Anyone ever paint or stain their concrete floor?

[StephMK]

When you remove the tack strips that hold the carpet down, you will have a whole lot of holes to repair. It is hard to get them out, so you damage the concrete. And if you have any cracks in the slab, you want to repair that as well.

Our house got flooded with about two inches of water. Part of the renovation was removing the carpet. Since we have a possibility of getting flooded again and we have pets, we didnt' want any more carpet. We removed the tack strips to help save money for the floor installation. It was a booger to do, but the flooring contractor did all the repairs and sealing before he installed the ceramic tile and wood.

Our basement got flooded and we also have to pull up all the carpet. For the tack strips, I used a flat head tile shovel. Angle it under the strips, push under, and keep going down the strip. They popped out much easier than when I was trying to loosen them out with a screwdriver!

We are also looking for some type of hard surface or painted floor. We plan to put down area rugs in the places where the kids hang out.

 

[branv]

I do have to post this funny (well not to the home owner) story I read in an article about staining concrete. Like a PP said, you do have to grind down the glue that is put down to hold the carpet you remove. But, that glue can leave staining behind, so you really have to make sure you're grinding it down enough. One woman scraped off the glue, cleaned the floor, and started the staining process. Only then did she learn that whoever had put the carpet down had written dirty words with the glue. She found out when the stain darkened more on those spots. Surprise! She had to bring in professionals to start from scratch. Apparently they had to really, really really work to get to a point where that wouldn't show.

Incidentally, I know our back porch concrete looks perfectly smooth. But when it gets wet, you can see where the installer scratched in some initials with what I'm guessing was a nail. It's so minute, it doesn't even create visible ridges when dry. Just..wet it down and voila!