Sealing a semi-painted concrete floor?

[GrindingInAustin]

Sorry for the long delay in updating but I had a little setback in my process having to do with nail holes from the tack strips. Once I got all the paint up and cleaned out all the divots from the tack strip nails I thought, no problem here, I'll just dig out my trusty bag of Mapei Quickpatch, mix up a small batch, fill those pesky holes and sand them off smooth like I have done years ago with great results.

Well, therein lied a problem. After letting the 200 or so little patches setup for a couple days I went to sand a few off and found them to be very gritty, I could scratch them with my fingernail. I put a little water on them and they dissolved a bit. Horror. With some water and a toothbrush I could scrub out the entire patch. Sadness and frustration ensued. After a drink I deduced that the it was due to the age of my Mapei patch, sitting in the garage for years that caused the issue of it not setting up properly. So last weekend was spent binge watching Netflix while tediously scrubbing out and cleaning hundreds of poorly patched divots. My knees will never be the same.

So a trip to Lowe's was made and a new bag of Mapei Quickpatch was bought and three test holes were re-patched, success! They setup quickly and sanded so smooth that with your eyes closed you can't tell the difference running your finger across the patched area. So I will be re-patching the rest of the holes in hopes that by this weekend I will be able to use my newly purchased 17" 175 rpm floor buffer with water tank and the big polishing pads I got. I had been looking at the Twister pads before but after a call to TileToolsHQ I selected these Evolution pads:
Evolution Pads 17" (Set of 4) - 1 Coarse - 1 Hone - 1 Satin - 1 Shine

The folks I spoke with there were so friendly and helpful, one guy had used these pads on his own home so I felt pretty good about them. I'm shooting for a polished floor that I can wax but not seal. I'll let you know how it goes...

Here are a couple pictures of my troublesome nemesis, tack strip divots, one showing a successful patch!

 

[Floorist]

Glad it is working out. We like pictures of success stories.

 

[highup]

We like horror stories too.
But glad yours isn't one of them.
What's your line of work? You know what you're doing. Thanks for keeping us in the loop.

 

[GrindingInAustin]

Thank you highup! That is high praise from someone who really does know what they are doing!
I am just a computer repair guy who likes to attempt home improvement projects
This little thread had been very encouraging, thank you all for following along!
Tack strip divot patching is going well, more to come.....

 

[havasu]

Thank you highup! That is high praise from someone who really does know what they are doing!
I am just a computer repair guy who likes to attempt home improvement projects
This little thread had been very encouraging, thank you all for following along!
Tack strip divot patching is going well, more to come.....

What is a computer? Is that the box I threw into my pool due to major frustrations?

 

[highup]

....if you got a confuzer with Windows XP on it, I can dispose of it for you. (Insert smiley face) smiley Icons have stopped working.

 

[GrindingInAustin]

What is a computer? Is that the box I threw into my pool due to major frustrations?

Ha! Yep, sometimes they go swimming but to the best of my knowledge chlorine doesn't work on computer viruses!

 

[GrindingInAustin]

Weekly update time!
Got in my new 17" 175 rpm floor buffer with attached water tank (highly recommend the tank for this process unless you have a helper with a bucket to follow you around) Also got the 4 Evolution pads to go with it. So after moving the furniture out again, and a good vacuuming I filled up the water tank and began with the pad labeled HONE (these pads are not labeled with grit numbers just COURSE, HONE, POLISH, and SHINE)
with this pad I did 5 full passes alternating north south and east west for a nice even polish.
Behold the mesmerizing slurry swirls....

Then I used my shop vac to vacuum up the slurry. TIP: do not let the slurry start to dry, keep it wet or it's very difficult to remove!
A few passes with a wet mop and phase 1 of polishing is done.
I think I can see a bit of a shine starting here...

So now I'm on the hunt for concrete densifier. Specifically water based sodium silicate densifier to use before my next two finer polishing runs. This is poor planning on my part as densifier is harder than I thought to find in stores. But I think it will give nicer results with the finer grit pads so I will be looking this week and hope to have another update after the weekend. Thanks everyone for following and don't forget to vote!

 

[highup]

You have a drive like none other. Nice work and are really focusing on doing it right.

 

[GrindingInAustin]

Thank you highup! Ypur encouragement is keeping this noob in the game.
I found what looks to be the best densifier you can get over at JonDon.com
https://www.jondon.com/consolideck-ls-cs-densifier.htmlShould come in today so I can move all the furniture, again, on Friday and apply it. Then final polishing on Saturday (hopefully)

 

[highup]

I had to look up densifier. Magic in a bottle.

 

[havasu]

I still believe those tack strip holes are distracting. How about considering a solid paint, not transparent for the edging?

 

[GrindingInAustin]

havasu, that is an interesting idea about painting the edge. The patched holes bother my wife a little also, I'm trying to look past them and think that with baseboards in place they might not look so bad. Or maybe with a little paint, pencil, marker perhaps I could blend them in with the different grays of the floor before I wax them.
I like the paint idea though. We are planning to keep the natural grey floor, white 1x6 baseboards, 1x4 door casing, etc, I wonder what color edging paint would look right? Maybe a 6 or 8 inch wide edge on the floor?
What to do at transitions between rooms?
I'm interested in any ideas, thanks!

 

[highup]

Instead of paint, check out concrete stains. Not sure if they would absorb differently or not. You could test in a closet.

 

[GrindingInAustin]

I have stained concrete floors in the past and the stain does take differently on the patch material. It always comes out much lighter.
My wife suggested that the painted edge might look good if we scored the concrete to define it. Hmmmmm.

 

[highup]

...or install the baseboards on the floor. Last time I saw that it was on a $12 million dollar boat with wood floors.