Anyone ever paint or stain their concrete floor?

[curlyjbs]

The new puppy has destroyed the only carpet in our home. He has chewed and ripped it up in so many spots it's just not worth keeping. The room with the carpet is on a concrete slab. Since this has to be a DIY, I don't want to tackle tiling so I thought I would just paint/stain the floor.
Has anyone done this? Is it hard? Should I try it or just go with linoleum or something?

~C

 

[wiigirl]

We stained part of our basement when we moved in. It was reletively easy yet permanant.

You might look into synthetic wood flooring, it just snaps together and you can easily replace peices if damaged. Thats what we eneded up doing.

Also there was no glueing it down, that glue is hard to scrape up!

 

[set1208]

My husband owns a business that does this and it's fairly simple and you have a lot of color options. You can put an epoxy coating over it for durability. Go for it!! If it doesn't work, you always have the option of recarpeting.

 

[Viva Las Disney]

I've done all types of flooring in my house and concrete paint (epoxy) in my garage.

I think your best solution is to use self stick laminate tiles. These are peel and stick tiles with a sticky back that you literally just stick to the concrete. They are 100% do it yourself and cheap compared to wood or tile. One of the things I love about these tiles is if one gets damaged you can peel it up with a knife and just stick a new one in it's place which makes it super easy to maintain. It will look like a finished floor and be comfortable to walk on.

They make special epoxy paint for floors but it goes on just like thick regular paint, regular paint won't last with walking on it so if you decide to paint you'd need floor paint. It's as easy to do as painting but also requires you to acid wash your floor first or it won't stick, make sure you open all your windows and doors when you do the acid or the epoxy because they both have strong harsh smells. My biggest concern with this is it's not very nice to your feet, you might have to wear shoes in your house all the time.

Doing the laminate wood flooring is pretty easy but with a puppy in the house I would advice against it unless he is fully house trained, it will absorb liquid so after a few months of accidents it will start to cup and smell.

Tile really is the best long term solution with a dog in the house but it requires a tile saw to do it properly and is a lot of work. It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be but it was very time consuming and back breaking. I think it took me 3 full weekends to tile my basement floor and a few more weekends for my back to recover.

I think you would really like the self stick tile, there are hundreds of styles, it's easy to apply, and the result is a comfortable finished floor.

 

[LMN]

We ripped out our carpet a few years back. It was 13 yrs old, original to the house and disgusting! We stained the concrete in the living, formal dining and hallway to the kids rooms. We love it and are so glad we did it! We are so glad to be rid of that nasty carpet. We did the staining ourselves and we are not DIY type people (just people on a budget). It was hard work and took longer than we thought, but was worth it. You'll need to rent a sander to sand down the glue from the carpet and make the concrete smooth. You also have to patch all the nail holes that will be left after you rip the carpet out. We put down acid to prepare the floor to accept the stain and then several coats of stain. Be prepared for a ton of dust in your house from the sanding! We found dust even in rooms that were not near where we were working! Good luck!

 

[curlyjbs]

Hmmmmmmm. I'm a little intimidated by this project. The carpeted room is "the kids room". It's like a 2nd den that opens to the yard and pool. It's only 4 years old and the carpet is just tacked on the edges - no glue so I'm hoping we only have to remove it, vacuum the area and start.....

Cost is the other issue. Now's not the best time to spend $$$ so I guess I'll have to price compare the choices.

Vinyl tiles? Sheets? Planks? Fake wood? My head is spinning!

Off to Home Depot/Lowes to see what they have.....

Thanks for all the ideas!!
Wish me luck!!!

 

[Deb & Bill]

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.

 

[seashoreCM]

Concrete should not be left bare because it gives off dust or white powder or sand as time goes on (although not if you don't keep touching let alone walking on it.)

Meanwhile some kinds of paint and even some kinds of epoxy can leave the basement floor unusually slippery.

Wood or carpet is usually not that great directly on a concrete basement floor because moisture, sometimes from the ground underneath, sometimes from condensation out of the atmosphere in the basement, gets underneath and leads to rot and/or mildew.

 

[beancounter93]

We pulled old carpet out of our finished basement due to a leak that had flooded the basement. We simply bought the concrete non-slip paint at lowes ( has slight grit to it so it's not slick, but you can still walk on it barefoot and not notice). They had 30+ colors you could choose from and we simply rolled it on and it looks good as is.

 

[Kies99]

You might look into synthetic wood flooring, it just snaps together and you can easily replace peices if damaged. Thats what we eneded up doing.

Also there was no glueing it down, that glue is hard to scrape up!

