acid etching

[sjsfire]

I moved into a new house 3 years ago. To make a long story short (I hope) the concrete guys that poured my floor left me with the ugliest concrete floor in 5 states. Plus they had to come back and repour part of it (after a lot of bitching) because they didn't cut a control joint where they should have and I got a crack six months after moving in. Fast forward to today, I'm getting ready to coat my floor with the H&C tintable sealer in a medium gray. I've been testing the muratic acid etching and the sealer they put on wouldn't come off in some places. Talk about a sick feeling, now my garge floor is the worst. I stopped by a rental place and they have a concrete grinder with the tungston blades that should strip off the old sealer and it looks like it gives the concrete a nice profile for recoating. It felt like 120 grit sandpaper They actually have a 2x2ft area in the garage bay to show customers what it looks like after the job is done.........Whew!! $60 for a half day-$100 for the full day. What a relief! I think I'll reach my goal of having my floor done by Memorial Day weekend when my son graduates from High School. Pictures will come

 

[RickP330]

Allot of people here are also doing shot blasting, but for 100 bucks for the day how can you go wrong. How did you come to choose the tintable sealer? I am doing my floor soon, I'm going to try the urethane epoxy route.
Rick

 

[sjsfire]

By accident mainly. I was there checking out some 2 part epoxy and the manager shows me this stuff. He was up from another store and told me he has a buddy in another town that does concrete floor sealing for a living. The guy does industrial plants and some auto dealerships. It's about $60 a gallon at last years price which is comparable to epoxy. It can be tinted something like 50+ colors, no pot life so you can close the can up and open it up and start using it the next day. He said it has a three year shelf life. Prep is basically the same if you were using epoxy. If it's good enough for a industrial setting it ought to last a hell of a long time in my garage. I can't remember the web sight but if you Google H&C concrete sealer you should find their site. Someone else on this site used it too....you might search H&C on this board.