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The cellar room use for a bike store/workshop has had carpet down in it from it's previous life as a home office. 9 years of me fannying around with bikes in there has left it pretty disgusting, so yesterday I ripped it up.
The concrete floor underneath is a bit crap. It's been painted at some point in the past, but there's not too much of that left and its covered in plaster and paint splodges from the office conversion, which I've spent this afternoon chipping off.
In places (mostly around the walls) the top layer of the screed has disintegrated and is dusting up pretty badly. Wirebrushing just makes a bigger hole...
So before I slap down a coat of floorpaint (any recommendations?) is there anything I need to do to seal the bare concrete? How surgically (!) clean do I need to get the floor before painting? I don't mind a redo once every 5+ years, but I'd be unimpressed if it was a yearly job...
Thanks!
(It's not the driest environment down there. Not "wet" either, but its all well below the DPC and I think the floor is only just above the water table. Certainly all our neighbours who've tried to turn their cellars into proper livable spaces and dug down for extra headroom have ended up with wet feet pretty much every time there's a storm, despite all the "professional tanking" they've had done...)
Check out resin floors. If you google "resin floor in cellar" you will see where it has been done in pub cellars etc.
Otherwise for my garage I cleared it out so it was totally empty and blasted it all with a pressure washer, just a normal Karcher, and swept out the water and crap. I left it overnight with a dehumidifier going none stop, well until the water tank filled, and it the morning it looked okay. Swept up a couple of bits that looked dusty and then used a big wide long haired roller to cover it in green garage floor paint. Left it another day and moved the stuff back in. It is okay but need attention now which is about 10 years.
Unfortunately clearing the garage now would be a much bigger task and leaving everything on the drive for three nights would not be too clever either otherwise I would be contemplating the resin option.
I should also add "reasonably cheap" to the list of requirements too!
Jetwashing would certainly be an easy way to clean up, however there's no where for the water to go and I'd also have to completely empty the room which I'm trying to avoid doing, as I've not got any where else to put all the stuff!
Your best bet I would say is a latex compound.
Mapei renovation screed 3240 to be precise.
You'll need to sweep and hoover up all the dust, give the floor a coatbif watered down Mapei primer G, wait to dry then mix up the latex as per instructions and pour it out, it will find its own level but will need to be trowelled to spread it about, also advised to get hold of a spiked roller, use this to roll through it and disperse any air bubbles.
That perticular latex can level out floors upto 40mm so sound slike it will be good for your missing areas.
You could, if you wanted to then get emnvolved, give it to coats or Wakol primer pu280 , this will seal it and also acts as a damp membrane
Rolls of rubber matting, worked a treat in my lockdown garage refurb.
+1 for hoover up the dust.
Can't you just put some more cheap carpet or lino down? It it is only used for dirty bikes abd storage it should be fine.
I spent a couple of months worth of evenings sorting out our cellar which for us was worth doing as we use the space every day, but if you are only having issues with your floor then lino is the answer.
I stripped back to bare brick and floor using dozens of wire brushes on grinders and powerful rotating jet washers, using a £50 Screwfix wet vacuum to collect the wet mess. Must have done 150+ runs up the stairs with a full tank.
Then saturated the walls, floors and stairs for a few days and used four coats of a silica based tanking slurry (KA Tanking slurry).
Then decorated with masonry paint and carpet, making sure not to mechanically fix anything to the wall and so damage the tanking.
Has been four years now and not a hint of damp. Sometimes I wish I had filled it up with water as an internal swimming pool.
is the floor damp? no? get some lino down.
I have a large basement under the house, part of which is used as a laundry room. Concrete floor was pretty knackered. I ended up putting down a levelling screed and getting some inter locking floor tiles from B&Q, (£10 for 6 @ approx 600 x600). Didn't do anything to concrete floor as it doesn't seem damp, but will be checking it in a few weeks and if dampness is showing was going to give the concrete floor a coating of tanking or roof sealer.
You need to know how damp that concrete is. If damp is getting in from the basement walls or, worse, there is no DPC under the floor, then sealing the floor could lead to bad things. If moisture is permeating the concrete and has nowhere to go, then the sealed floor will create problems below. Best to know before trying anything.