrete floor...

[AstroMan]

I assume that some of us here on this board have been to SMoCA (Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art) at least once (like for the mid-century modernism show a few months back?)...

anyway, SMoCA was a movie theatre that was redone by architect Will Bruder into what is a nice little museum (I am not only saying that because I work there)...

One of the things that was done was to cut grooves maybe two or three inches deep into the concrete floors, breaking the floor up into 10x10 squares in the galleries and maybe 5x2 rectangles in the lobby... it looks to me like someone took a circular saw with a diamond coated blade to cut these, but I don't know for sure. Mr. Bruder does come into the museum a fair amount, so next time I see him, I am going to ask him, but I thought maybe someone on here knew....THE reason I wonder about this, is because the floor in my entire house is stained/treated concrete. It was not that way originally, and in the kitchen and bathroom, you can tell it was once tiled, as the lines where the mortar once was is a slightly different color than the rest of the floor...I was THINKING (only thinking mind you, lets call it armchair remodeling) of cutting grooves in the floor along these lines (or maybe just some of the lines in a Mondrianesque pattern)....ANY THOUGHTS? TOO RISKY TO ATTEMPT?

[PixelPixie]

Mondrian! Mondrian!!!

Yesyes divide and conquer the space into well-ordered irregularity.

And if you're not good at that sort of thing send me the grid via overhead photo or schematic and I'll comp up some divisions for saturday night thrills. Dividing space soothes me.

I bet matthew can say more on the circular saw attempt. Sounds plausible to me.

[lavardera]

Thats how its done - I think there are saws on wheels that make this easier. Its going to be dusty, and if done wet then messy. Don't slice all the way through your slab though, in fact I'd restrain myself to less than an inch. The problem is that its tough to make neat corners when its shallow. When you layout a pattern remember that the size of your saw will restrict how close you can get to your edges.

[matthew]

I say go to the rental place and talk to them and rent something and give it a try on some slab somewhere. Do it on the patio or the sidewalk in the middle of the night!

[jklabar]

astroman...if you go forward w/this process, can you send before and after pics to the board? i'd love to see the final product! we have tile in our home and plan on ripping it up (we believe concrete is underneath) only to "finish" what's underneath.

the einstein's on 44th st and indian school has similar (though smaller in size) tile "markings" on their concrete floor. i know they didn't cut on the lines, but there are concrete breaks in the floor.