Tough Wearing Concrete Floor

We continue to make progress on the mudroom and this week we finished up a crucial milestone - the floor.  We want something really, really durable.  We're assuming this will be the primary entrance for the owners.  So while this is the door to come through every time they arrive home, it will also be the one they use to come back up from the beach - with sandy feet and paws!  And sand really takes its toll on a floor.

So, we called Dave from Concrete Prescriptions and asked his advice.  He suggested we acid etch the floor.  It gives a mottled, marbleized look with a high gloss finish.  This is the first time we've tried this approach, so I was really curious to see how it was done.

First step, the entire surface needs to be ground down to remove the top layer of concrete.  This will allow the surface to be more uniform and porous - much better to absorb the acid & dye!  Dave uses a diamond wheel for grinding and quickly had a bucket full of concrete dust that was vacuumed off the surface.



Once the grinding is complete, the area is masked off and he was ready to start!

Here's what it looks like after the acid etch step.  I have to admit, I was a bit underwhelmed.  But Dave assured me the color really comes up during the glazing process.  

But before that, he adds a caramel colored dye.  With an acetone base, it dries quickly and we start to see the mottled effect.  

Dave let the entire floor cure for a few days.  It's important for it to be completely dry, otherwise the final glaze will have a milky appearance.

The unglazed floor is pretty cool looking.  I really like the mottled colors.  That will help give it that marbleized appearance.














And the finished floor looks great!  It's got a nice sheen (all the contractors that start to walk through think that it's still wet!) that adds to the depth of the finish.  It's an urban, industrial kind of look.  And best of all, it's ready to take any kind of abuse the new owners can give it.

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