We bought a house that has a textured concrete floor. As I understand it,
they use soft cement, and put a sheet of vinyl over it, and do things to
make it come out looking like natural stone. Then stain and seal.

Fast forward to today. Walls removed, and no stain on concrete. Long white
lines where walls were. Cut marks losing their grout. Holes where plates
were shot in. White spots where the chemicals in the concrete seem to be
leaching up.

We decided today we're carpeting the whole mess.

How do we get it flat? I would ass-u-me that one would use a filler and a
wide knife and a long straight edge and get it as close as one could. Then
padding and carpet.

What would you use for filler? Any hints on how to apply it so that it gets
pretty flat, and you don't use tons and tons of it? Brand names? Formulas
for mixing it myself if it's just a Portland/sand mix?

Is this a DIY job, or one for the floor guys, providing their price is
reasonable?

Thanks.

Steve

"SteveB" toquerville,utah@zionvistas wrote in message
...
We bought a house that has a textured concrete floor. As I understand it,
they use soft cement, and put a sheet of vinyl over it, and do things to
make it come out looking like natural stone. Then stain and seal.

Fast forward to today. Walls removed, and no stain on concrete. Long
white lines where walls were. Cut marks losing their grout. Holes where
plates were shot in. White spots where the chemicals in the concrete seem
to be leaching up.

We decided today we're carpeting the whole mess.

How do we get it flat? I would ass-u-me that one would use a filler and a
wide knife and a long straight edge and get it as close as one could.
Then padding and carpet.

What would you use for filler? Any hints on how to apply it so that it
gets pretty flat, and you don't use tons and tons of it? Brand names?
Formulas for mixing it myself if it's just a Portland/sand mix?

Is this a DIY job, or one for the floor guys, providing their price is
reasonable?


There are machines for grinding and polishing concrete such as those used
for terrazzo floors. I don't think that they are for a homeowner to use,
but an experienced concrete finisher should have the know how. I think
grinding it down to a smooth even surface would be better than dash patching
that much texture.

On Tue 29 Apr 2008 06:39:53p, John Grabowski told us...


"SteveB" toquerville,utah@zionvistas wrote in message
...
We bought a house that has a textured concrete floor. As I understand
it, they use soft cement, and put a sheet of vinyl over it, and do
things to make it come out looking like natural stone. Then stain and
seal.

Fast forward to today. Walls removed, and no stain on concrete. Long
white lines where walls were. Cut marks losing their grout. Holes
where plates were shot in. White spots where the chemicals in the
concrete seem to be leaching up.

We decided today we're carpeting the whole mess.

How do we get it flat? I would ass-u-me that one would use a filler
and a wide knife and a long straight edge and get it as close as one
could. Then padding and carpet.

What would you use for filler? Any hints on how to apply it so that it
gets pretty flat, and you don't use tons and tons of it? Brand names?
Formulas for mixing it myself if it's just a Portland/sand mix?

Is this a DIY job, or one for the floor guys, providing their price is
reasonable?


There are machines for grinding and polishing concrete such as those
used for terrazzo floors. I don't think that they are for a homeowner
to use, but an experienced concrete finisher should have the know how.
I think grinding it down to a smooth even surface would be better than
dash patching that much texture.



I totally agree. Skim coating or using a filler to flatten the floor can
give you problems later with the skim coat separating or flaking off and
just making a general mess under the carpet.

--
Wayne Boatwright
-------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 04(IV)/29(XXIX)/08(MMVIII)
-------------------------------------------
Countdown till Memorial Day
3wks 5dys 4hrs 55mins
-------------------------------------------
Fat person: Nutritional Overachiever
-------------------------------------------

John Grabowski wrote:

"SteveB" toquerville,utah@zionvistas wrote in message
...
We bought a house that has a textured concrete floor. As I understand it,
they use soft cement, and put a sheet of vinyl over it, and do things to
make it come out looking like natural stone. Then stain and seal.

Fast forward to today. Walls removed, and no stain on concrete. Long
white lines where walls were. Cut marks losing their grout. Holes where
plates were shot in. White spots where the chemicals in the concrete seem
to be leaching up.

We decided today we're carpeting the whole mess.

How do we get it flat? I would ass-u-me that one would use a filler and a
wide knife and a long straight edge and get it as close as one could.
Then padding and carpet.

What would you use for filler? Any hints on how to apply it so that it
gets pretty flat, and you don't use tons and tons of it? Brand names?
Formulas for mixing it myself if it's just a Portland/sand mix?

Is this a DIY job, or one for the floor guys, providing their price is
reasonable?


There are machines for grinding and polishing concrete such as those used
for terrazzo floors. I don't think that they are for a homeowner to use,
but an experienced concrete finisher should have the know how. I think
grinding it down to a smooth even surface would be better than dash patching
that much texture.

