Saturday, June 9, 2007

Before Going Undercover

The scoring has been finished and the staining is done as well. Not that it was easy. Steve had a bit of a problem with the sprayer (the hose blew off, spewing stain in a heavy stream). The lady at the store said it was fixable - and that even the professionals have accidents like that. Last week, one of their best floor guys had a sprayer literally blow its top, sending a geyser of spray that necessitated them replacing the home owner's ceiling. Knowing even the pros have things like this happen made us feel a wee bit better.
Today after the girls' first swim meet, we picked up some muriatic acid, a deck brush, and the neutral pH cleaner. I practiced with the muriatic acid on the "accident" that got on the back patio. It faded it and would eventually get it all up, but I didn't want to waste daylight for that. I cleaned the darkest patches of stain with the muriatic acid to fade them, then cleaned the whole slab again, THEN put down the second stain color.
It was hot work, but I think we will be pleased with the results. Here is the unsealed floor. The sealer will put the gloss on it, but for now it has a matte finish. It'll be sealed much later - we need to neutralize it and cover it so the framers can start on Monday.

5 comments:

Cynthia said...

I guess I didn't know that all of that has to be done to a cement floor. What type of flooring will you put on top of it when the rooms are all finished?

Kristine said...

VERY cool to see this! It must be weird to have the floor go down before the walls go up! Really interesting to me, Ginger, thanks for the neat post!

Diann said...

I like the scoring. It looks great! The color is a lot like ours and it hides dirt well. It's great to see your progress.

Unknown said...

This is the flooring! Nothing on top but a sealer.

Anonymous said...

AWESOME floors...we wanted to do that to one of our houses, but was too much work for an already topped slab. One day - until then I'll have to enjoy yours!!! Can't wait to see them in person.
E