Staining Concrete Floors

[jjbodean1970]

thinking about staining the concrete floors in the basement and making it a game room. currently has berber carpet which is in bad shape. spoke with a contractor who indicated that removing the tack strips under the carpet would damage the concrete to the point where staining the floors wouldnt be a viable option.

does anyone have any experience with removing these and still doing the project? how did it turn out? can you be extra careful to minimize concrete breakage and then the baseboard and quarter round would cover any remaining imperfections?

all input appreciated.

jeff

 

[Koffer]

I think if you just are careful pulling the wood off the tack strips but leaving the nails stuck in the floor then grinding them down flush with the concrete you shouldnt have a problem .
sounds like the contractor wants to go assholes to elbows with a shovel at the tack strips and "F" the floor up by doing a hit and run job on the tear out .
Id be more worried about what the finish looks like under the rug , nice and smooth ,or some crappy trowel work work that's all lumpy and uneven

 

[jjbodean1970]

I think if you just are careful pulling the wood off the tack strips but leaving the nails stuck in the floor then grinding them down flush with the concrete you shouldnt have a problem .

thats a really good idea. it sounds hella labor intensive, but i sure wouldnt have to worry about screwing up the concrete that way. thanks

 

[WarDamnEagle]

I don't know how old the house is but if it's fairly new then they might have used fibermesh in the concrete which doesn't look good stained. Even some types of curing compounds will mess up a stain job. That aside, I agree that if you are careful you should be able to get the tack strips up with minimal damage but concrete does like to spall so it's inevitable that you will produce some holes much larger than the nails.

 

[Rambrush]

very good advise on cutting nails smoothing them down, seen cases where they were pulled up and the concrete pulled out leaving a gaping hole.

 

[jjbodean1970]

I don't know how old the house is but if it's fairly new then they might have used fibermesh in the concrete which doesn't look good stained. Even some types of curing compounds will mess up a stain job. That aside, I agree that if you are careful you should be able to get the tack strips up with minimal damage but concrete does like to spall so it's inevitable that you will produce some holes much larger than the nails.

house is 21 years old if that helps

does polished concrete take the finished better than plain old stained?

i am pretty sure there is padding under the berber and its not glued down or else all bets would be off.

is this a DIY or should i sub this out?

 

[Rambrush]

21 yo old concrete is going to be pretty hard. Generally you will need to etch it or a floor scrubber machine set up with sanding disc's. Muratic acid is way powerful for confined spaces though. TSP (tri Sodium Phosphate) for cleaning. I would say go with manufacturers recommended prep. if its acid hire it out

 

[Koffer]

I'd say do at least the tear out yourself , that way you have good idea what you'll be working with and also be able get pretty accurate quotes from contractors since theres no "hidden problems" when they are half way thur the job

 

[WarDamnEagle]

house is 21 years old if that helps

does polished concrete take the finished better than plain old stained?

i am pretty sure there is padding under the berber and its not glued down or else all bets would be off.

is this a DIY or should i sub this out?

I didn't mean to present myself as an expert on the subject.

I knew some of the potential issues as we were looking at having our basement floors done a few years ago in our game room but I had poured the floors with fibermesh. I had wet cured the floors for 2 weeks but then put a curing compound on as well. I think the curing compound was aqueous based so it wasn't a problem but the fibermesh was.

Anyway, I agree with Koffer. Do the tear out yourself and then get two or three concrete stain contractors over to look at the floors and give you a quote. Most of the guys that I knew that did this type of work only did it part time. They were firemen, rotating shift workers, etc. I say this because a) I think you can do it yourself but it might be more hassle than it's worth and b) they don't normally shy away from small jobs. If nothing else you will learn a lot from just talking to them. It's pretty amazing some of the stuff that you can have done. I would want it stained and scored so it looked like tiles so I would probably sub it out.

Now you know everything and more than me on this subject.

 

[jjbodean1970]

i agree with the scoring part, have seen it and it looks great.

i would probably try my hand at it myself first. my basement is 3/4 finished and 1/4 unfinished. would probably do a test run on part of the unfinished portion so i can fawk things up and not have to worry about it.

i agree about having contractors over and picking their brain, you really can glean some great info about products used and techniques, theyre usually very eager to answer questions and basically school you on how to do it. of course, knowing in theory how to do it and actually carrying it out are 2 different things.

regardless, would definitely do the tear out myself, i have all the time on my hands i want and have to stay busy to keep the boss happy.

eta: as an aside, when did you finish at auburn?

 

[WarDamnEagle]

ChE '84.

 

[jjbodean1970]

FI '92

 

[tornadoalleycruiser]

How about epoxy floor paint and sealant instead of staining. Have concrete stain at one of my jobs on the floor and they wax and buff it on a regular basis. Will show all the cracks etc.
You can do the expoxy by renting a concrete grinder and taking the top layer off then expoxy. Can even make it non-skid or put flake down. Doesn't have to be as "perfect" that way. I'll do the garage after I finish the other projects down there. No need to buy the "Kit" there are lots of retailers out there that sell custom kits cheaper. Just an alternative that would hide and fill your holes left from the tack strips. It'll depend on how it looks after you pull the tack strips up.
WOuld brighten the room up and make it apper larger as well.

 

[blackandbluefj]

give sherwin williams a try they have a variety of stains and even hardeners that are stains and you can polish to look like marble. An all else you can paint epoxy or what not but remember with paint it scrapes off flakes and almost always fails unless ground down. Also depending on if the concrete is already seaed it wont really take any stains. you can test by putting water on the floor if it soaks in thenyou are good to go. If not then look somewhere else besides stain. Even sometimes grinding into a sealed floor doesnt help because it may have soaked in a good bit depending on when and how it was put on. But good luck

 

[RiverCityDave]

Concrete Stain

I had this done on an older house once, and my buddy has his whole house done downstairs. The contractor that did his, and the guy who consulted on mine both floated a new, thin layer of concrete over the original layer to smooth and level it out. This is also the surface they scored for the "tile" look. It let them deal with all the imperfections in the original floor. Especially in older houses, it was assumed you would have some sort of floor covering over the concrete, and I have seen epoxy, paint spills, all sorts of things under original carpet. Im no expert either, but I put myself through college framing homes, and I have done a couple of these floors. I'd do it again in a heartbeat, in fact, were looking at doing in our house now. Im not sure about the adhesion of the new surface over the older one, wondered about it when we had it done, but I was assured there would be no problems, and I lived in the house for 5 years without an issue. My buddies house is now 3 years old and he also has no issues.