How to Repair a Concrete Floor
With concrete floors in use both inside and outside these days, homeowners tend to pay more attention to the condition of those floors. Keeping your concrete floors in good condition is not as hard as you may think. Rather than hiring expensive services to deal with cracks and similar damage, you can purchase a few basic materials and do the job yourself.
The concrete floor, long a part of the carport and garage, is increasingly showing up in family rooms and other areas of the house. Like any type of flooring, a concrete floor is subject to wear and tear due to settling, shrinking and expansion in different climates and plain old day-to-day use. Fortunately, there are ways to manage quick repairs to the cracks that often appear on floors of this type and enjoy a few more years of use.
Things You Need:
- Mop
- Brush
- Detergent
- Concrete filler
- Chisel
- Trowel
- Latex bonding compound
- Concrete sealant
- Clean the area in and around the cracks thoroughly. For smaller cracks, use a hand brush or a broom to remove any residue. Larger cracks will require cleaning out using a brush and possibly a chisel to dislodge larger fragments that are embedded in those cracks. Finish the cleaning with the use of a cleaning or detergent product and allow the area to dry thoroughly.
- Fill the crack. Use concrete filler to level the crack out with the surface of the concrete. Once the crack is filled, utilize the trowel to smooth off any excess so the patch is even and relatively smooth. Allow the filler to dry.
- Prepare to stain or paint the filled crack. Apply a thin coat of latex bonding compound if you plan on painting the area. If not, apply the stain or dye according to instructions that come with the product.
- Seal the repaired area. Once the crack is covered and the paint or stain has dried, add a coating of sealant to the concrete. This will help minimize scratches and also help to slow down some of the wear and tear that could trigger additional cracks in the future.