I recently ripped out some old (probably original) tiles in a basement room of my 1950 rancher. After using an adhesive remover and doing a lot of scraping, there is still a significant amount of old adhesive residue on top of the concrete. Is there any way I can safely refinish or paint this floor, or do I have to lay down new floor covering?
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1. Floor scraper. Just saw a nice one at Lowes.
2. Angle grinder with a flat or cupped diamond blade.
3. Shot blaster. Can rent a setup for about $500 a day. Usually includes a recycling dust collector.
4. Concrete scarifier. Leaves a ground out mark like you see on the highways where they have scrapped off a previous layer of marking paint.
5. Floor polisher with a diamond screen, maybe a carbide one depending on your problem.
6. And I saw a rentable floor polisher/grinder/leveler with various blade attachments up thru carbides and diamonds at the local paint store.
Note these ceement grinding machines make enormous clouds of dust. Prepare yourself.
I once used method #5, only with water and tsp for prep work for acid staining, it came out real nice.
Tell us more about what you did.
Where did you get the equipment? Cost? What problems did you encounter? How long ago did you do it? Tips for the OP?
Rented the equipment, don't remember costs, Haven't done acid staining in about a year. I have done sveral floors before that. All with more than satisfactory results. Acid staining is not for everyone. The results cannot be gauranteed as far as color consistancy. if your ok with that and have an artist in you that's dying to get out, not affraid of a little hard work, and have a couple of good helpers, then maybe acid staining could be in your future. If you would like to find out more, use your search engines. If you've decided to go with it and you get stuck then you probably you could post post a distress call on this forum and receive a lot of help. Good luck.
What Pete said, but nix on the dust clouds. 1950's cutback flooring adhesive contains asbestos. Wear protection. Wet scraping followed by wet screening sound safest from here. Don't want to poop the party, but it has to be said.
Bill
Omah has some good points.
Note that the condition of your ceement after all of this prep work may not really be what you have in mind to start painting or staining.
The use of a shotblaster will result in some disturbing differences of surface erosion. Technique and the ability to handle the machine is most critical. Not to mention what a newby with an angle grinder can do.
OTOH, some places may be fine and just a few spots need some aggressive work, causing surface damage in a few spots. Or some contaminant won't allow the paint/epoxy bond to form.
But if wanting to stain, you gotta have some pretty stable and uniform surfacing.
There are various forms of "microtoppings" that can be put on old concrete to address the previous two paragraphs. Some come in quite runny formulations, others rather stiff - depending upon what you're working. Since these come in two parts and have to be mixed to manufacturers specs, one has to select the proper material in the first place.
But a microtopping may be useful since they can be custom tinted, sanded or smooth, as well as applied in a variety of techniques, all whatever your designer thinks would do you best. (Knockdown, orange peel, skip- or any trowled pattern, hvlp, broom, squeege, etc.) These microtoppings are portland based and can also be stained. Once stained, glazes, additives and clear epoxies can create stunning effects.
So if you screw up in the floor refinishing, a cure for your error may lie with one of these.
If using epoxy, note that 100% solids stuff has little or no odor. The cheep stuff will make your house smell like a meth lab. Epoxy itself is best laid in several layers and builds up the low spots nicely. So after 4 or more coats, it's feeling a bit like vinyl and looking quite smooth. Follow manufacturers instructions and formulas closely. Be prepared for using more than you expect. For my 220 sq ft shop, so far I've gone thru 9 gallons due to buildup and screwups. I still will need another 4 to 6 before I'm done.
Keep your mixture of epoxies in small batches until you know how much and how fast you can spread. Epoxies cure faster at higher temps and they themselves are generating heat from their chemical reactions going on, thus exponentially increasing cure times - when allowed to be concentrated within a container. So when you mix a batch, pour the whole can out on the floor - in a pattern that you can easily work without having to pull a bunch across the room. Use a steel trowel or 3/16" notched tile trowel, depending which coat you're on and how ruff the surface is. Rollers (foam) work well to give a even coat (as long as the roller doesn't shed lint). But early coats are commonly not needed to be smooth, but more to fill in spots, thus the trowel. Those retangular floor sanders from Home Desperate Rentals ($$) do a nice job of getting the surface smooth betwixt coats. You cannot vacuum or sweep enough between coats, believe me. Use or get a good Fein dust collector. Dust and small hairs seem to be attracted to wet epoxy floors. Not to mention the inability to completely vacuum all of the shot left over from the shotblasting experience. Its everywhere!
I like these guys: http://www.miracote.com