Living on your slab
Who says you have to replace those wood floors?
Thousands of people whose homes flooded from Hurricane Harvey are facing tough decisions about rebuilding or even restoring their homes to livable condition.
Once you’re beyond the “stay or go” question, lists of things to repair and replace may not match up with the balance in your bank account.
One of the most expensive decisions can be your flooring, as every shred of carpet, plank of wood and other flooring left standing in an ugly brew of floodwater has been hauled to the curb.
If you’re looking for options that help you save money, consider living on your concrete slab.
As shocking as that sounds, keep in mind that in modern architecture, exposed concrete is part of what architects consider honesty of materials.
Shawn Gottschalk, principal at studioMET Architects, designed his own home in Oak Forest knowing they’d live on concrete floors.
“Durable, low maintenance and organically, naturally beautiful” are the words that come to mind when he describes his own floors. And, his young son can ride his skateboard indoors and his daughter zips around on her red tricycle on it.
“It has to be taken in the context of its surroundings, everything that goes with it,” Gottschalk said. “Most people say concrete alone is cold, very industrial. Window coverings and rugs and all the interior materials impact the overall feel.”
If you’re considering joining the concrete crowd, you have options. First, though, you’ll need to really clean the concrete as well as anything left behind from previous flooring, such as tacks and glue, or paint left behind when your home was built.
Beyond that, painters and other trade professionals have ideas for you: painting, staining or even epoxy coating. Some require professional help, but there are options for DIYers, too.
Beau Whaley, owner of Epic Paint and Memorial Paint, coaches customers through use of his products, including concrete treatments.
Start by cleaning your floor: acetone helps remove paint or glue and a little scraping will be in order, too. Follow that with sanding or grinding; you can rent machines for this.
Any DIYer can do it, he says, for about 25 cents to 30 cents a square foot, says Whaley, who has stained concrete at home that’s stood up to the wear of several children and two Great Danes.
Melanie Bowles, owner of A Creative Design faux finish firm, says a simple application of paint — it may take two coats — will work if you don’t like the look of your concrete.
Bowles likes PPG’s Break Through waterbased paint, a durable finish that won’t require a sealer. She says it’s so tough you can take sandpaper to it and it won’t scratch. It’s $50 or more per gallon, but it goes a long way, she says.
Colorwise, neutrals are popular — beige, gray and greige — and you’ll want to watch for a color’s undertones to see if they work with your decor. If you’re unsure, paint store professionals can help.
If you’re feeling creative, start with a coat of paint and then apply a stencil. You can put a stencil pattern across the entire floor to mimic the look of carpeting with a geometric pattern. In smaller space, the stencil could serve as a rug.
If a stencil isn’t your thing, and a flat color is, well, just too flat, consider topping it with a glaze to darken a shade or make it look antiqued.
Whaley said a chemical acid stain — its chemical reacts with lime in concrete — permeates the floor with pigment permanently. A dye is acetone and powder which you top off with a sprayon xylene-based acrylic.
If you’re not a do-ityourselfer, consider hiring a professional.
Mark Harrison of Epoxy Solutions of Texas has four water-resistant applications that run about $3.25 to $8 per square foot. And it’s not all that speckled stuff you see on garage floors.
They’re waterproof to water coming on top of it — say, another flood — but wouldn’t be waterproof to moisture that might wick up from underneath your slab.
An entry level treatment puts two clear coats — one epoxy and one urethane — on your concrete for an industrial look. Next comes a pigmented version of that, and he can match any SherwinWilliams paint color.
If your concrete is cracked and you don’t want to live with its imperfections, Harrison can fill them in and give you a smooth surface.
A third version ads the flakes you see in garage floors, but they can also design it to look like natural stone. The last option, which he describes as “hyperdecorative” is a metallic coating that’s entirely custom.
“We do this in everything from retail spaces to all sorts of houses,” Harrison says. “A lot of times it’s people who have dogs and are sick of how much dirt carpet holds or how dogs scratch up their wood floors. And cleanup is incredibly easy.”