Author Topic: DIY concrete floor refinishing  (Read 3155 times)

Blatant

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DIY concrete floor refinishing
« on: December 27, 2015, 05:08:07 PM »
Anyone have experience refinishing concrete slab flooring? And I mean in a living area, not a basement or something.

I'm in Arizona and our 2100 SF home is built on a slab. My wife and I really, really like the industrial aspect of concrete flooring. Looking to start in the master bedroom/master bath. Current flooring is carpet and ceramic tile. We did have a pro come out and give an estimate. Their process is to patch cracks and holes from the carpet furring strips, diamond grind, then lay a thin layer of new material to dye and seal.

In doing research, it appears to be a DIY-able project, minus the laying of new material. My idea is to pull the current flooring, patch cracks/holes, rent a grinder, then do my own dying and clear sealing.

Curious if anyone here has done this. Looking for some pro tips/tricks, etc. Thanks.

M2 pilot

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Re: DIY concrete floor refinishing
« Reply #1 on: December 27, 2015, 07:14:24 PM »
I'm  not knowledgeable about this, but there's plenty of discussion of this topic on the Garage Journal forum.

Arktinkerer

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Re: DIY concrete floor refinishing
« Reply #2 on: December 28, 2015, 11:25:48 AM »
We did a sun room area with ferrous sulfate (a fertilizer--purchased a large bag from a agri supply) and then clear coated it with a semigloss product made for that.  Lots of links to this on the web.  Came out very nice and was dirt cheap to do.

If you are redoing existing floors you may have problems.  The tack strips for carpet will leave spots that need to be patched.  Glues and other stuff spilled on floors may make the stain not take properly.  There are things that may make this work--sanding or grinding the floors, using solid coatings instead of stains. 

I recently saw a blog about someone who used torn brown paper and sealant to finish floors.  Pics looked very good.  Another option that is cheap if you do your own labor.

bognish

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Re: DIY concrete floor refinishing
« Reply #3 on: December 28, 2015, 03:41:50 PM »
I did an epoxy coat on my garage floor this fall. I am not the most skilled handy man in the world, but pretty good at painting. It cam out really well and I am really glad I did not contract out the work.

The prep work was very labor intensive and DUSTY. I used a crack chasing wheel on a angle grinder to open the cracks, then filled them with a concrete leveler, and then ground flush with a hand grinder. The diamond grinding opens up the slab for sealing, but does not really smooth out any imperfections. The grinding steps create and incredible amount of very fine dust. I would not want to do it inside my house. Plan on doing a very thorough job sealing the room and wear a respirator.

The epoxy coating was only slightly more difficult than normal painting because it is thicker and has a short working time. With 2 people putting the epoxy on was the easiest part of the project. If you just stained it it would be very easy.


I did all of my research on:
http://allgaragefloors.com/epoxy-flooring/
Or garage journal forum.

bacchi

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Re: DIY concrete floor refinishing
« Reply #4 on: December 28, 2015, 10:09:48 PM »
We did it for some rentals (because carpet sucks). Pulled out carpet, patched holes, and buffed it with a floor buffer rental. We then acid stained it twice and sealed it.

It's entirely DIY.

Fishindude

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Re: DIY concrete floor refinishing
« Reply #5 on: December 29, 2015, 11:32:16 AM »
Look up "Garon Products" on line catalog.
They offer just about every conceivable product to repair or refurbish concrete.

sbophietanar

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Re: DIY concrete floor refinishing
« Reply #6 on: July 03, 2017, 09:44:54 PM »
Old post but need one information. Which type concrete is best for floor refinishing?
Update: I am looking this at amazon.com and filtering the best. Short listed some good floor concrete.
Regards from,
the effective guide
« Last Edit: July 04, 2017, 07:34:37 PM by sbophietanar »

 

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