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How to make a rough cement floor livable?

 
Nicole Alderman
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We're hoping to turn part of our garage into a family room this summer. Right now, it has a rough cement floor. I don't mind having a cement floor, especially since my husband has fish tanks and cement floor is a lot nicer to clean up spills on than a carpet. But, the floor is really rough. This makes it a lot harder to sweep. It also isn't fun to sit or play on.

I'm wondering if there's an affordable, natural way to smooth it out. Maybe we could put a cob floor on it? Maybe just sand it to smoothness? Something else?

The doorway out of our garage is currently flush with the ground. We'd rather not have to redo the door, so if anything is applied to the floor, it can't be very thick!

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This is difficult to deal with without actually seeing and touching the floor.  I have used a  buffer with coarse sandpaper successfully.  But the floor was mixed and poured by am amateur and was crumbly.

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Nicole Alderman
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I'm pretty sure the floor was poured by professionals, since it doesn't show the poor workmanship of the other things I know the previous owner did. I've never seen it crumble.

The garage is a total mess at the moment (it was pretty low on my priority list with my husband's health issues last year. Now that he's mostly better, we're finally playing catch-up with all the delayed home maintenance!)

I ran out and snapped some pictures of the floor itself. I tried to zoom in on the texture. Cat for reference.
20230203_134239.jpg
Close-up of cement floor
Close-up of cement floor
20230203_134245.jpg
Close up with kitty. Please forgive the mess on the floor--it's hard to sweep with all the grooves in the floor!
Close up with kitty. Please forgive the mess on the floor--it's hard to sweep with all the grooves in the floor!

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If affordable then no tiles, bricks, stones, so I would sand it and maybe stain.
 
Ted Abbey
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Maybe not the “natural” fix you are hoping for.. but you can skim coat it with a cement based coating like Artex. Basically cement, sand, and acrylic admixture in place of or in addition to water. This can be applied incredibly thin, stands up to wear, and is very difficult to remove. They key is a good prep on the existing floor. Pressure wash, then scrub with diluted muriatic acid. Rinse. Scrub with trisodium phosphate “TSP”. Rinse. Dampen the floor, but soak up excess moisture just prior to application. Try to apply when temperatures are moderate with no chance of freezing. You can even color the topping to your tastes with dyes made for coloring concrete.
 
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I've used floor buffers a lot. That would NOT be a fun task. I vote skim it with something, cob or a cement mix. It looks intentionally roughened for traction. Looks like it was broom finished.

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John C Daley
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It looks like a 'broom' finish which is non slip.
That slab may have been poured for a patio and then had a shed built over it!
Sanding may be possible, as may a skim coat as suggested, and an epoxy paint that has some thickness may work as well.
I have seen old carpet or a thick vinyl laid.
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What every garage floor should look like!
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Nicole Alderman
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John C Daley wrote:It looks like a 'broom' finish which is non slip.
That slab may have been poured for a patio and then had a shed built over it!



The previous owner put in a permit for the garage right after he had the manufactured home moved on the land, so, I'm pretty sure he wanted it to be a garage. As for why he wanted it non-slip, well, who knows. The guy was a bit nuts. The actual patio that he built by hand is bricks and cement covered with forest green exterior latex paint. (Six years ago, I actually made a thread about that painted patio)

The actual patio he made, which is very slippery. Why the garage is NOT slippery, and the patio is, I may never know....


Oh, and this is how he build the patio so he could....drive into the garage? It only slopes down directly in front of the garage. So. Odd.

The garage is to the right of this lovely sloped patio-thing. The mind boggles

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Daniel Schmidt
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It's kind of alluded to above, but it's my understanding that you need to acid etch the concrete first, otherwise whatever you put on top will not stay down well. You can sit there with a broom forever and still get a bit of dust off of the surface when it isn't etched.

For a more eco friendly alternative to paint or epoxy, you could try flax seed oil. It would smell pretty potent for a long time unless you used heat to make it polymerize faster, but it's one natural option. The coating it makes on my cast iron pans is really tough, and I have heard of people using brown paper bags and flax seed oil on earthen floors. That might be an option vs trying to sand the whole floor smooth and possibly thinner than adding a skim coat. A skim coat etched and coated in oil might be faster. Just a few idea. Good luck!

