Appreciation post: My basement floor paint job at my place in Mill Woods went totally wrong

I tried using that Rust-Oleum epoxy kit from Home Depot on my concrete floor last month, thinking it would be an easy weekend job. I cleaned it super well with acid etch and everything, but the paint just wouldn't stick right in a big patch near the drain. Turns out the old concrete was sealed with something I didn't know about, so now it's all peeling. Anyone in Edmonton dealt with this and know a good way to strip it without wrecking the slab?

2 comments

2 Comments

dakota_burns961mo ago

Ever notice how the "easy" DIY fix almost always uncovers a bigger, older problem? That hidden sealer is like finding out a previous owner did something weird you now have to deal with. For stripping it, a floor grinder rental is probably your best bet to really get down to bare concrete.

kevin_sullivan1mo ago

My buddy in Phoenix tried to epoxy his garage floor last year. He rented a grinder like dakota_burns96 said, and under that old sealer he found a whole network of hairline cracks filled with some kind of black tar. The fix went from a weekend job to a full month of chipping and patching before he could even start. It's always something you can't see until you're already in it. That hidden layer is just the first clue that the previous guy was cutting corners.