The grinding properties of abandoned concrete, which consists primarily of hardened cement, limestone aggregate and river sand, are studied. Theoretical models of grinding are used to explain the experimental observation. The results show that 1) The principle disintegration mechanism of hardened cement and river sand is volumetric grinding, although at later stages grinding of cement becomes difficult because of its flaked structure; 2) The limestone grinding process can be divided into two steps. First, volumetric grinding, with an obvious component of surface grinding, followed by primarily surface grinding as the micro-particle content increases; 3) Initially, the principle mechanism of grinding limestone and river sand is volumetric grinding, albeit less efficient grinding than if these components were ground separately, and; 4) After 10 to 20 min of grinding the grinding bottleneck phenomenon appears and after 20 min of grinding the content of micro-particles is large and surface grinding is the main mechanism while the particle size of the mixture is smaller than that of separately ground river sand and cement but bigger than that of separately ground limestone.