A concrete planer, written up at some counters as a milling machine, spins a drum of hardened cutters across a slab and shaves a measured depth off it rather than polishing it smooth. Hire is commonly $120 to $250 a day for a walk behind unit, with the drum and its cutters billed on their own line. It is the machine for removing thickness: coatings, high spots, trip edges and old markings.
Depth per pass is the reason to pick one
The drum sits in a frame and is lowered on a screw, so each pass takes a set slice instead of whatever the operator leans into. An eighth to a quarter of an inch a pass is normal working depth, and several passes walk the surface down to sound concrete without gouging a hollow into the middle of the bay.
Drum width against the doorway and the bay
These machines are sold by cutting width: roughly eight to twelve inches on the small units, up to twenty on larger self propelled ones. A wider drum finishes a warehouse bay faster and costs more to run, because every cutter on the shaft is wearing at once. Measure the tightest door and the smallest bay before naming a width.
The cutters are the consumable and they are billed for
Carbide tipped cutters, spacers and washers arrive stacked on the shaft, and that stack is what wears out. Hard aggregate and any exposed reinforcement chew through a set quickly, so a stubborn slab can cost more in cutters than in machine time. Ask the counter what a reload costs and whether the drum comes back loaded or bare.
Dust here is a silica question, not housekeeping
Cutting concrete puts respirable crystalline silica into the air, and the construction standard for it sets out the controls expected on handheld and walk behind cutting kit. Hire the vacuum alongside the planer, connect it to the shroud port, and check the filter is the one the machine was specified with rather than a shop vacuum somebody found.
Questions people ask about concrete planer rental
Is a concrete planer the same thing as a grinder?
No. A planer mills material away with cutters on a drum and leaves a grooved profile behind. A grinder abrades the surface flat with diamond tooling. Take thickness off with the planer first, then bring the ridges down with a grinder if the floor itself is going to be the finish.
Will a planer take off old floor paint and markings?
It will, and it is usually the fastest route through a thick coating or a road marking. On a thin film it removes concrete along with the paint, which may be more slab than you wanted to lose. For light coatings a grinder with the right tooling wastes less.
Does a planer need three phase power?
Most walk behind planers in a rental fleet run on gasoline or diesel, which is why they live outdoors and in ventilated bays. Electric versions exist for indoor work and the bigger ones want a 208 or 230 volt supply. Say where the job is when you book so the right drive arrives.