The concrete surfacing grinders are readily available from the big
rental houses like United Rentals. You of course have to buy the grinder
inserts to go with the machine rental since they are consumable items.
After you grind it reasonably level, I'd put down self leveling
compound, which technically you should be able to do without the
grinding if you can tolerate the increase in floor height. With carpet
going down and the expected thresholds, the extra height may not be an
issue. As for DIY, I can't say, since *everything* is DIY to me.

On Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:00:20 -0800, "SteveB"
toquerville,utah@zionvistas wrote:

We bought a house that has a textured concrete floor. As I understand it,
they use soft cement, and put a sheet of vinyl over it, and do things to
make it come out looking like natural stone. Then stain and seal.

Fast forward to today. Walls removed, and no stain on concrete. Long white
lines where walls were. Cut marks losing their grout. Holes where plates
were shot in. White spots where the chemicals in the concrete seem to be
leaching up.

We decided today we're carpeting the whole mess.

How do we get it flat? I would ass-u-me that one would use a filler and a
wide knife and a long straight edge and get it as close as one could. Then
padding and carpet.

What would you use for filler? Any hints on how to apply it so that it gets
pretty flat, and you don't use tons and tons of it? Brand names? Formulas
for mixing it myself if it's just a Portland/sand mix?

Is this a DIY job, or one for the floor guys, providing their price is
reasonable?

Thanks.

Steve


Can you chisel a small area of texture off the pad? There is an air
tool a fellow called a "pogo stick". An air chisel used while
standing. Hook 'er up to the compressor.

(sample)
Chiseler/Scaler

Compressed air tool that’s ideal for breaking up and removing old
ceramic or quarry tile.....
http://www.taylorrental.com/item_detail.asp?id=5

SteveB wrote:
We bought a house that has a textured concrete floor. As I understand it,
they use soft cement, and put a sheet of vinyl over it, and do things to
make it come out looking like natural stone. Then stain and seal.

Fast forward to today. Walls removed, and no stain on concrete. Long white
lines where walls were. Cut marks losing their grout. Holes where plates
were shot in. White spots where the chemicals in the concrete seem to be
leaching up.

We decided today we're carpeting the whole mess.

How do we get it flat? I would ass-u-me that one would use a filler and a
wide knife and a long straight edge and get it as close as one could. Then
padding and carpet.

What would you use for filler? Any hints on how to apply it so that it gets
pretty flat, and you don't use tons and tons of it? Brand names? Formulas
for mixing it myself if it's just a Portland/sand mix?

Is this a DIY job, or one for the floor guys, providing their price is
reasonable?

Maybe a layer of those panels they sell for underlayment in basement
applications? Deformable plastic bumps on the bottom, and a layer of
luan plywood on top? No reason they wouldn't work above grade. Only
downside is the height they add to the floor.

--
aem sends...

"John Grabowski" wrote:

-snip-
There are machines for grinding and polishing concrete such as those used
for terrazzo floors. I don't think that they are for a homeowner to use,
but an experienced concrete finisher should have the know how. I think
grinding it down to a smooth even surface would be better than dash patching
that much texture.

I used one a couple years ago. If I remember right it was about a
12" disk- like a kick-ass buffer.

I needed to grind about an inch of tar & mortar?/soft-concrete? off a
floor of what was once a cistern. Only 10x10, but it made quick
work of it and did a decent job.

In a living space I would probably hit it with a skim coat of
self-leveling portland underlayment. If it all seems to be solid I
might just go straight to the skimcoat.

I used whatever HD had for a different job. It was only good up to
1/2" thick. Three years of traffic on that one & it seems to be
holding up good. [we used those carpet squares so I occasionally lift
them and check the floor underneath.]

Jim

"SteveB" wrote

make it come out looking like natural stone. Then stain and seal.

We decided today we're carpeting the whole mess.

How do we get it flat? I would ass-u-me that one would use a filler and a
wide knife and a long straight edge and get it as close as one could.
Then padding and carpet.

Steve, how deep is the texturing? That makes the difference here. If it's
1/4 inch or so, you can just get away with a thicker soft pad underlay for
the majority of it. If it's deeper, then the same stuff we used on a ship
to even the deck before adding tile, will work. It just mixes with water
and you towel it on evenly. Very durable.

Goggle for Thin-set Mortar and the following seemed possibly workable if you
need to even it up a bit.
http://www.laticrete.com/DoItYoursel...1/Default.aspx

http://merkrete.com/merkrete/thinset-mortaradd-1.htm

In your case, I gather you mostly just need to fill in some of the
patterning til it's relatively even.

Use a shag carpet g.