nwksremodeler

I have a customer that has brought up questions about taking up the carpet in a basment and then going back with a colored concrete cap of some sorts, is this possible??? This is getting outside of my normal construction duties and off hand I haven't found a sub that can even lend me some helping knowledge. I do know that the carpet was laid down with a white glue, which seems to be very hard to get off the floor now. Is there a special cleaner that needs to be used to get it off or can u use a sander of some sorts or just good ol muscle and a floor scraper? Once off, will it be possible to lay a finish coat of colored concrete over it or will there be some residual glue that will prohibit laying concrete? Will an adhesion promoter help with bonding? Does a person really have to clean the glue off, if its adhered well can you just cap it? What other concerns might I need to look at or have to deal with?? ANY help and opinions will be greatly appreciated! Thanks

Taranis

First off, the adhesive has to be removed.
Use a diamond planer, a circular sanding machine, something that will remove the adhesive but not destroy the screed below it. Noone can tell you exactly which machine to use unless they see the floor for themselves. The screed may be too soft to accept something too agressive. It may be very hard in which case the adhesive will come pretty easily.
Your local plant hire company should have something which will suffice.

http://www.hss.com/g/58511/Floor-Scarifier.html with wire brushes or copper and tungsten disc below it.

http://www.hss.com/g/6401/Concrete-P...C-w-Blade.html

http://www.hss.com/g/6441/Diamond-Gr...-Hirepack.html

There are more machines available but a decent plant hire company will help you choose the right one.

Next stage depends on what the client expects.
If the concrete is good enough after prep. then an epoxy self leveller will do the job. A good contractor will do it no problem. He would want to do the prep too.
Or you could screed it with concrete, ganite or a polymer modified screed then put a colour onto it. What height do you have to work with? Will you get away with the height and also the weight of a thicker screed?

yes.itsconcrete

haven't found sanding/screening to be acceptable for us,,, usually a 6" grinder & 24seg diamond cup wheel's our choice.

depending on condition, you can have it acid-stain'd or overlayed w/various mtls,,, typical thickness ranges from 1/16" to 5/16",,, type of sealer's VERY important,,, knowledge of mtls & methods makes this a specialty trade.

ixnay on scarifiers & planers,,, too aggressive - overkill

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Cdat

This is happening more & more often lately. With the new possibilities with concrete polishing and covers, many people are re-thinking their basement floor coverings.

A lot will depend on the size of area to do and what type of glue was used. I've been taking a heat gun to soften the edge and just popping it off. Of course, if padding is adhered to it, that might just ignite so you might just want to sand it away.

Floordude

Mop a small area with hot water and let it sit for a minute, then down on your knees, using a 4" wide flooring razor scraper, get after it.

Those telescopic 8" wide razor scraper you use while standing up, are useless. Not enough leverage to do any good. Down there on your knees, you can get pressure and the angle needed to actually do some good.

DON'T USE CHEMICAL REMOVERS!!!!!!!! You will be very sorry if you do, later.

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ridewags

is the glue hardened or gummy still?

seamerdeamer

Floordude advice is the best, if it's a big commercial job what we use is a floor maintainer (polisher) with an attachement that holds diamond stones. soak the floor with water then put silica sand on top and polish the floor with the maintainer,then vacuum the sludge with a industrial wet vac. very messy but very effective removing adhesives and black tar off concrete floors.

Markon

This post is a little old but I thought I would through in my two cents for future visitors.

Like said before, don't use chemical removers. If you are going to, use Soygel. It can be found at any big concrete supplier. It's all natural and doesn't alter the concrete (made from soybeans). Another option is to grind it off. Not with a hand grinder! These are specialty concrete grinders that you normally can't rent, just depends on how big a city you live in. They put silica sand down and run the grinder across the floor and the adhesive balls put and you can sweep it off the floor.

If it has adhesive on concrete you can't do a acid stain. You could to a dye, it would look a lot like an acid stain if done by someone who has done many before.

If you are going to do an overlay. The floor better be darn clean. You can put down a bonding agent if you want insurance. (This can be coating the floor with polymer, or useing a product like pro-red or red-guard).Depends on what product line you are using. Some people will say this product line is better than that one. Truth be told they are all the same, just different systems. People in the overlay business get very emotional over comments like that. I guess they need to defend the $20,000 they got taken for.

Taranis

Nonsense, Markon.
An epoxy is the same as a PU or an Aspartic polyurea, or an SBR, or an MMA?
If you don't know the difference, don't tell other people there is no difference.

All the above are chemically different from each other yet they all are used on floors. Why, cause they perform different functions from each other. Some may be glossy, some may be matt. Some will be uniform in colour, some may have coloured aggregrates added. Some are fast curing, some of the systems take days to install cause of the curing time of seal coats. Some are UV stable, some are not (choice of colour an issue).
Some are less expensive than others for material but cost more in labour etc.

Only after working with these materials (or at least researching) can you then tell others the pros and cons of the systems.

Cheers.