| Concrete flooring is popping up in the offices, home and everywhere. The concrete is composed of material: the water, the Portland cement and some aggregates. The Portland concrete, cement is mixed together with dry cement and water and they make an easily molded into the shape. The properties of the final product are changed, along with the ratio of mixing of the ingredients. |
There is more concrete is used in lime concrete, it is such as a Portland cement concretes. This is stained, painted, overlays, radiant floors, or unique personal floor, and the concrete floor is offering a range of other materials. The concrete floor is referred to the cement floor. The coloring concrete is applying different types available that are textures, pattern, saw cuts, and etc.. Your dull, boring concrete floor doesn’t have to be an eyesore or an embarrassment. All you need is a little time, a little vision, and a few ideas.Concrete floors aren’t all that bad. In fact, they:
- Provide architectural structure
- Are easy to maintain, easy to change
- Are good for those that have allergies
But this might be why you’ve decided to cover them up:
- The surface is stained or cracked
- You want something softer for a special purpose
- You have a different design idea
To make your life easier, you may want to use what you have. This is a cost effective way to decorate as well as leave your options open to new decorating ideas down the road. The smooth, clean surface of a concrete floor is the perfect base for painting or staining. Or you can choose to use vinyl flooring over the concrete floor, thus still keeping with the flat surface, but adding a little more durability.
Concrete floor methods and cost:
What is a good flooring, decorative option for a concrete basement, you may ask. For some, painting is the perfect option because it doesn’t take a lot of time or effort to create a new look, and without a lot of costs. But this does take a smooth surface to begin with, so you may have to do some prep work before selecting this option. There are more benefits available in the concrete floor. That is compared to other flooring option. The decorative concrete floor is quite cost effective. This part is such as floors, walls, driveways, and decoration concert is a more a serving function availableand so on. The transformation concrete in decorative concrete is achieved through the usefulness of varied material.When it comes to flooring on concrete, some families find that painting is not an option. Rubber flooring may be a better fit due to active children and their propensity to tumble over. And installing this kind of flooring over concrete slab foundations is the best option for everyone’s safety.Vinyl flooring over concrete is a great fit for work areas or areas where there isn’t a lot of physical activity. It is looking very nice and a variety of colors available in the concrete floor. And these are easy to clean and maintain without a lot of energy or equipment on your part.
Concrete floor material designs and styles:
If you have a concrete floor in another room beside the basement or garage, you may have different design ideas for these often used and seen areas. You might choose to install wood flooring over concrete, giving the area more texture and style.
Flooring on concrete is an easy step when you have the right tools and equipment. You may also want to cover up your concrete floor because there are problems that just can’t be fixed. Perhaps the floor is stained beyond hope, there are uneven areas that can’t be corrected, or it’s chipped and cracked so covering it is ideal. Most flooring installed on a concrete floor is as simple as applying a primer or adhesive, putting down pre-cut pieces of flooring and then letting the flooring adhere. These are great options when you have family members with allergies in the house. All of these options, as well the concrete floors themselves, are easily cleaned and maintained. A concrete floor doesn’t have to seem hard (pun intended), you just have to consider what you need to do for your particular situation, and then get the right tools to do it. This is important for every homeowner and selects the best quality tools or material it is possible to decorate the beautiful house.
We painted the concrete floors in the living room, dining room, and hall way to look like tile and then gave it 3 coats of poly. It looks great and doesn’t feel like concrete at all. We also painted the bedroom floors to coordinate with the decor in each room with the same 3 coats of poly over it. No one can believe how great it looks!
Great to hear Judy! Wonderful things really can be done with concrete!
How did you paint the concrete to look like tile? Colors, type of paint?
Hi Doris – check out Concrete Flooring Ideas. It’s not step-by-step instructions, but gives you a general idea. You can use whatever colors you like and paint that’s suitable for concrete. Be sure to put a protective coat over it – and make sure beforehand that it’ll work with your paint job and NOT ruin it.
I have painted my back porch (semi-enclosed concrete) several times. When the weather is humid it begins to peel in spots. What type of flooring can I put over the painted concrete?
Hi Teresa,
Not a whole lot. I know, that’s not the answer you wanted. You could tile over the concrete, but the the paint might interfere with what you use to set the tile with. You could try epoxy paints – but you’d still have to strip the old paint. Stained concrete can give some stunning effects as well, but again, you’d have to strip the paint. You could repaint and then use a protective sealer – this may or may not require you to strip the old paint as it would depend on what type of paint you’ve used, whether or not you’re going to use the same type of paint and choosing a sealer that is a proper choice for the paint.
