Concrete floor paint in basement

I don't want to join a home improvement forum to ask one question, so let's see what the handymen here have to say about this.

I have an unfinished basement that I do not plan to finish anytime soon, so I wanted to clean it up and make it look decent. My dad always painted the unfinished section of his basement and looks great. It held up to me and my brother for years when we were kids pretty much without a scratch.

I decided to do the same so I cleaned, recleaned, recleaned...the bare concrete and let it dry for a couple weeks. Looked dry after a couple hours but I wanted to be sure. No issues with hydrostatic pressure or moisture coming thru, so I painted with some Glidden porch and concrete paint. I applied a second coat after about 12hrs.

It looks great and the concrete held the paint really well, but unfortunately the paint scratches like crazy!! Lightly dragging my fingernail leaves a mark.

The paint seemed like it was a good quality, but I tried some expensive Sherwin Williams in a small area to see if it worked any better. Seems to be the same result, but maybe a little better...it's only been 36hrs so I'll see if it dries any further.

If it was peeling, flaking, or scratching down to the concrete, I would assume I didn't prepare the floor properly...but that's not the case. Just the paint on top scratching very easily. I pushed a very light chair with smooth plastic feet and got 4 huge scuff/scratch marks.

Temp is about 65°F, humidity around 25-30%.

Totally confused!! And ideas?

Was it water based? It sounds like the floor is humid. I'd go with an epoxy based product. Stinky, but durable and water does not faze it. Also, I've always found Sherwin Williams to be soft and not very durable. I prefer Benjamin Moore on the walls. On the floor I'd go with a garage-rated epoxy.

Yeah it was a Glidden Porch & Floor latex satin. The Sherwin Williams was called Porch & Floor Enamel, also water based. BTW for the walls, I primed and painted and fortunately they turned out well.

Unfortunately, to do an epoxy I think I would need to strip all the paint off...ugh! And do you mean the 2-part stuff you mix, like the garage floor paint? Or the stuff that just says "1-Part Expoy" (which I've heard has almost nothing to do with a true expox, more of a marketing gimmick)

I would think even the 1-part "epoxy" would be much better than the water based, because it is solvent based and will resist the humidity, but true 2-part can be made better. I just painted some raw concrete with a ready-mix "epoxy" sealer from HD and it sealed up the pores really well and dried hard. This was to slow down humidity as we sheet-rocked over it and are just today getting the final paint coat for the wall. I don't have actual experience painting concrete floors - just going on general principles here and experience painting humid concrete otherwise.

You will want to strip the floors because I don't think what you put on will ever harden, and will sabotage any topcoat.

schizeckinosy said:

You will want to strip the floors because I don't think what you put on will ever harden, and will sabotage any topcoat.

Click to expand...

I agree...more decisions to make now

My experience with water-based paints is that they're good only for walls. I use oil-based paints on trim or any other place where durability is required. If you had posted before you painted, I might have suggested ceramic tiling the basement instead of painting it. Ceramic tile over bare concrete is easy to install, looks great, and will last a lifetime. Since it's a basement, you would just get the cheapest tile going from a surplus place. You could probably find ceramic tile for 25 cents a square foot this way. If you don't find enough of one color to do the entire basement, buy a few colors and make your own pattern! Yes, it'll take longer than painting, but it'll look better and the results will last longer.

You may have moisture coming up from the concrete. The first thing to do before painting a concrete floor is to do a bag test.

Place a clear plastic bag flat on an unfinished floor area and wait 24 hrs. If moisture appears under the plastic, then it is not a good candidate for paint.

markr6,

When you cleaned the floor, did the water bead-up, or did it seem to penetrate the concrete? I'm wondering if your floor had a sealant applied to the surface. If so, your paint is just sitting on top of it.

Regardless, it sounds like you're going to need to remove the paint from your floor. I suggest using a natural one. I've had success using Citristrip. Your local hardware store will carry it, or something similar. Be sure to read, and follow the instructions. It's a big job, and not just a little messy. You'll need to be patient. When I used it on my basement floor, I let it sit for the recommended time then used a six inch trowel to scoop up the goo, then place it into a heavy duty black plastic garbage bag. Open all doors and windows for fresh air.

The floor in our basement wasn't sealed so after I removed the tile and black mastic, sticky tar they used as adhesive back in the 50's I decided to paint it. We, my wife and I, did have water problems so I decided to use paint as stain. The beautiful Mrs. Gardiner used a sponge to apply the two different colors (she wanted a pattern) leaving only what penetrated. 20 years later it still L@@Ks great.

~ Chance

No it wasn't sealed. I could pretty much tell by feeling it and was sure after seeing the water not bead up.

I did the plastic bag test and it was bone dry,

I don't believe this is an issue of the paint sticking to the concrete, because it does. It's just the top layer scratching. Not like it's peeling up or coming off the concrete.

I'll get a photo to see what you guys think.

Thanks!

I hate to say it, but you should have used a binding primer before the topcoat, and no traffic at all for a week or so. Anytime I do floor paint, it's a two week process, or I use an epoxy. The epoxy takes care of some of the final cure time, but still needs a good primer.

+1 on epoxy coatings. I used to work at a studio where we would have to repaint the floor every year or so. Finally we decided to give up on regular paint, stripped it off, etched the concrete with muriatic acid, then laid down a couple of coats of a grey epoxy-based coating. That was the end of the need to re-do the floor, and it's held up for decades of heavy use without a single serious scratch.

I used Behr, 1 part epoxy... ...can't remember for sure but it seems like I used a primer as well. I do remember doing an acid etch as was recommended. Etching was kind of a pain but it was recommended on the can.

Mine held up great for the 10 years we lived there. I imagine it's still holding up fine for the new owners.

I don't have any suggestions for how to fix yours, it's going to suck. Good luck.

I was questioning the paint itself, so I decided to spend about $20 for a small can of floor paint at Sherwin Williams. I painted a 4'x4' area and let it dry for a few days. It seems to do much better than the Glidden. I'll probably just spend the money and buy 2 gallons to paint it one more time.

While in the USAF we had to paint the floors in our shop, to make sure it stayed put we acid washed/etched the floor and put an epoxy paint on it. Only after we got the entire shop floor finished and it dried acceptably and put the tool boxes, engine stands and parts carts back in did we discover jet engine oil which is a synthetic fluid that got on the floor made the surface as slick as a groomed ice skating rink and we had to remove all of the epoxy coating off ASAP We acquired stainless steel scrubber pads and removed all the epoxy. The moral of this story? Make danged sure you really want an epoxy finish on your basemant floor

Good point, smokinbasser. There are some grippier formulations that are less slippery. They dry to a slightly sandy looking finish.

BTW the stuff we used was Garon Tigerbond. They make a number of versions that include traction and decorative colors. Many years ago I was involved in resurfacing roller rink and we used something similar. This is industrial grade stuff and it really holds up.