CLEANING, STAINING, SEALING CONCRETE FLOORS
We are in an Eichler condo in San Francisco. We have removed most of the carpeting and we are about to clean up our radiant-heated concrete floors, stain them and seal them (we have paint adhered to the concrete and quite a bit of residue from disintegrated carpet padding). Has anyone out there completed or considered such a project who would have any suggestions as to what kind of cleaners to use, if any, with what to fill the holes, etching, grinding, etc? :(
We are about to bead-blast our floor in preparation for application of dex-o-tex. We have been told it is the best way to remove the mastik. I will reply with the results after it is completed.
search for "mastic" or "adhesive" - there is a good thread on this
good luck
There is a great deal of information on concrete floors at
www dot concretenetwork dot com.
You can find alot of information and they also have links to local contractors. When we looked into this, the cost to have someone beadblast the floors was around $2500 for our 1800 sq. ft. home.
S
Anyone interested in removing, cleaning and then staining/coloring your concrete floors should check out the trials and tribulations experienced by the Whole Foods market on Homer St. in Palo Alto. A few years ago the store had marmoleum (linoleum) tiles installed on their concrete floors. The tiles lifted up from water and ground down from wear, so recently the flooring was all removed. The adhesive was removed as much as possible, I think by scraping, then a thin layer of self-leveling compound was put on in places. The entire floor was colored, after drying, by applying a thin layer of stain - looks like it was somehow troweled on.... Looked great... But, after only a week, in places the compound is lifting up exposing the concrete.
Perhaps it would be prudent to contact them about the process before committing to something like that in your homes.
I have heard good things from Eichler owners about this mastic remover
