Botched concrete job

[PNWguy]

Short version:
Is there any reason to not use a self leveling concrete to fix a terrible finish job on a house, garage and shop concrete floor?

Is it strong enough and abrasion resistant enough for a shop? Nice enough for my living room floor (no floor coverings, just bare concrete)?

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Long version:

I'm building a slab on grade house & shop. I'll be doing most of the work myself, but hired a contractor to frame it and manage the concrete pour. I let the contractor pick the concrete guys, and gave him the OK after the three of us met.

The forms were done correctly and block work was great. I did my own fill and compaction, as well as under slab plumbing, vapor barrier, insulation and Pex for radiant.

Concrete crew returned for rebar and the pour. Again, everything went well. Except for the finishing crew. The floor looks like ***.

It was 100% clear from day one that the floors in the house are my finished floors. Bare concrete, probably polished, sealed and/or dyed. As they started troweling, everybody was reminded again that it was the finished floor, and was to be "glass smooth".

There are tons of trowel marks, marks where the trowel picked up a rock or dried concrete and scraped the floor. There are even boot prints. Parts of it are beautiful, and parts of it are "the apprentice got high on his first day and finished the job while everybody was at lunch".

This is a good concrete crew, and I'm assuming the owner is going to stand behind his work. Everybody has a bad day now and then - it's what happens next that matters.

I've talked to the contractor but not the concrete guy. His suggestion is a layer of self leveling concrete after we frame up the walls.

My concerns are about durability for the shop - I'll be doing automotive and metal fab work. And the concrete is the finished floor in the house. Can I dye it, seal it and such?

Thoughts?

 

[SALIV8]

Would tile work? That stinks. Sorry to hear.

 

[kd3pc]

I am with ssdave, epoxy or serious grinding for the "look" OR tile.

I would definitely let the concrete guy know that this work was not what was agreed to and he should chip in $$$ on the solution (epoxy, grinding or tile)

 

[PNWguy]

When it comes to trying to fix the appearance of poorly finished concrete, anything short of covering it with something else usually looks worse than the initial defects. Self-leveling compound won't work well in a shop, it will spall eventually. I'd just live with it, or epoxy coat it. In the house, I'd recommend grinding to exposed aggregate/terrazo look. Or upgrade to tile. Dyeing, sealing, etc in the house will work, but it won't cover up the troweling and marks.

Thanks SS Dave. Sounds like you have a few decades of concrete experience, and I appreciate the info.

I'm curious why you say to not do self leveling, when the manufacturers of the product claim it's good for warehouse floors, big box stores, etc. My living room will receive less traffic & wear that anything commercial, it it sounded like a good solution.

Is it a case of pro grade vs Home Dept self leveling mix? Marketing hype vs reality?

 

[PNWguy]

I am with ssdave, epoxy or serious grinding for the "look" OR tile.

I would definitely let the concrete guy know that this work was not what was agreed to and he should chip in $$$ on the solution (epoxy, grinding or tile)

I'm not going with tile, as I don't want to deal with cleaning grout lines. I might be convinced to put an engineered hardwood over the concrete (there's radiant heat in the slab, so I can't put down real wood).

I live alone with no dogs or kids, and low maintenance is one of my main goals. I'd rather be in the shop than cleaning house. My slab is 84' x 40' and only 21' of the 84 is for living space.

 

[bigman68]

You can achieve what you are looking for with a Self-Leveling compound, start here Ardex is the Cadillac of Self-Leveling compounds:

https://www.ardexamericas.com/products/pandomo/

 

[e36jon]

I am looking at using self-levelling for a project and all of the brands state that the surface of their product is not meant to be the primary wear surface.

It's as strong or stronger than the base concrete in compression, so applying tile or some other wear surface over it will work fine. In fact, you can tile most of these the same day you put them down (!).

For the record I am just a home owner that hasn't actually used any of these yet, just been doing a lot of reading.

Good luck!

