Question about sealing a rough cement floor
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Do you want to continue to have a concrete floor?
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It think the fix will be in at least 2 steps
- Fix the "pretty rough" cement
- Seal or paint or epoxy it
I don't think a sealer or even a thicker epoxy is meant to smooth out rough spots
I have done a little cement work and I have sealed and painted cement, but I'm not the expert. Ask the expert, this doesn't sound like a question for a novice.
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I have seen concrete floors that have been sealed/painted. They used a sealer with colored flecks in them. Looked really nice when it was done.
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The floor in the front part of this gallery is smooth cement. I don’t mind the cement, this is the lower level of the building, and the back part (this part we are remodeling) is underground - and our back storage area is actually under the sidewalk outside the foundation of the building - (very old building, the sidewalk used to have glass blocks in it, and thats how the businesses got light down there). We are renting, and I’m not sure we can afford to put in another flooring. (In hind site, the glue never should have been ground off, we should have just clear sealed right over the top of the interesting pattern of dark glue - it was smooth. Grinding it was a mess - so much sludge that has taken ages to get rid of.
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If it were mine, I'd skim coat it and lay luxury vinyl or water-proof click-lock.
Since it's not, you can put down sealer or as Mik suggested, paint it.
Edit: I know a guy that used to have a large flooring company in Dallas...I'll ask...
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"My pronouns are FA/FO." - Mik, 2024
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I’ll take pictures of it tomorrow. It’s not that big, but the guy who’s been doing the drywall and the trim and molding (the grandson of the man who started the gallery) put the base molding in before we figured out what to do with the floor - and so I think our only option now is to either leave it like this and throw down some rugs and call it “rustic”, or paint it with something and hope it sticks.
Here are two photos of the back room taken a few weeks ago, I’m standing in the area that I showed a photo of in the first post, that doorway leads to the main gallery.
Here are a couple photos of the front gallery (those floors will stay as is):
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Glued or nailed baseboards?
If nailed, they can probably come off. Probably just 18g brads.
Or, tape them off and use sealer or paint.
Always remember, Operation Valkyrie was an act of sedition.
Warning: I post things that interest me. Read and comment at your own discretion. -
@jolly The walls are weird - some of them are really old, the ones in the outer gallery are concrete! they had to install picture moldings at the top, and we are hanging the paintings from chains. I think he screwed the baseboards in - then filled the holes and they’ve been painted over already. We will mostly likely wreck them if we try to take them off. Thanks for the paint link.
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If it's smooth enough, here's what my friend wrote:
"In our area rug stores we simply stained the concrete with penetrating wood stain from Dura Seal/Minwax. Tape off the wall base, and fill a garden sprayer with the stain, don't pump it too much, and start about a foot from the wall to avoid splash up, run a line of stain down the wall.
Using an old towel, on hands and knees, wipe the stain in a circular fashion. Continue putting lines of stain down and wiping circular, overlapping slightly the previous line.
Let dry for 24 hours with ventilation, and you're good to go. If will obscure any old stains and discolorations.
I got into an argument one time with a painter who specialized in painting/staining concrete floors. He'd polish, then etch, the apply two or three coat of an epoxy like finish. I asked him if he'd ever spilled wood stain on a concrete floor, and he said yes. Then I asked him if he could get it back up, he said no.
In high traffic areas touching up worn areas is as easy as wiping more stain on, usually after several years of commercial traffic.
Dispose of the oil soaked cloth in a bucket of water, then in a dumpster. Throw the sprayer away. "
Always remember, Operation Valkyrie was an act of sedition.
Warning: I post things that interest me. Read and comment at your own discretion. -
"My pronouns are FA/FO." - Mik, 2024
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@jolly That’s a great idea, big issue is there is NO ventilation down here. No heat. (We used plug in heaters). One people sized door that is coming in the front. (That’s probably some sort of business code violation right there, but this is Butte, and people don’t seem to care about a lot of that stuff here). One small window in the front gallery that might open (not sure, haven’t checked it to see if it does) So it’s going to have to be water based, whatever we do. (Still fumes with those, but not quite as bad). Here I’ve been mopping because I’m worried about what’s in the dust from the construction, but I should probably be more worried about the radon, as we are underground. The windows in the front gallery photo are at sidewalk level outside.
