Gut a house and refurbish

thanks. the floor is old and was slick finished at one point. now, some of it is gritty, some still slick. im in the process of cleaning away years of dirty film from the gritty portion of the floor and corners. the slick portion aint so bad. im guessing i should only do the etching on the slick portion? Lowes has all the stuff for the three steps involved.

as for the moisture, i am not making this a living space due to that reason. any time we get a heavy rain, we get some water. the last time was the tropical storm this past summer (over 4 inches, i think). we got some water but not alot. brand new gutters really helped direct the roof water away from around the house. but it isnt totally eradicated. i was hoping that a stain would hold up better than a painted floor if it got wet. does that sound right?

i do appreciate your advice. i'll take all i can get.

 

....No doubt a stain, semi-transparent, concrete stain is the way to go brother.
Next on your list is how to wick the moisture at the least cost.
De-hunidifiers are ok but cost electric $.
Go to Boaters World and ask for the gig that folks use on sailboat interiors. That stuff is so good that its probably sold at Lowes or HD.
Its a plastic container about the size of a sour cream container. A couple of those badboys will help draw moisture out of the room without any significant cost.
Happy Holidays from the Fishman.

 

thanks man, same to you. i'll post all the details and maybe some pics in a few weeks.

 

ok

i took Friday off to begin the floor staining job. me and the wife started by scrubbing the floor with the Bond-Lok solution to prep it for the etching stain. but i noticed that there still seemed to be some slick areas that "beaded up" when you put water to it. i called the Valspar hotline, the next day, and the guy said that i needed to first remove the old sealer that was still on the concrete floor. i asked him how i did that. he said, "with a concrete grinder." Friday was a waste.

fuck

so i got a grinding machine at Sunbelt Rentals, along with some rough and finish "blocks", and headed back towards the house....$150 bucks lighter. i have so much stuff pulled outta the basement and into the covered entrance to the basement that it would'nt fit through. so i had to take the friggin' door off the fridge and finally got the grinding machine into the basement. we started grinding about noon on Saturday. finished the rough grinding around 5:30, went for pizza, and then commenced the finish grinding. we got done around 8:30 Saturday night with that part.

Sunday was floor wash and scrub time................again. then we put out the fans and i watched some football while the floor dried.

this morning we put down the stain with a garden sprayer, after taping the walls and stairway enclosure. its a coffee color stain and, so far, it looks decent. we wont fully see the tones until we apply sealer. now we wait. the directions say to wait at least 4 hours and then scrub the residue with a baking soda and water solution to neutralize the acid stain.....then rinse. you can wait up to 24 hours before washing the floor but we may jump on it tonight.

if we do, i'll begin applying the sealer Tuesday afternoon and evening.

everyone needs to run a concrete grinding machine just once in their life......just once.

 

Man, I'm not even thinking about my basement yet. It's fun trying to live in a demolition zone though. Nice job on your house.

I did run a grinder once. For about 30 seconds. I handed it back to my dad and told him to have a good time.

 

lol

i think i will wait and let the stain remain on the floor til tomorrow. that way i'll get the maximum soakage effect. its still wet it spots. i got all the windows and one door open down there. i got it blocked off some but if a damn cat gets in there and tracks up my floor............

 

yesterday afternoon i scrubbed the floor with a baking soda and water solution. i mopped the solution onto the floor and scrubbed with a stiff bristle broom. i worked in sections. then, i rinsed the floor with the garden hose, broomed the excess to the drain. i then got the rest of the rinse water up with the shop-vac. it took me about 3 hours. i had the fans on it all night and most of the day.

this afternoon, i rolled on the hi-gloss sealer. that took about 3 hours too. the tones really look good with the sealer applied. this is the moment i've been waiting for. i also put out 2 small ceramic heaters because it has been so humid. the fumes were terrible. i had a mask but it was still bad.

the floor surface varies from really rough to fairly smooth. i will apply a second coat tomorrow to the entire floor. some areas will need more. the directions say i can apply up to 6 coats but i wont do that many.

this project has been a tough one. venturing into the unknown is not something that settles well with me, especially when lots of time, money, and hard work are on the line. it appears, however, that it has been a success. only time will tell with this resurfacing project. i look forward to building my new work bench and configuring the different spaces in the basement.

..

 

new one and moved

new one and moved out of this old one about five years ago. The base part of the house is a log cabin that is roughly 150 years old. This part is still sound. The rest of the house has been built on in sections over the years and some of it is good and some of it might have to be replaced. I know if needs a new roof and part of the floor. I wonder if I could get a contractor to come in and give me a price on fixing all its problems maybe building

 

sounds like a job for marlinfan

 

hey VI - I saw this thread was bumped and thought maybe you were adding a second floor or something