After the debacle of last Saturday's floor sander rental _attempt_, we ended this week with two coats of sealer on our sanded and stained concrete floors. It required 6 straight days of persistence, fortitude, and effort.
Katie rolling the sealer on the concrete floor
On Monday afternoon I returned to our local Big Box rental department and retrieved the floor sander with _all_ the necessary accoutriments.
Katie and I made a terrible mess sanding all three floors, from top to bottom.
It's difficult to comprehend how much dust is generated by a concrete floor sander. Cleanup sucked -- sweeping and vacuuming. Lots of it.
Acquired a few battle wounds. That sander if very torquey -- it took a while to get the hang of it.
After spending all Tuesday evening cleaning-up Monday's mess, we realized we would need to mask off the bases of all the walls and doors prior to staining. And after spending Wednesday on our sides and stomachs masking off the walls, we also knew we'd need to mop and dust the floors before sealing them.
Masked off all the walls prior to staining.
On Thursday, I met the shower/tiling contractor on site in the morning to get him oriented. Then drove home for a day of office work.
Niche in the shower room completed and the shower pan started.
Shower floor tile.
On Friday morning, I ventured to Cadman and asked them to recommend a concrete floor sealer.
I'm grateful it was a water-based sealer, because with an oil-based sealer we would have needed respirator masks which are now IMPOSSIBLE to purchase due to Covid-19.
After all our clean-up work, I had what seamed like a brilliant idea to rent a power mopper to get the rest of the dust up with minimal effort. ...another trip to the Big Box rental department.
The power mopper fit successfuly in the back of Katie's car, but was a bust.
I spent almost an hour trying to figure the power mopper out Friday evening. Watched their YouTube videos twice. The machine just wouldn't reliably spit out water, or reliably clean it up. I put it back in the trunk of the car, got the regular old mop from the garage and spent a couple hours mopping the floors Cinderalla-style.
Saturday was seal-the-deal day. Before beginning with the sealer, we spot checked all the rooms to scrape a restain spots and areas that had gotten drywall mud on them that was lifted by the sander earlier in the week. I sacrified one of my woodworking chisels, which worked wonderfully to scrape down to raw concrete, but it will now need some major sharpening before it's useful for wood again. A quick restain, which dries in 15 minutes. Katie dusted the floors in each room once again, and I came behind with the sealer and a 3/8" nap roller on a stick.
The first coat of sealer took about 2 hours to apply. We took an early dinner and river to 59er Diner for fish-and-chips to allow the sealer to dry. For the second coat, I did the pouring and Katie did the rolling. After 2 coats, we still have about half of our first 5-gallon bucket of sealer left.
We pulled away at 8pm feeling very satisfied. (Although, due to a bunch of tile supplies sitting on the basement floor, there are, technically, still a few areas that will need to be sealed after he's finished.)
Lessons Learned
- If it's your first time using a rental tool, make sure they give you *everything* you need. Have them show you how to use it.
- Let go of the trigger when the floor sander gets away from you. Bruises heal themselves, wall dents don't. (Sorry, Katie.)
- It's not possible to spray a floor near a wall without spraying the wall. Just plan on masking stuff off. (Sorry, Katie.)
- Sprayed stain bounces off floors. Be careful which way your spray head is angled or you're gonna be repainting. (Sorry, Katie.)
- Don't rent a floor mopper -- regular mopping is far less effort and lots cheaper. RENT a really good concrete dust vacuum.
- Thank God EVERY DAY for Katie.
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