concreteshower
I recently laid a new concrete shower pan, and went around the drain radially, which created some circular ridges.
I'd like to make the pan as smooth as possible, but these ridges are currently 1/8" to 1/4" high. How can I level these out, and do I even need to worry about it if I'm laying thinset when I put my tile down?
We had an almost identical situation in a former garage that we refinished to be an office. Our contractor suggested this and we liked the result: he installed a piece of wood about an inch out from the concrete, putting insulation between them and keeping the wood a consistent and level height - a little higher than the concrete. I can't remember if it was pink fluffy insulation or spray stuff. Then a shelf about 6 inches out from the wall - nice and level by being a bit up from the concrete and supported by the vertical wood, and there's insulation under the shelf too. The whole thing is a good looking clear pine and is well varnished.
Looking from the side gives an idea of the distance from the wall:
The shelf runs around the entire room and is remarkably useful for something so low. It hides all the lumpy bumpy aspects of the concrete and while it's not something you see everywhere, no-one has ever mentioned it so it can't be that unusual.
The main problem you will have is thickness, thin concrete tends to crack. Your laminate flooring is all of 1/2 inches thick most likely, so the maximum your concrete floor could be is that much, and that's not enough. Other problems are:
I'm not saying it's impossible, if you're on slab you might be ok, but if it were me I'd be considering a cool looking tile rather than polished concrete.
Best Answer
You probably don't need to concern yourself. The thinset plus tile should smooth out the imperfections just fine.
If you really want to remove them, you'll probably need to use a concrete grinder. But that's pretty expensive. As a "lightweight" alternative, a 4" angle grinder with a masonry wheel would knock the top off of the ridges. But it would take a lot of time and make a lot of mess to really remove much material that way.