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I have unfinished workshop has a plain concrete slab. It's a 12' x 15' room that is up to 3' below grade. It was built about 4 years ago and haven't seen any water stains on the floor or the the retaining walls.
It has a 8'-wide roll-up door to a small private yard; it's a great space that I'd love to use as a mancave/office/guest room.
I want a practical flooring material that doesn't need a lot of maintenance or worry about damage (no carpet or wood). I kind of like the warehouse-loft look and feel. Polished concrete would be ideal (I think) but it's probably too expensive. Vinyl tiles or industrial carpet squares would probably the easiest and most conventional, but I'm thinking painted concrete with a faux-finish and sealant might look and feel the best and be really easy to just sweep and mop.
Does anyone have any experience with painted concrete flooring?
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Have you looked into an acid-wash?
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I painted a portion of the floor in our basement where we used to keep our big dogs when it was cold or the weather was bad. It is below grade and has held up well. It was an oil-based concrete paint and did not require a sealant, since it was a glossy finish anyway.
![[Image: IMG-2569.jpg]](https://i.postimg.cc/Jn06m2gT/IMG-2569.jpg)
Whippet, Whippet Good
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epoxy coating
not cheap it is
tough stuff, as are polyesters and polyurathane coatings.
Never allow a dog (or a person) to sleep on a concrete floor.
Pneumonia and death from hypothermia.
How about just a big old oval rag carpet for cheap ?
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My studio floor is painted with two coats of industrial grade epoxy paint and it still looks pretty good
even after 10 years of hight traffic flow. It was scrubbed down to degrease it and then etched with acid
(per the instructions) and then painted.
It is showing a little wear in some spots now so I'm thinking of giving it a fresh top coat this summer.
The down side was it took it about a week for the smell to cure out but there are epoxy kits they sell for home use
that claim to have lower vapors.
The concrete staining is an interesting option too. A friend of mine was going to do her basement floor with it
but I don't know if she evr followed through.
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I used one of the DIY garage floor paint kits (the 2-part epoxy kits where you sprinkle color chips over the paint before it dries for a random look) when I built my garage about 3 years ago. Actually applied two coats, as the first batch I bought was apparently out of date and the color pigment didn't mix correctly. That paint has stood up to vehicle traffic without any issues. I'll tell you, the epoxy dries hard. I left the leftover paint mix in the 5-gallon bucket I used to mix it and the next day it was like having a 1.5" layer of plastic in the bottom of the bucket.
I also have a self storage facility where I painted a concrete slab floor with standard concrete paint from Home Depot (I think it was their Behr brand). This floor had previously had adhesive tile and carpet on it (carpet pad stuck down with random streams of adhesive from a caulk gun). After using a floor buffer with abrasive pads to remove the old gunk, and priming the slab with the corresponding concrete floor paint primer, that paint has stood up to foot/moving traffic as well.
Only other tip I would offer is one I saw on Hometime years ago. Stick a 2' x 2' piece of plastic wrap to the floor, with all sides sealed with tape. Leave it there for at least 24 hours. If there is any condensation on the bottom (floor) side of the plastic when you remove it, there is moisture in your floor/slab and you will have paint adhesion issues down the road.
