Sealing concrete floors

[weekley2006]

Hey fellas I just built myself a new shop a 30 x 60 and i didn't know if my floors were sealed before but with a new floor concrete floor if i seal it with concrete sealer will that help my floors from getting screwed up from salting capes on the new floors.

                                                                                                                    Thanks  Rick

[Doug Bridges]

I painted the floor of my shop with the 2 part epoxie paint. Great stuff. I would highly recommend it.

[Pirate]

I think you should seal it with the sealer or the paint.  It will make it easier to sweep and mop.  Raw concrete will hold stains also.  Definitely seal it with something.

[Meyer Wildlife]

Weekly,
I layed floors for 25yrs. There is no such thing as a concrete sealer. What you need to do is rough the concrete with a bead blaster or try to get it rough with a rotor with sand paper on it.A rotor is a stand up buffer,Then paint with epoxy paint.

[Matt]

When I built my shop, I bull floated and fresnowed the floor to a slick finish and then put a porch paint on it from lowes and it work well. I don't have alot of concrete exposed in my shop, just where I do my messy work.

[Pheasant-Hollow]

Weekley,
            There IS a concrete sealer available which works well on new concrete. I just had a new floor poured in my shop, and I used it. In retrospect, I wish that I would have used the epoxie paint. A little more money, but worth the extra expense. The sealer that I used smelled really bad, ran us out for a couple of days. It soaked in completely and sealed the concrete. It can still be stained, but not if a mess is cleaned up within a few hours. Blood and oils will leave a stain after about 24 hours.
           In checking into epoxie paints I found that they are not all created equal. If you are going to use the paint, get a good brand. Go to Sherwin-Williams or Diamond-Vogel, or someplace like that. Do not use the cheap stuff from Menards. I like the paint because it leaves a nice smooth floor which cleans up nicely. And with new concrete, you will not have to rough it up or clean it. Just make sure it is fully cured(28 days). Hope this helps, and good luck.

[alpinewildsheep]

Weekly,
You have been given good advise so far.Just thought i would go into things a little deeper for you to make a decision.To qualify the information i'm giving you i will mention that i have been selling architecual and industrial coatings for 30 years on all tupes of substrates.

To begin with the word "sealer" is very non descriptive.There are a mulitude of sealers available to perform many tasks.There are penetrating sealers that are designed to do exactly like they say,penetrate.Then they can be divided up into permanate types of penetrateing sealers that will leave a residue intact once they soak in and remain.Like penetrating epoxy resins and silcone sealer.Then there are pentrating sealers that are not permanate like thompsons water seal and simalar products.They are a oil sealer that after a period of time the oil dissapates and will not seal that thoroughly.Thompsons water seal and silicone water sealers are the least expensive and can cause problems later down the road if you want to coat with something else.

Then there are film forming coatings that will leave a resinous film on top of the substrate that are very hard and will seal the surface until they are worn through in heavy traffic areas exposing the concrete again.these are by far the most impervious to liquids and other contaminates.The come in waterborne epoxies,solvent borne epoxies,water borne urethanes,solvent borne urethanes,and alkyd resins.The most common is the alkyd or polyurethane floor enamels.They are a good general purpose floor paint and sealer.They will hold up good to foot traffic and satisfactory to chemicals.You can purchase them for around $25.00 to $30.00 per gallon and will do approx. 300 square feet per gallom.A better,more durable,more chemical resistant coating would be your epoxies.They are available in water or solvent base formulations aand would run more in the $40.00 to $50.00 a gallon range.I'm talking about true 2 component epoxies, not the homeowner single component epoxy fortified stuff.Then the cadillac system would be 1 coat of epoxy and 2 coats of Alaphatic polyurethane( 2 component)This system is almost bullet prooof if applied properly.Very,very hard,very glossy,very, very chemical resistant.Infact this is one of the few products that will hold up in a heavy alkaline and salt enviroment.Concrete ready mix yards coat their trucks and epuipment with this product because regular polyamide epoxy usually loses its gloss and starts chalking within a year or so.You could expect to pay $75.00 to $90.00 a gallon for this product.This is basically the same type of product that Dupont Imron is except the indsutrial version is alot heavier solids to offer longer service life because there is more film thickness to wear through.You will have to decide what kind of life and durability you are looking for.

Follow the manufacturer's recommondations on surface prep to a T.No sense spending that kind of money if you are only going to shortcut the preparation.Almost All proffessionally installed concrete has had a sealer of some kind put on it shortly after it was installed to control the evaporation rate during the curing process to make the concrete cure properly.See, theres that word "sealer" again.As you know though it does not adequetly "seal" out things when spilled on it.It was never intended to, just partially seal to help the concrete cure.The advise you were given about the concrete being totally cured is correct.It hard to put a exact number of days on it though.It depends how it was mixed,teperature,humidity,etc,etc.Thats why most manufacturers reccomened waiting 28-30 days or so to be safe.Then it usually needs to be acid etched with muratic acid to neutralize any alkaline ans salts that might have concentrated during the curing process.Basically you need the concrete surface to be "open" and liquids to readily penetrate into the surface of the concrete.You can test and see if water droplets will easily penetrate or bead up on the conctrete surface.

If you really intend to go this route you should stop buy a proffessional paint store that has trained personnel to advise you through the steps.You won't find that at Lowe"s,Home Depot,Wallmart,etc.Go to a Sherwin Williams,Pittsburgh,Fuller Obrien,Devoe,etc, store.If they cannot or will not help tallk you through the system don't buy there.Its not as overwhelming as it sounds,you just need accurate advise to select the proper product and preparation.

[Creepy-Crusty]

I highly recommend the Devoe products. Carbolene is another good one. Make damn sure you get the proper respirator to go with that kind of stuff though. It can (& wil)l kill you!

[WST]

I used a  2 part epoxy from u-coat it ( ucoatit.com). My shop was new and after the concrete cured I installed it myself.
It makes clean up very easy.

[John C]

Ok Now I have a question on finishing the concrete.

The concrete finisher can leave the surface very porus, not the slick finish you see on the new wall world stores.

Would it be better to leave the concrete open, pulling the water off early or  go ahead and slick finish the concrete then etc?

[Alex Sr]

I found out the best is a two part epoxy paint, You should allow at least 2 weeks of drying before you paint it.

[alpinewildsheep]

John C,
Thats a good question.From a paint manufacturer's point of view, they would prefer to have a slightly rougher surface.The reason being is just like we might rough up a mannikin before we mount it.To increase the surace area of the substrate to allow more attachment points for better adhesion.With that being said,you can go overboard on the ruff texture.You will have good adhesion, but will sacrifice the ability to clean it easily because the textire and low ponits you have created will tend to hold more dirt and other contaminants.A good comprimise would be somewhere between a slick surface and broomed finish.Although you can take a slick finish and etch or use a mechanical carbide conctrete resurfacer to create surface area.If you haven't poured your slab yet i would elect to have a fine broomed or brushed finish.You would still have plenty of surface area,would still be able to clean it fairly easily,and a third attribute is it would tend to give you a little more traction for walking on when wet or greasy.Just my two cents.

[mcole]

I sealed my shop floor with Coronado concrete clear sealer you can buy this at your local paint dealer. And this is a concrete sealer that is used through out the industry form precaster's to brick masons etc..... I also used this to seal our acid stained floor in our living room. You can't go wrong with this product.