Professional Painting Contractors Forum banner

Clear Coat for Concrete

3K views 11 replies 8 participants last post by  Gymschu 
#1 ·
My HVAC guy bought a restaurant and is re-doing the interior to have that industrial look, you know, black ceilings, pallet wood on the walls, some tin metal on the bar area. He pulled up the carpet and ground up all the old carpet adhesive and now has a clean, sound concrete surface that he wants clear-coated.

Any ideas on a product that will fit the bill? This area will have plenty of foot traffic, tables, chairs, etc. so it obviously has to be a hard, durable finish. My instincts tell me I need an commercial grade product from a masonry company but maybe SW or BM has something similar? Any thoughts or ideas welcomed.
 
#6 ·
Floor products



I think your instincts about commercial grade masonry products is better than getting products from a paint manufacturer.

I used to strip and wax (acrylic finish) floors years ago. I bought products from Fox Valley Chemical in northern Illinois. Here is a link:

http://foxvalleychemical.com/products/

Check out the Permathane and Duralock products. These are generally mopped on with a high quality mop. Call on Monday and ask to speak with Russ about what your friend is trying to accomplish. My guess is that your friend's floor will need periodic maintenance and this company will have the products to take care of that.

Over 20 years ago I stripped and about 175 sq ft of stone flooring in an entrance to a commercial office building. I used 2 or 3 coats (the floor was very porous, probably like the concrete one you are looking at after having the glue ground off) of sealer and 3 coats of their Ultra 10 floor finish. The floor still looks good and no subsequent finish has been put on this floor. (The owner of the building thought my price of $500.00 to do this job was too much. He only told me this after he saw the difference between the old finish and the bare floor I had stripped, of which he was amazed at the difference and now understood the price.) I am sure that your friend's floor will need more maintenance than this, but Russ should be able to help you figure something out.

In the office area at Fox Valley Chemical they have solid oak flooring that has polyurethane on it and Ultra 10 on top of that for extra protection. They mopped it right over the poly.

My thinking is that I would want a sealer that cannot be stripped by regular acrylic floor sealer stripper and then use an acrylic finish over the sealer like Ultra 10. That way, when the floor gets beat up to the point where it needs refinishing, an emulsifying stripper could be used to get the top layer of acrylic finish off. This would be done by scrubbing the stripper after it has emulsified the finish, after which it is wet vac'd off. Since the stripper was an emulsifier (similar to what denatured alcohol solvent is to shellac and lacquer thinner is to lacquer), whatever floor finish that is left will be ready for a top coat of finish to be applied right over it.

If you want to shop around in Cleveland I am sure that you can find floor finishes. I just found this company with a quick search:

https://www.penntekcoatings.com/dealers/cleveland-oh/

I would be careful and do enough research because you want to make sure you put the right product down first, not the wrong product and then have to strip that off. You might even think of going to Costco or any big box store that uses a clear finish over concrete floor and ask what that product is and how they maintain it. I would have to think that whatever is applied over the concrete floor will have to be maintained. If so, you will have to figure out how to maintain it or your friend will have to find a floor crew who does this full time.

Best wishes!

futtyos
 
#8 ·
...You might even think of going to Costco or any big box store that uses a clear finish over concrete floor and ask what that product is and how they maintain it.

A lot of box stores use a wax finish over vinyl. It requires daily maintenance and complete stripping / reapplication once a month.


I think costco is just a diamond polished concrete, might not even be sealed at all.
 
This post has been deleted
#10 ·
whatever product you will choose make sure to use industrial line, not the residential
go to specialty industrial/commercial concrete finishes supplier, but my guess is that you already researched industrial line of concrete sealers

we aways use industrial lines, no matter how good the residential products are advertised to be
tho some of them are good, but logic tells us that industrial/commercial products are better
This was like four years ago. Pretty sure the job got done in one way or another.
 
Top