Painting Concrete

Concrete is a fairly common material in today's buildings. It is something that is used for walls, floors and ceilings in just about every new commercial building or private home. One of the reasons for this is that this durable material requires little in the way of maintenance or upkeep. Unfortunately, there is a slight problem with using concrete as a building material, and that is the boring gray color that seems to be the only shade that it comes in. Concrete floors need a slightly different approach when painting, than does walls since floors typically go through a slightly different forms of abuse. Concrete flooring can be spruced up, and at the same time offered better protection from petroleum product stains. Just follow these simple steps, and you are going to be able to have the flooring that you want.

Materials Needed:

• Hydraulic Cement
• Concrete paint primer
• Paint roller(s) or sprayer
• Concrete paint
• Masonry coating
• Concrete sealer

Project Steps:

1. Clean. After you have gathered all your materials, you are going to need to make sure that you have cleaned everything from the area to be painted. This means that you need to remove all paint, dirt, moisture and other foreign objects form the floor. You want to make sure that all of this junk is removed so that only the floor is getting painted. If the other stuff gets painted, it will flake away later on, thus causing more work for you later on.
2. Repair and seal. If you notice any cracks, holes or other problems in the concrete after you have cleaned, take the hydraulic cement and fix them. Once the cement has been dried, put a seal upon the concrete with the masonry coating compound, being sure that you allow the compound to dry completely before proceeding to the next step.
3. Prime and paint. Prior to painting, you are going to need to lay down a coat of primer. Once you have laid down that coat you need to let it dry completely. After the primer has been dried, you can go ahead and apply the paint. Apply a layer of paint and then allow the layer to dry prior to applying the next layer. Use as many layers as needed to achieve the color or shade that you desire, being sure to allow each layer to dry completely before laying down the next.
4. Seal. Finally you can go ahead and apply a coat of sealant. Let the sealer dry completely and you are finished. Your floor is now the color that you want, as well as being protected against moisture and oil stains.