Good Questions: Sealing Concrete Floors?

Brittany has a good question: My husband and I are buying our first home just north of Ann Arbor, Michigan and it has poured concrete floors in the lower level. I love them! The sellers claim they re-sealed them in 2002 and they recommended that we do it again before moving in. How often do polished concrete floors need to be sealed and is there a brand name that is better than another? Any tricks to doing it or just roll it on?

(Note: Include a pic of your problem and your question gets posted first.
Email questions and pics with QUESTIONS in subject line to:
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We're hoping someday our home graces the pages of Apartment Therapy in the near future and want to put our best floor forward. Thank you for any assistance you can provide.

If you have experience with or info on poured concrete floor maintenance, please share your knowledge with Brittany in the comments...thanks!

Photos: Concrete floor examples from Eichler Homes of San Francisco & Marin County

Comments (6)

Sorry, don't have any helpful information, but I'm green with envy--those floors are so pretty.

posted by dpunjabi on September 18th 2008 at 11:06am
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My entire house has stained concrete floors. I moved in eight years ago and have resealed the high traffic areas a couple of times. Most areas I haven't had to touch. I should point out that there are just two of us and we don't wear shoes in the house.

I use the same product that the installers used, which is made by a company called Chem-Coat. It is CCI - 5500 - Industrial & Commercial Floor Finish.

I use a lambswool applicator pad and have had great results doing it myself. The trick is to go v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y to prevent the sealer from bubbling.

posted by Letitia on September 18th 2008 at 12:20pm
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We have stained concrete floors in our house. They are wonderful! Our builder had never done them before, so he just put down one coat of polyurethane. Two might have been better, I think, but *if* it comes time to refinish the floor it will be easy to get the one coat off.

Maybe this link can help with your sealing questions: http://www.kemiko.com/

BTW, the floors stay a degree or two cooler the same temperature as the air in the room. We keep the AC at 78 and the heat at 72.

posted by Raydean on September 18th 2008 at 1:34pm
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Our house is just a slab foundation, we chipped up the tile and ground the floor with a rented floor grinder from Hdepot. Those floors in the pics above look steel troweled (drool) and I'm not even sure what 'poured' looks like, is it just your foundation slab, but diamond polished? (double drool)

Anyhow, this is what we used, and we love it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/southof290/861103370/in/set-72157600928346909/
There's a link to the product, and an article about densifiers/hardeners.

If I were you, I'd try to find out specifically what brand sealer the previous owners used, then find a prosoco (or chem-coat?) dealer near you, and ask them if it'd be ok to use it over your previous sealer.

We only have experience with the prosoco, but can tell you it is stronger than the gross bile cats puke up after tasting an insect, the ultimate stain test.

Congrats on your 1st house!

posted by southof290 on September 18th 2008 at 10:40pm
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Thank you guys SO much. This has all been super helpful and I'm looking into both Chem-Coat and Prosoco.

Southof290- how did you apply your product??
And honestly, I know the house is a slab foundation but I have no idea how it was originally polished/sealed. Guess I better do some more research.

-brittany

posted by brittanyzh on September 19th 2008 at 3:15am
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i used a microfiber floor mop from Hdepot, which i think helped me avoid some of the bubbling issues Letitia had. It looked like this, http://www.amazon.com/Real-Clean-Brand-Microfiber-Aluminum/dp/B0006H977Y
i think any microfiber would do, Method etc.

IMO, the best way to clean before sealing, is to really deck mop the floor, with a stiff deck broom (or rent a floor scrubber, ala Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting, but they are difficult to use) , and LOTS of clean water, and most important, a wet vac.

What we did - in an approx 10' x 10' section at a time. My man would pour some water on the floor, then scrub, I would immediately suck up the dirty water with the shop vac before it could settle, flush with more water, vac again. We had the garden hose in the house. We did this through 1500 sq.ft., taking turns scrubbing and running the vac.

But keep in mind this was 30 years of linoleum, tile thinset, carpet pad and gross we were tackling. You should be just fine with a good wet mop and a shop vac. I think a shop vac should be required for every homeowner. I have used mine in at least a dozen emergencies over the years.

-water heater in my old house broke, spewing hundreds of gallons of disaster all over before i turned it off. The shop vac sucked it all up, I had to empty it several times. I can't imagine doing it with a mop.
-a/c in old house backed up, we cleaned up the mess inside, then took the vac outside and sucked the block out of the line.
-new house, we were working on the sink, and oops, the shut off valve doesn't work, in the time it took me to run to the curb to shut off the main = half a shop vac full of water...
-new house, we cleaned out the lint filter for the clothes dryer with this, http://www.linteater.com/ (get it @ Lowes) and of course our trusty shop vac!
-it does all this and MORE! it can convert to a blower to clean out your garage, attach to most power tools to suck up dust, AND even vacuum out your car, saving you hundreds of quarters!

I have an old version of this one http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100638364&N=10000003 90401 524498 1600
and yeah, I love it ;)

-brandy