A concrete floor is central to the design of Chelsea Moor. We all love the cool hard surface and easy living of a concrete floor. And, we are OK with the mottled, imperfect look of natural, unstained, concrete.
Concrete Grinding
We learned a lot about re-finishing old, abused concrete. About 1/16 inch of the concrete had to be ground off in order to get down to a clean surface. It was nice to have this job behind us. Read that gritty story in DIY Concrete Re-finishing.
Concrete Patching
When carpet is pulled up from a concrete floor, the nails leave ugly gouges. It would be unacceptable to leave these, so they had to be patched. We experimented with some patch solutions:
Glue & Concrete Dust - When we ground the concrete, it created a powder. We saved a bucket of concrete powder and tried mixing this with Tight Bond construction glue, for a homemade hole filler. However, the glue shrunk back, and left a dip. And it did not give a hard concrete surface. So, overall this idea did not work.
Rockite Cement: This was purchased from True Value Hardware. We mixed this stuff with concrete dust to get a better color match.
Jim’s Concrete Patch Recipe:
6 spoons of Rockite
3 spoons of concrete power (saved from the grinding process)
Water to make a thick paste (about 1-2 spoons)
Mix thoroughly in a plastic bucket. Make up about 2 cups at a time. It sets very quickly, so don’t make a lot. In 15 minutes it will be hard. Fill the holes using a small spatula. It tends to get on the floor around it.
Let it dry overnight. Then sand the excess that is on the floor around the patch.
Thanks for sharing our Chelsea Moor Makeover!
Roselind Hejl
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