I'd suggest a floating wood floor like this. SUPER simple to put in and it'll look so much nicer than a painted floor. Mine are real wood, but they make synthetic wood and laminates that look just as nice.

Here's a link to what I did: http://mattkieslingsblog-o-rama.blogspot.com/

Scroll down to the January 11, 2010 post and the December 7, 2009 post to get an idea (click on pictures to enlarge).

I could have put a subfloor padding down, but didn't. No glue and all straight cuts. Looks fantastic and have had no issues with various family members dogs on it.

 

[Robbi]

OP, we have wood and ceramic throughout the house except for the playroom. We had vinyl wood planks installed because of the kids. It's held up beautifully. Lowes has planks that are about $1/sq ft. It's very easy to install.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

Anyone ever paint or stain their concrete floor?

On purpose or by accident?

 

[OhhBother]

We have stained concrete in our home, but we didn't do it. It's new construction, and those were the floors the builder installed. They're absolutely gorgeous and so easy to clean. My allergies have been non-existent since moving in -- I'm never going back to carpet!

 

[TheRustyScupper]

We have stained concrete in our home, but we didn't do it. It's new construction, and those were the floors the builder installed. They're absolutely gorgeous and so easy to clean. My allergies have been non-existent since moving in -- I'm never going back to carpet!

1) Just curious.
2) Was this in lieu of tiled floors in a ranch house? (eg. Terrazzo)
3) Also, did they run heating hose through the concrete for cooler weather?

 

[d1gitman]

Are you looking for a short term fix to the ruined carpet or something that you will live with for several years? it sounds as if once the puppy is trained that your flooring needs may change again?

if it were me and it was simply teh puppy issue, then i'd epoxy paint the floor (surface prep is the most important step) for the short term. then when the puppy is trained, look at flooring options.

 

[Aliceacc]

Keep in mind: concrete is cold and it's hard.

If it's a kid's den in New Jersey, so both of those issues will come into play.

Personally I would choose to put something over it-- tile or linoleum or something. How about wood look porcelian tile: http://www.builddirect.com/Porcelain-Tile/Sonoma-Palm/ProductDisplay_6933_p1_10079749.aspx

or vinyl tile: http://www.lowes.com/pd_44729-61-A3500061_4294773819__?productId=1087119&Ns=p_product_price|0

 

[lucigo]

My son wanted something different in his room so we used a brown floor paint and then they have flecks you can sprinkle on while still wet and they stick to the floor and create a pattern. It looked pretty good. Later when my husband wanted the room for an office we put down peel and stick groutable vinyl tiles. Super easy to install, can be cut with an xacto knife or scissors, only $0.99 each and with the grout they look like "real" tile yet not as hard on the feet. Very durable and have held up quite well.

 

[seashoreCM]

The main reason for filling cracks in a basement floor slab is cosmetic. If you have a water problem (fortunately not everyone has), the water is going to come up somewhere anyway even if you fill the cracks.

I started by painting my basement floor to prevent dust. Years later I installed 2x2 foot Dricore (tm) aka Subflor (tm) panels which provides some insulation and also a good base for (future in my case) carpeting. Dricore is really tricky to install and is not as easy as the instructions say. I ended up test fitting lots of shims to keep the panels from "clicking" against the imperfectly flat concrete slab as they bowed from persons walking on them. Also I did a lot of fancy cutting to size to reduce the amount of waste.

Dricore also permits the installation of a suction ventilating system to prevent moisture from condensing on the slab (and also reduce radon accumulation although not formally approved for radon mitigation).

Porcelain tile and some brands of vinyl tile offer no thermal insulation and no cushioning.

 

[rock_doctor]

On purpose or by accident?

AUGH!... ...tried to stir a gal of black anti-fouling paint (boat bottom paint) with a drill stirrer and did not realize my drill did not have a slow setting...either off or full speed ahead.... Shot paint everywhere...including the ceiling. Just like the episode of Mythbusters where they tried to paint with explosives...although i was much more successful.

I have painted driveways and docks with simple silicon cement paint. It looks nice and does last. Walmart carries epoxy cement paint as well as the home stores. The problem is...a lot of these types of paint want you to etch the cement with Muriatic acid so the paint sticks better. So no matter what you do, read the directions before you settle on one. Try not to use one that needs the acid. It isn't hard to use but i would shy away from it. Good luck. How about putting down linoleum (sheet goods - comes on a big roll like carpeting - not the tiles). It does have to be glued but looks good and will help reduce humidity that may come though the slab.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I second the laminate wood type flooring. Super inexpensive. We put it down in one of our rentals b/c it is durable and cheap to replace if needed. Now we can allow pets without worrying about peed up carpet expenses.

I also like the new wood look ceramic tiles.