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Douglas Alpenstock
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I imagine hydraulic cement, which is almost an expoxy, would bond well. I'm not sure if it would be cost effective though.

BTW, I've seen super polished concrete floors that are deadly slippery when wet or with a bit of snow/ice. Back/neck/head breakers. No thank you!
 
R Scott
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You can soften a broom finish fairly easy with an angle grinder and diamond wheel. At least for a space the size of a garage. Probably $300 for a good angle grinder, good diamond wheel (I prefer Makita wheels because they are the best balanced imo) and a respirator. And a little more for a decent wet dry vac and dust collection attachment for the grinder. It would be a few hours taking your time.  A seven inch wheel does a great job in a hurry, but it is a beast to handle. A five inch will take twice as long but is much easier to handle. A variable speed grinder awesome if you want to spend the extra money.

You will only be taking off the tops of the ridges so the floor height will be practically the same. It also looks awesome after staining or waxing.

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R Scott
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Those same tools also would grind the paint off your patio bricks.

"You must be the change you want to see in the world." "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." --Mahatma Gandhi
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Moira Wb
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I had the same problem in a block outbuilding at my old farm, wanted to make it into a guest room. I used floor leveling compound. Not cheap, cost me about 450 beans, but it worked a treat. You can usually get leftover floor tiles from someone, make a patchwork or so, after that.
 
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Hi Moria,

Welcome to Permies.

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Tom Orotere
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You couldhire a concrete floor grinding machine they have a big disc and you walk behind so no bending and makes things nice and flat and vacuum to make it smooth will take most of a day then use an acrylic sealer.
Probably the cheapest and quickest way.
Even with the vacuum attached there will be fine dust in the air which is best not to breath.

 
Douglas Alpenstock
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Dry grinding will make a super fine abrasive powder that will coat and invade every nook and cranny, including deep in human lungs.

A well fitting P100 respirator is the minimum safety gear for that job. No substitutes, no exceptions.
 
Licia Gambino
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Hi Nicole,
Have you thought about just sealing and painting the floor? I have a similar cement floor & wall situation in my garage basement, which I recently insulated to be a livable space....rustic, but livable.  I'm planning to seal and paint using LIVOS products:  https://ecospaints.net/solid-color-concrete-sealer

I'm so weary of cement dust (!) - I'm going to live with the rough spots.  Great advice about needing protection!.  I actually had the floor and walls professionally vacuumed/steam cleaned so we could use it this winter.  
 
Matt McSpadden
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Hi Nicole,
There have been a lot of ideas on the floor already, but I wanted to mention something I have seen for the door and floor height issue. In several houses when a floor was added that was higher than the door, I have seen a small area left at the normal height (one time it was even a quarter circle shape just the size of the door opening and closing. Then the rug or tiles or whatever else was added. There was a little step up, but not a big deal. Perhaps you could keep a 4x4 area by the door as a place to put shoes and boots. You could keep it cement (maybe painted to make it easier to sweep). Then the rest of the floor would be higher. Tile or rug or wooden or whatever.

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Maggie Ogden
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You could possibly put a "self-leveling" cement over the top of it. That would allow you to refinish the surface smoother. I wouldn't really call that natural though. For a Natural approach I would say rugs. Buy a ton of rugs for the space. Any epoxy, finishers, sander etc. will cost a fortune and I don't think give you the results you are hoping for still. Cement texture is a hard one to change once it's there. Best of Luck.

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Steve Zoma
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I put down 1x3 sleepers on my concrete floor, Hilton-gunned them down, then added shiplapped boards over that and painted it white.

It was cheap, comfortable to walk on, renewable, and fast to install.

When it got “worn looking” ; mopping brightened it to like new. When it got beyond that after a few years, $40 for paint made it brand new.
137C309B-F6AB-4DD6-B1AA-A13E930FCC73.jpeg
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