The Ultimate Basement Concrete Floor - Part 2

Last week I wrote an article about The Ultimate Basement Floor which received a tremendous amount of interest. Based on the feedback I'm going to write a series of articles addressing the issues that property owners have in their basements.

Over the weekend I received an e-mail from a client who installed a decorative concrete overlay himself. I was amazed with the results.

For those who are unsure of whether they can really install an overlay then this article is for you.

First, this individual had never done this before. He did look around on various sites to come up with his design idea. He purchased a decorative concrete kit which included a tutorial video, tools, concrete, color and sealers and followed the instructions step by step.

He mixed a yellowish pigment in the concrete and applied 2 thin coats. Priming the concrete and applying the 2 coats took him 1 day. The floor had a soft yellow color.

The second day he taped off a tile pattern with 6 inch wide border using 3/8 inch masking tape. Then he applied a water based dye in a golden color lightly misting on with a garden style 1 gallon pump sprayer. He was careful to lightly mist the dye onto the concrete surface and roll out with a sponge roller. This way he was able to prevent the dye from weeping under the tape.

He used a small roller and foam brush to color the border and a square around columns. This water based dye was a dark brown.

Once the dyes were completely dry he pulled up the tape revealing almost perfect grout lines. Finally the floor was sealed using water based concrete sealers.

The walls have white wainscoting about 3 feet high and tan painted walls above. The ceiling has recessed ambient lighting and accent lighting is going to be installed to highlight pictures on the walls.

The room looks complete. The way a basement can and should look. The entire floor application took 2 1/2 days and cost about $1.75 per square foot.

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