Posts Tagged ‘concrete’
Installation and Refinishing Concrete Floor Project: Tips and Tricks That Save Time and Money
Here are useful tips learned during more than 40 years of installing epoxy urethane floor seals and coatings on Fortune 500 company concrete floors, as well as in basements, garages, and decks. These tips can help you avoid mistakes that can limit the life of your floor.
There are three broad steps to doing your floor project: planning and preparation, repairing, and applying the coating. This article is the third in a three part series, and deals with applying the epoxy paint to the floor.
General guidelines for applying an epoxy coating to your floor:
Do no harm.
Investing in preparation produces the most years of service.
Let the chemicals and equipment do the work.
What can go wrong, will go wrong, unless you think ahead.
Technique is what separates mortals from Rembrandts.
An once of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Now let’s get started with tips on how to coat your floor with an epoxy or urethane floor paint.
Plan the job.
Good floor prep is key to a long lasting floor.
Take a break.
Mix 200 strokes.
Easy work makes for a better job
No one is perfect
Don’t worry about tricks of gravity
A rag may not save you
Technique, technique, technique.
A Concrete Grinder
There are many different types of concrete grinders on the market. What you plan to do with a concrete grinder will have a lot to do with whether you need one and how you will use it.
A concrete grinder is used for a number of reasons such as removing things like paint spills, glue, imperfections in concrete work, smoothing uneven surfaces, removing formwork seams or protrusions. Each concrete grinder has built-in features and can be used for some or any of the above applications. One of the most important features to look for when deciding to purchase or use a concrete grinder is a dust collector or vacuum. The reason this is so important is because you will lessen the amount of dust you are breathing in and have less mess after the job is completed, making clean up a lot quicker. Most models should have a dust collector, even small hand held concrete grinders.
Some of the types of concrete grinders available are:
*Shrouded concrete grinder with vacuum. This particular grinder is used for cleaning of planning and removal of glues and paints from concrete work. It is also ideal for smoothing uneven surfaces. The three different sizes available are 5, 7 and 10 inch models. A dust vacuum is used to stop dust and help remove debris while you are working.
*Heavy-duty grinders. 7-inch heavy duty angle grinders for concrete applications are made especially for concrete work. They are mainly used for removing blemishes or cleaning the concrete surface. Make sure there is a dust collection device included with the model.
Concrete Paint
Many home owners report that their concrete does not look as good as it first did, and indeed some concrete looses its looks and become cracked and dimples and rust stains. This look damages the house look and many find it to be plain ugly, the solutions that people apply to this problem is usually covering the whole concrete surface with different thing, mattress and clothes from all materials, but covering the concrete does not solve the problem just provides a temporary solution you need to remove once it starts raining.
The real solution for this problem is using concrete paint. You can use concrete paint to cover the whole surface and make it look completely different, the paint will help you change the look and you can also add some sand to the paint to help prevent problems like slipping or falling on the concrete because of water or cracks, the paint will make these problems disappear.
Whenever talking about changing or replacing concrete we are talking about an expensive work that will almost surely take some time and effort that might disturb the family living in the house for some time, this is why the concrete problems should first try to be solved by a quicker and simpler solutions, the concrete paint solution is much shorter and easier than redoing the whole area of the concrete. The only thing you need to do is visit a shop and decide on the color that you want, buy the other necessary things for this project, find some free time and paint your concrete.