 

[matt_i]

Grind it! A crew setup for terrazzo will have all of the right tools. You probably don't have to go that crazy on it.

Was it steel troweled multiple times?

I have a few skip marks (chatter) every once in awhile but this is the shop and I can barely tell where anymore. The defects were more pronounced when the concrete was more grey. Now that its faded into more white color its a lot less noticeable.

 

[PNWguy]

Grind it! A crew setup for terrazzo will have all of the right tools. You probably don't have to go that crazy on it.

Was it steel troweled multiple times?

I have a few skip marks (chatter) every once in awhile but this is the shop and I can barely tell where anymore. The defects were more pronounced when the concrete was more grey. Now that its faded into more white color its a lot less noticeable.

Grinding is an option. I'm not sure if there's a crew here that's any good at it, but there might be in the next county.

Lots of power troweling. The only guy on hands and knees with a small trowel was working the edges, and near pipes coming up through the floor. His work was also crappy.

And to be clear, this isn't just a few trowel marks in my shop. This is deep trowel marks in my living room and even boot prints/impressions in the bathroom. I paid for "glass smooth" and we all knew it is my finished floor in my house. The shop is actually better than the house in most spots. My entire bathroom floor looks like 80 grit sandpaper, trowel marks and boot prints. I've never done concrete, and I'm pretty damn sure I could have done the bathroom better than this. Since it was such a large slab (40 x 84) and I wanted it to be be really smooth and nice, I knew it was way outside my skill level.

 

[DustynBeardface]

I worked in a converted industrial space where the floors were bare concrete, they originally had massive chunks missing, embedded steel that was cut flush and grinded smooth, and lots of other defects.

The floors were filled where necessary and everything was ground smooth, dyed, and sealed and they looked great. I'm sure yours can be fixed after seeing that.

 

[ConCretin]

I wouldn't go the self leveling route. For one thing it's not really self leveling. It takes skill to apply and it's not going to be the glass smooth finish you were looking for. In addition, I doubt it will bond the to the areas they did get smooth.

If the floor is flat and the major issue is trowel marks, I'd grind and polish it.

 

[PugetDude]

Tell your contractor to tear it out while it's still green and get a different crew in to re-do it. You didn't get what you paid for. It will bug you as long as you live there, especially when you're sitting on the toilet staring at it...

 

[PNWguy]

I wouldn't go the self leveling route. For one thing it's not really self leveling. It takes skill to apply and it's not going to be the glass smooth finish you were looking for. In addition, I doubt it will bond the to the areas they did get smooth.

If the floor is flat and the major issue is trowel marks, I'd grind and polish it.

Thanks LLWillysfan; I was hoping to hear your opinion as well.

I wanted a different answer, but the guys with decades of experience are saying to not self level. I'll discuss grind & polish with them.

 

[PNWguy]

Concrete guy showed up and let me know that it was better than he expected it to be.

It seems that he failed to tell me that it's not possible to do a quality finish on a floor with a vapor barrier and 2" of EPX. I'm calling ********, but it's down to a lawsuit or nothing.

This was the guy with the best reputation in my area. Unbelievable.

 

[Miss the Pontiacs]

My buddy had a terrible pour on his garage floor. The contractor was willing to repour but would not pay to have tubing replaced for the in floor heating.
The solution was as others mentioned to grind and the contractor sprung for a Polyaspartic floor. Looks great.

 

[nadogail]

Good Luck with your floor problem, I hope you can reach a mutually agreeable solution with your contractor.

 

[PNWguy]

My buddy had a terrible pour on his garage floor. The contractor was willing to repour but would not pay to have tubing replaced for the in floor heating.
The solution was as others mentioned to grind and the contractor sprung for a Polyaspartic floor. Looks great.

I have $4,000 to $5,000 in insulation, Pex, vapor barrier, rough plumbing etc.
Digging it up isn't an option, and he doesn't want to pay for grinding.

I'll look into grinding it myself, but I may just have to live with it.