Painted concrete and wood flooring

[jocasio]

Hello all:

I am in the process of installing wood flooring on my main level and had a question regarding the process. I am using 3/8 engineered flooring and will be gluing it down. In one portion of my home, I painted the concrete with an exterior concrete paint. I can't remember the entire process of painting, but I do remember using an etching material to clean it. I think I may have put a sealer on it, but I can't remember. M question is can I glue the flooring directly on the painted surface or should I sand it off? I don't want to etch again as that process was a pain. I was thinking about renting a sander from one of the home improvement stores, but I know the process is going to be dirty and time consuming.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. BTW: I started to sand the floor using a belt sander and it is a pain to get it off.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Incognito]

You won't be able to "sand" any decent paint off concrete. You certainly don't want to try to bond a wood floor to it. There are other "mechanical" as opposed to chemical removal methods. Chemicals can't be used to remove adhesive or paint if you subsequently want to bond flooring to it. Those chemicals penetrate into the pores of the slab and contaminate/ruin many future projects like paint, hardwood or vinyl.

So "etching" is out.

I believe on a small scale most contractors would use a diamond grinding disk on a hand held grinder. (vacuum shroud) There are larger, similar or more aggressive discs/plates that go on a floor sander/buffer. Better yet and absolutely essential on a larger scale is "shot blasting" which we tend to refer to as Blastrac because they are the manufacturer of those machines that shoot lead shot onto the surface to remove such coverings as paint, epoxy or existing incompatible adhesives.

You ought to shop around for a pro to take that paint off if you don't have access to a good rental yard that carries adequate equipment. This could be a DIY project but not likely with the kind of tools and hardware the average Joe has on his garage work bench.

 

[jocasio]

Incognito:

Thanks so much for the reply. I've checked out some rental shops and one in particular carries the shot blaster. Unfortunately, it's a bit out of my price range. I think I am going to entertain the hand held grinder method. The area I will be removing the paint from is 300 sf. Not sure if that's considered a small job or not. While researching, I came across a concrete planer. Do you think that would work as well? I'm going to go to my local home improvement store(s) and see if they have what I am looking for. While using the belt sander, it did remove the paint; do you think that is good enough if the paint was removed? Is there something else that needs to be done?

Any other suggestions would be great! Thanks so much for your time; I'm new to this, so I want to get it right. I just recently finished my upstairs flooring with the same wood flooring and it came out great, but that was staple down.

Thanks again!

Juan

 

[FloorMaven]

...machines that shoot lead shot onto the surface t...

The blasting media of choice tends to be steel as opposed to lead.

You might want to take a look at this thread-

http://www.flooringforum.com/forum/f16/what-money-looks-like-2246/

 

[havasu]

In my opinion, if the paint on the concrete is binding well with no chipping or peeling, I would just rough it up as much as you can, then glue the floor down.

 

[FloorMaven]

In my opinion, if the paint on the concrete is binding well with no chipping or peeling, I would just rough it up as much as you can, then glue the floor down.

I think the best bet would be to follow the floor and adhesive manufacturers' specifications. Paint is usually considered a bond breaker and shot blasting is serious overkill for paint removal in a residential setting.

 

[jocasio]

Thanks guys:

I think I am going to go the concrete grinder route with a diamond blade (and of course a vacuum shroud )

I think that will be the best (and cheapest) route for me at this time.

Thanks again!

Juan