TomTheEngineer
Member
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2015
- Messages
- 16
As I slowly work on finishing my shop, the most recent task at hand was to apply a sealer to the concrete floor that was poured in the middle of August. I did a lot of research and prep work for the job and so far, I think it paid off.
The slab was just over 3400ft². The finishers used a combination of walk behind power trowels and a ride on trowel so the result was a pretty smooth surface.
First step was to clean up all the concrete dust from when they saw cut the slab. I used my shop vac to get the worst of it, but there was still residue. I tried mopping, which worked, but ultimately was extremely inefficient (as soon as you rinsed the mop once, the water was full of concrete dust, which you just then spread around with subsequent mopping). I decided to rent a ride on floor scrubber over Labor Day weekend and that was a brilliant idea. Total cost to me was less than $200 and I was able to clean the floor way better than with a mop.
I did a lot of research on DIY finishes and decided on the ConcreteSealersUSA TS210 product. I had originally planned on just doing a densifier/sealer, but I liked the way the wet floor looked while I was cleaning it, so I wanted something with a little bit of shine. I went with the matte finish based on some photos posted here and the slip resistance.
I bought 18" rollers covers and a nice telescoping Purdy roller frame/handle as well as a couple of 18 paint trays. While I was at Menards, I saw their paint mixing buckets were incredibly cheap, so I picked up some of those as well (a good call). Finding a 1/4 inch nap microfiber roller at the home centers proved a challenge, so I ended up getting these from Zoro:
I took one of my Roombas out there and let it run all week - turns out they have a square footage limit, but it managed to get most of the area vacuumed over seven days. We had damp, wet weather all week, but Friday was supposed to be sunny, in the 70s, and dry, so I took it off of work. Thursday night, I microfiber mopped the whole building and emptied it of anything that would get in my way.
I started early Friday morning. 6am, I was mixing the first coat. Because the concrete seemed pretty dense, I went with the suggested diluted first coat. It rolled on easy and was going A LOT farther than I expected. The material calculator on their website said I'd need 3.5-4.5 gallons per coat, so I bought three, four gallon kits. I ended up making about 3.5 gallons of the 1:1 diluted solution and used most of it.
First coat took me three hours. I took a break, did some work, ate lunch, and then at noon I started the second coat. This time, full strength. I ended up using 1.5 gallons on that coat and it took about two hours. Took another break to get all the mowing done and at 7pm, it was very slightly tacky where I had finished, but I went ahead with the third coat. Once again I used about 1.5 gallons and did the third coat in two hours. The weather for Saturday was to be cooler and rainy, and I wanted to do one more coat so it would be another early start. The fourth coat Saturday morning again took about 1.5 gallons and I had it done in two hours. The rain started about an hour after I finished and the increased humidity impacted drying time considerably. When I checked it roughly 6 hours after I had finished, it was still pretty tacky. Went out and checked it this morning before sunrise and it was nice and dry.
I've got a little less than 6 gallons remaining and no further plans for additional coats. Not sure why it went so much further than their calculator suggested, all I can figure is I was putting on layers that were much more thin than typical.
I am very happy with how it looks. It's cooler and humid all week, so I will probably give it a week before I start moving stuff into the building just to make sure it's fully cured and I don't scratch it.
Hoping it holds up well, I have a lot more work to do in the shop and will be rolling around in there on a scissor lift most of this winter while I insulate everything, so the coating will be getting a real workout.
The slab was just over 3400ft². The finishers used a combination of walk behind power trowels and a ride on trowel so the result was a pretty smooth surface.
First step was to clean up all the concrete dust from when they saw cut the slab. I used my shop vac to get the worst of it, but there was still residue. I tried mopping, which worked, but ultimately was extremely inefficient (as soon as you rinsed the mop once, the water was full of concrete dust, which you just then spread around with subsequent mopping). I decided to rent a ride on floor scrubber over Labor Day weekend and that was a brilliant idea. Total cost to me was less than $200 and I was able to clean the floor way better than with a mop.
I did a lot of research on DIY finishes and decided on the ConcreteSealersUSA TS210 product. I had originally planned on just doing a densifier/sealer, but I liked the way the wet floor looked while I was cleaning it, so I wanted something with a little bit of shine. I went with the matte finish based on some photos posted here and the slip resistance.
I bought 18" rollers covers and a nice telescoping Purdy roller frame/handle as well as a couple of 18 paint trays. While I was at Menards, I saw their paint mixing buckets were incredibly cheap, so I picked up some of those as well (a good call). Finding a 1/4 inch nap microfiber roller at the home centers proved a challenge, so I ended up getting these from Zoro:
I took one of my Roombas out there and let it run all week - turns out they have a square footage limit, but it managed to get most of the area vacuumed over seven days. We had damp, wet weather all week, but Friday was supposed to be sunny, in the 70s, and dry, so I took it off of work. Thursday night, I microfiber mopped the whole building and emptied it of anything that would get in my way.
I started early Friday morning. 6am, I was mixing the first coat. Because the concrete seemed pretty dense, I went with the suggested diluted first coat. It rolled on easy and was going A LOT farther than I expected. The material calculator on their website said I'd need 3.5-4.5 gallons per coat, so I bought three, four gallon kits. I ended up making about 3.5 gallons of the 1:1 diluted solution and used most of it.
First coat took me three hours. I took a break, did some work, ate lunch, and then at noon I started the second coat. This time, full strength. I ended up using 1.5 gallons on that coat and it took about two hours. Took another break to get all the mowing done and at 7pm, it was very slightly tacky where I had finished, but I went ahead with the third coat. Once again I used about 1.5 gallons and did the third coat in two hours. The weather for Saturday was to be cooler and rainy, and I wanted to do one more coat so it would be another early start. The fourth coat Saturday morning again took about 1.5 gallons and I had it done in two hours. The rain started about an hour after I finished and the increased humidity impacted drying time considerably. When I checked it roughly 6 hours after I had finished, it was still pretty tacky. Went out and checked it this morning before sunrise and it was nice and dry.
I've got a little less than 6 gallons remaining and no further plans for additional coats. Not sure why it went so much further than their calculator suggested, all I can figure is I was putting on layers that were much more thin than typical.
I am very happy with how it looks. It's cooler and humid all week, so I will probably give it a week before I start moving stuff into the building just to make sure it's fully cured and I don't scratch it.
Hoping it holds up well, I have a lot more work to do in the shop and will be rolling around in there on a scissor lift most of this winter while I insulate everything, so the coating will be getting a real workout.
