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Basement Floor
12 May 2012 03:31 pmI've got a 90 yr old house that needs some TLC. At present, I'm deliberating on the basement floor. It's seen much better days. Depending on who you talk to, there are many solutions.
First the floor must be sealed. It currently has oil paint in patches, some kind of red primer which wipes off with various cleaners, epoxy patches, but mostly nothing at all.
I thought about epoxy painting the whole thing. Drawbacks: apparently if you ever want to tile later, the adhesive won't stick to epoxy. You also can't add radiant heat later on. If you do plan to epoxy, the floor needs to be tested for moisture first. And at some point later on, I'm thinking cork floor.
I made the mistake of inquiring at a hardware store that doesn't sell coatings and they told me to use oil paint. High traffic area. Paint rubbed off except in one corner. Still miffed at these supposed experts. Waste of time and energy. That was ten years ago.
Thompson's seal for concrete. This looks like the best option and you can even add a colored stain for decoration. However, the floor needs to be pure unadultered concrete. No goofy coatings that have been added over time. Bummer.
So I saw this HGTV show where a guy rented a masonry floor polisher and took all the junk off the floor. I'm thinking that might work. Any ideas? I asked Google today and got very little help.
First the floor must be sealed. It currently has oil paint in patches, some kind of red primer which wipes off with various cleaners, epoxy patches, but mostly nothing at all.
I thought about epoxy painting the whole thing. Drawbacks: apparently if you ever want to tile later, the adhesive won't stick to epoxy. You also can't add radiant heat later on. If you do plan to epoxy, the floor needs to be tested for moisture first. And at some point later on, I'm thinking cork floor.
I made the mistake of inquiring at a hardware store that doesn't sell coatings and they told me to use oil paint. High traffic area. Paint rubbed off except in one corner. Still miffed at these supposed experts. Waste of time and energy. That was ten years ago.
Thompson's seal for concrete. This looks like the best option and you can even add a colored stain for decoration. However, the floor needs to be pure unadultered concrete. No goofy coatings that have been added over time. Bummer.
So I saw this HGTV show where a guy rented a masonry floor polisher and took all the junk off the floor. I'm thinking that might work. Any ideas? I asked Google today and got very little help.
