"Boot Scootin Fun"- Acid Stained Concrete Overlay
One of our larger commercial projects, this is the retail location of a major boot and cowboy apparel retail store located in the Gran Plaza Mall in Ft. Worth, TX.
The existing floor was pretty much a wash; consequently a microfinish concrete overlay was the best bet to refurbish it. This one was a three-coat process, two thinfinish coats and a microfinish coat followed by an acid stain.
So just what is thinfinish and microfinish?, we’ll explain below.
Thinfinish is a concrete overlay material that is the first step in the overlay process. We apply this to create a bond coat that sticks tightly to the floor.
This first coat has a very sandy texture to it which results in excellent abrasion resistance.
As this particular floor was in terrible shape, cracks running everywhere, pits, and a lot of surface damage, we had to apply two thinfinish coats on it instead of just the one that we normally do.
Once the final thinfinish coat dries, we follow it up with another concrete overlay material called a microfinish. It is a special cement material that has almost no sand in it, consequently it has a very fine consistency.
We trowel the microfinish on top of the thinfinish, forcing this material into and between the sand grains, filling the pores up completely.
This eliminates the sandy feel to the floor and creates a smooth, easy to maintain surface. We then hand scrape the floor with a razor knife to smooth it out even more.
Sometimes a customer will ask for an even smoother floor. We can do this by including a sanding step, but at an additional cost. But how do you sand concrete?
One of the unique properties of a concrete overlay is that it hardens with time. Knowing this we wait a few hours after applying the final microfinish coat and then start sanding it before it begins to really harden.
We pass over the entire floor with a large sander that is connected to a vacuum system to keep the dust to a minimum.
