Just bought this house...

[mccloudy]

Hello,

My husband and I just bought our first house and were really hoping to rip up the carpet and find a beautiful, intact slab to clean up and seal. As you can see by the attached pictures—not so. We have been researching this for weeks and the amount of information on layers required, and in what order, and all the brands is overwhelming. I don't want to get this wrong.

So as you can see by the pictures...along the perimeter of the room the concrete is horribly crumbled. Also carpet tack strip holes. There are also hairline cracks throughout, as well as a spot where it seems someone's bucket of adhesive must have had a hole in it...

The tentative plan is to have the concrete throughout the entire house. We are not afraid of doing tons of work. Potentially absurd amounts of work...So. From what we can tell so far, the game plan is to:

-Clean out crumbled concrete
-Scrape off or strip off the glue (there is also an area with paint)
-Degreaser
-Fill the perimeter gaps with [FILL IN THE BLANK] (new concrete? an Ardex product?)
-Repair cracks (do we really need to grind/chisel open the cracks and fill with new material? If we end up doing an overlay, does that take care of these cracks? Is that too good to be true?)
-Microtopping?
-Seal (I'm interested in Acri-Soy Matte)
-Wax

Is there supposed to be a primer layer in here somewhere? And a water absorption test? And if the place looks all patched up and horrible, what kind of "micro topping" is recommended? OR~should we just try a dark stain?

For what it's worth, we are located in Albuquerque, NM, the house is from 1978, and we would ideally love an unstained, light concrete floor to create a modern look.

Anyone who would be so gracious as to share their thoughts on the steps we need to take...your advice would be tremendously appreciated. Thank you for even reading to the end of this much-too-long message!

 

[Ernesto]

Look up Ardex for colored concrete. You need an overlay.

 

[mccloudy]

Thank you!

 

[zannej]

Oh cool! My sister lives in Albuquerque too.

I'm trying to remember, what do you call the stuff to fix the cracks in the concrete? I could have sworn there was some sort of crack repairer but can't recall what it is called.

Good luck with the repairs!

 

[Ernesto]

If you fill the cracks with patch and try and do an acid stained concrete that patch has latex in it and will not take the stain like the concrete. It shows really bad. It's better to leave the cracks, it gives it character. hehe

Grinding off the top carbonated layer of concrete will expose the aggregate making it look like terrazzo.

This is why people do an overlay.

 

[Incognito]

There are vinyl and ceramic products that will appear similar to sealed/stained/polished concrete.

Hard for a non-pro to comprehend but those are cheaper and easier solutions if you want that effect on a modest to low budget.