How to Paint an Interior Concrete Floor

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Tim Gipson. I'm going to talk to you about how to paint an interior concrete floor. Now, we've actually got a finished floor here. Now, the first thing we're going to do, if we're going to paint a concrete floor, is you're going to have to really take everything out of your garage, so you have to completely empty your garage, or your interior, the area that you already have the concrete floor, and make sure that it is completely clear. Then the next thing we need to do, is we need to prep. Now, if it's new concrete, you need to let it set for at least thirty days, before you do any painting on it. Once it has cured and set up, then what we've got to do, is clean or etch it down. The best way to do that, is to use more friendly etching solutions. There are citric based solutions now, that you can use, to clean and etch your concrete, that are not quite as dangerous or harmful to use, as the traditional method, of using muriatic acid. It's a lot easier to clean and clear out, so anyway, now one thing you do when you're painting a floor, such as this garage, this particular paint is an epoxy paint, so it has a base coat, and then you see all these speckles in here. That's actually dried paint, and this comes in a kit, and you can go to any home improvement store, and you can buy this kit, and again, it's an epoxy based kit. It comes with the cleaner, the floor prep, and it has good instructions. Now, the most important thing when you're painting concrete, is your preparation. You need to make sure that the surface is clean, so you want to make sure you do a thorough cleaning, with the cleaning product, and then you want to make sure it's rinsed thoroughly, and then you've got to let it dry, so it's usually a good idea to let it set for about 36-48 hours, let the floor dry out really good, and then you can come back, you apply your coating, and this coating, we just brush out in the corners, just like using a typical paint brush, and then to roll it on, using a roller and a pan. You work in about four foot by four foot areas, and as you paint, then you come and you just take a handful of the dried paint shavings, and you just sprinkle it over that area. When you do that, you end up with a floor like this, that is very durable, and the speckles help to hide some of the dirt, that you tend to get on there, so I'm Tim Gipson, and that's how to paint a concrete floor."