Repainting a Concrete Floor?

August 18, 2010 9:09 AM

How do I successfully paint and seal my concrete basement floor?

After an accidental water incident, we had to pull up the old carpet and found painted concrete floor.

It's a lovely adobe red but someone spray painted something over it and left a black outline of what they painted.

The floor can be washed with Palmolive soap and doesn't lift and rubbing alcohol does lift it--so I'm assuming it is latex?

I cannot find a definitive answer as to how to go about repainting the floor and then sealing it in some fashion.

Please share your experience with repainting concrete floor and how you made your floor long-lastingly beautiful.

posted by AuntieRuth to home & garden (2 answers total)

You need to get the old paint off. This may be as easy as paint remover or as difficult as a diamond floor refinisher (rent it). You then want to lightly etch it, then wash it thoroughly to prepare the surface for paint once again. Then you can go two routes: epoxy, or stain-then-seal. Epoxy has the advantage of being done with quickly, but your colour choices are somewhat limited. Concrete staining can take many forms from simple colours to very nifty patterns, after which a clear coating is added. Epoxy will be cheaper and quicker, so if your basement is just a storage area you probably want to go with that. Stained concrete can be beautiful, but can be expensive if you hire it out. (It can be fun to do your own staining; putting a single colour down then using a rolled towel to layer additional colours on top results in a really nice faux stone.)

Important for best results: do not use any product not specifically designed for concrete floors.
posted by seanmpuckett at 9:22 AM on August 18, 2010

Thanks seanmpuckett, I guess no one else is into this subject right now.

I guess I was in denial about having to take the old paint off. It's a very big room so I think I'm going to have to do something else. Thanks for your help.
posted by AuntieRuth at 5:00 AM on August 19, 2010