Wuzzat?

It's worse than that.
I ran into an auto mechanic years ago who had the most bizarre notion of how electricity works and yet he sort of made a living fixing cars.

I use these stores to see what's currently available because I tend, too much, to make my own stuff.
'Cause I'm cheap!

slownsteady

To the OP: Why do you want a concrete floor in the first place? Have you considered a different flooring material that might cover the rough floor without making all that dust & noise?

nealtw

Our local HD has two guys that work in the same dept. One I have known for years from a different store and he knows his stuff. The other guy is just a waiste of lunch. The problem is the average diyer can't tell the difference.

CallMeVilla

SlownSteady has a point. You could cut your work dramatically with a different floor treatment. Vapor barrier and laminate is easy -- and trendy -- and fast. Unless the existing really sucks . . . you could avoid all that mess by covering the mess and getting on with a beautiful finish job.

Well???????

nealtw

Learning any of this in a small room like area that will be bathroom would be a good start then decide to go ahead with the plan if successful.

roomtogrow

thanks for all the responses.

i do prefer stained concrete just because I've had them before and because we have kids who track in lots of dirt. we live in the South; so, the harsh winters and cold floors are not really a concern.

i'm probably going to take the advice of trying grind the concrete in a smaller room or bathroom to test my skills; then, if i'm successful, keep going - or, if not, put down a floating floor of some kind.

any suggestions on what size grinder? a local rental place has an electric walk behind 6 stone grinder that i can rent for $82 a day, or a 3 stone for $64 per day (understanding, of course, the grinding pads are not included - those are $7 or $8 each).

CallMeVilla

Well, the bathroom is not practical for the floor polisher type grinder. It will fly all over the place if you do not know how to handle it. You are better off trying a small bedroom size area. Trust me, these things can be horsey!

There is another model that is more stable, with a flat front on it. More expensive to rent but might work. Just do your homework before jumping in too fast.

roomtogrow

so, I'm midway in the process of grinding with heavy grit stones (using a 6 stone grinder) my basement floors that appeared to have been rained on during the pouring process. many of the rain impressions are so deep; I'm afraid I would have to expose the aggregate in order to grind them out. the floors were so uneven that it would've been impossible to lay tile or very difficult to even lay hardwood. so, if the staining doesn't work out, at least i'll have some smooth floors to work with. i like taking on challenging projects; but, my gripe is with the builder - could he have not taken some measures to smsmooth out the concrete?

BridgeMan

The floor pictures indicate that the concrete placement wasn't completely finished--just poured a bit stiff, struck off and hit with a few bull-float passes. Contractor probably sent the boys home early to avoid paying them any overtime that day.

True "finishing" involves working the surface of the fresh concrete with floats, bringing up the fines (cement and sand particles) by repeated back-and-forth motions, to fill in the voids between all of the coarse aggregate particles. Your floor's voids were never filled. Meaning your contractor took advantage of the fact that you accepted the floor's condition when you first moved into the home. Too late now, but you should have required the contractor do everything you're now doing, or install a nice tile floor over the mess he left (the open voids would make a great bonding surface for thin-set). Either that, or hand you a check to cover the cost of having the work done by someone else.

nealtw

Sure looks better.