How do I repair the concrete on my living room floor?
by
Kod4773541
+7
A little background information. My son has been sick and we were told that it might help his allergies if we got rid of the carpet. Once I ripped out the carpet I found chipped/cracked concrete in the living room. My house is on a slab foundation. It is not uncommon to have foundation cracks in our area. I had a foundation man come out and he said that he could charge me $11,000 to fix it, but he would be back in a few years to charge me $11,000 again. I personally think it is from water erosion because the yard was slanted towards the house when I moved in. My son and I have since fixed that issue. Right now I would be hard pressed to come up with more than a couple hundred dollars. I want to repair it and put down some kind of floor, but as you know we need a fairly level floor for anything other than carpet. How should I proceed from here?
Related Discussions
Suggested Project Book
Repair any cracks by carving out a V shaped channel and fill with concrete mix. There is a self leveling concrete out there check with your home improvement store.
Hi Karen, last summer I pulled up all my carpet too and also have cracks in the foundation. I haven't had anyone come over, but also know it's very normal in Texas with the clay-ish foundations of "dirt" here. I got a garage flooring company over to sand off all the mastic (Glued areas where the carpet was) and it was dusty, loud and took about 3 days to work through all the areas. About 1200 square feet. Sanding down the concrete, dusting, cleaning (mopping with very little water). The edges of the walls where the carpet tacks were had holes. We put concrete patches on them and outlined the entire house along the walls with a black stain (taped so no bleeding into the natural color and polished concrete areas, then put down a clear epoxy (2 coats). It looks great and so much easier to care for and live in. I hope this helps give you some ideas. My cracks still show with the clear epoxy and at this point, I just call it character. :)
here's a couple of pictures I have of the epoxy being put down
You can fix cracked concrete and resurface it yourself. May take time but worth the effort to save money. Then you can lay down any flooring you choose. You can even paint it for a budget friendly finish. Just type in "paint concrete" in the search box and see what other Hometalkers have done.
https://www.quikrete.com/athome/video-resurfacing-concrete-slabs.asp
https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-resurface-concrete-1398156
https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-repair-concrete-floors-1398172
The epoxy kit called "Rock Solid" by Rustoleum is a great product to use on concrete floors. Nearly any concrete floor will have indentations and blemishes no matter what, so sometimes you just have to go with that. Maybe create an "industrial" vibe in your home and use the concrete problem to your advantage. The epoxy will "seal" the floor and then make it easy to mop and maintain afterwards with a simple wet mopping. Good luck!
Thank you Janice!