"Level Playing Field" - Covering Up a Concrete Patch
Concrete surfaces can be deceiving. While the surface of a concrete floor may be level throughout, parts of the floor just may be thicker than the rest of it.
The base of a column in a home or business, in particular, is likely embedded in a special section of concrete called a “footing.”
A footing is intentionally made thicker than the rest of the floor to provide support to a functional column that, in turn, supports the weight of a roof.
Contractors will typically dig a hole for each footing in the existing surface present on the site. The concrete for the footing is then poured into the hole around the column.
The next step is to pour the concrete for the rest of the floor. The concrete floor is usually much thinner than the footing. Of course, the floor and the footing can be given the same thickness, but this would require a good deal of additional concrete and would raise the price of the overall floor by quite a lot.
The contractors would also need more time to lay down all of that extra concrete. So, to save time and expense, the footings are usually thick while the rest of the floor is not.
Sometimes, the finished floor can end up being higher than the concrete inside the footing. When this happens, the contractor will fix the height difference by pouring concrete into the depression and smoothing it out until it is level with the rest of the floor.
This would create a concrete patch around the column, which would have visible edges. It may also be a different color than the rest of the floor.
The result can look good, but if the concrete patch’s appearance turns out to be an eyesore, that’s where we come in. We can make changes to the finished floor that can dress up the concrete surface and either disguise or hide the patch.
This Baptist church was undergoing renovations when the pastor talked to us about making changes to the floor of the entryway. A column inside the entryway was surrounded by a square concrete patch. The pastor was tired of looking at the patch, and he wanted us to create a smooth, consistent surface across the entire floor.
A direct acid stain to the existing floor would have created colorations and marbleization effects throughout the concrete floor. This may disguise the edges of the concrete patch. Then again, it may not.
An acid stain is always unique, so it can be hard to predict what it would do on any given floor. The pastor opted for a microfinish overlay, which would cover up the entire floor including the concrete patch and create a consistent looking floor throughout.
While a microfinish overlay would cover up the patch, the overlay could lead to potential problems down the road. Concrete expands and contracts in weather, and this could cause the concrete patch to move and create a faint, visible crack in the microfinish overlay.
To minimize the possibility that this crack will appear, we applied a crack fill epoxy to the edges of the concrete patch. This reduces the chances of the cracks, but they could still happen.
We made sure to tell the Baptist pastor about this risk. He was reassured that we would do everything we could to prevent the cracks from forming, and so, we went ahead with the project.
We laid down the overlay material and stained it a deep, rich brown. The new floor looked really nice and gave the entryway a new look. The concrete patch around the column had vanished, hidden away beneath the new surface.