We are renovating or Kitchen, Living Room and Dining Room. We are in the process of doing concrete floors. The Floor contractor, stained the concrete and left it up to our house contractor to cover them not advising him on how to do it. Well he taped down paper and cardboard to the floors. Now we are ready to finish the floors. When we pulled up the paper and cardboard there were tape marks on the floor. We have tried using acetone to get it off and sanding them. Nothing is working. I am so upset and I don’t think the concrete guy is planning to reimburse me for a crummy job. I told him this was his project and he should have covered them. He kept reassuring me that when the sealer went on it would fade away. Well he put one coat of sealer on yesterday and they are still there. Any suggestions??? Thanks Sue
Hi Sue,
Geez…… that’s just horrible! I presume the house contractor knew that the floors weren’t sealed? It really sounds like it was more his fault since either you or the house contractor released the flooring contractor, leaving it up to the house contractor to take care of finishing the job. I do agree that the flooring contractor should have finished it, but since it sounds like it was apparently agreed upon for the housing contractor to do it (or delegate it to another person), I don’t see how you can hold the flooring contractor responsible. Sounds like you really need to be taking care of this through the house contractor. He should also be responsible for cleaning up the residue. Hopefully, the stain won’t be ruined when it’s finally cleaned up – it’s terribly difficult to try to restain. He can’t do that anyway, now that he’s put a coat of sealer on – the sealer will have to be stripped – which might also damage the stain. I don’t envy you right now and I hope that the contractor cares enough about his reputation to make this right – at his own expense.
As far as what to use on the floor, perhaps a different type of product would work. I would recommend something like goo-gone or even Avon’s Skin-So-Soft, but I’d be afraid that the oils could soak into the concrete, creating darker areas. Again, this still isn’t going to work though, since it’s been sealed.
Make sure your contractor puts enough coats of sealer on the finished floor after he gets his mess straightened out. It’s going to need more than a coat or two.
Best of luck, keeping my fingers crossed that this can be worked out smoothly.
Up in northern WI we built a new hunting cabin on a concrete slab. Because the cabin is not heated year round we get a lot of condensation when first opening the place up. There’s lamineat flooring in the great room and bedroom which sweats a lot especially under furniture. We still have the mud room to cover, I was thinking about cork(cork is suppose to be a good insulator), would this help for condensation or is there something better?
Hi Glenn,
Yes, cork is a good insulator, but I doubt this will help with condensation. I really think you’re going to have a problem with condensation no matter what type of flooring you use – it’s just from the difference in temp/humidity.
We have carpet (which I detest) covering our concrete flooring in our bedroom. We would like to remove the carpet. Any ideas for the best way to do this. I’m not sure how to even start.
We will probably cover the concrete with some other hard surface (no more carpet!). Since we are an environmentally friendly bunch, do you have any ideas on the best “green” floor covering?
Hi Kari, Once you pull up the carpet you will need to remove the tack strips and that will be a task that requires a little elbow grease. You will need a pry bar and a hammer to aid you in removal. If glue was used as well, you will need to scrape off as much as you can with a floor scraper and then for any remaining adhesive, you can purchase an adhesive remover. I would, of course, recommend that you go with an environmentally friendly adhesive remover and there is a soy remover that is especially good for working indoors.
As far as a new flooring choice, engineered hardwood floors are a great choice to use over concrete. Cork is also another flooring option you should consider. Please refer to my articles on this site to help you make the best choice.
Good luck!
I need to cover gravel for an event. What can I cover it in so women can walk easily on it in stilettos?
Thanks!
Cara,
Not knowing where the gravel is (inside or outside) or the type of event I would contact a local event planner to have her help you with your questions.
We live near the ocean in FL. We removed a very old outdoor carpet and removed most of the glue from our concrete porch. I’m having trouble deciding what type of product we should cover it with,…we also have a pool and I’m worried that tile would be slippery. We like the natural look of the concrete but I wasn’t able to remove ALL of the glue and I’m pretty sure it’s not level. (We need lots of help :))
Carmen,
For the glue I would use a glue-dissolver
to remove the rest of the glue on the porch. Since you liked the previous look why not keep it?!
For the pool you can use a pebbled overlay — you can look in the phone book for companies that do that kind of work — or you can put stone tiles down or concrete that’s stamped to look like stone would be a great alternative!
Cara, I had a similar concern for my wedding. We just rented a large dance floor. It lay on top of the gravel and pieced together to make a great surface for us.
We are planning on remodeling our cabin floor in northern Wisconsin. The cabin sits on a slab and we deal with condensation due to temperature change. We’ve heard about the heated rubber mats that you skim coat over. Do you think this is a good option for the whole floor? We are planning on this being a seasonal summer home but also looking down the road at staying longer. We’ll have about 1000 sf. Any thoughts on cork over concrete? Thank you!
Marcy,
I would be sure to seal the concrete, but I do not have experience with the heated rubber mats.
As long as the concrete is sealed well, cork would be a good choice. You can get more information from the article on Cork Flooring.
I would like to use an epoxy stone overlay to cover my concrete floor. There are several brands like Everstone, Nature stone ect. How can I tell which one has the highest quality epoxy? Is there really a difference in durability and longevity when you compare the epoxy itself?