Painting Concrete Floors

Posted by Kristin Abraham May 16, 2007

I recently had a client ask me to paint her basement floor. This is not a job I cherish but its something my family has been doing for generations. In fact, I've heard that a great great grandmother used to rag roll her basement floor to create an attractive faux finished look. It's not as common today as it used to be but it's still a simple and inexpensive way to dress up a basement or garage floor.

If you're going to paint its important to clean the area thoroughly before. I suggest using a primer because concrete will absorb a lot of paint and primer is less expensive and will save you a little money on paint and because it will help the paint adhere to the concrete a little better.

Then, make sure you purchase a paint that is designed to be used on floors. Obviously, you need something that is extremely durable and using a paint made for this purpose is the best choice.

If you're thinking about getting creative there are a lot of options including stencils that help you create a faux stone or brick look. But even a solid color looks better than plain concrete.

Now, I was considering writing an article about painting the basement floor and I ran across an interesting piece of information I thought I'd share here instead. I've never had a problem painting floors in the past and I've done a handful or so, but this article says that some floors can't be painted. They suggest testing the floor before painting. I'm not standing by this technique since I've never tried it but I'm more than willing to share the information if you'd like to try it yourself.

Take a large piece of plastic, something like a garbage bag or a plastic drop cloth, and cut at least a 12 x 12" square and tape it securely to the floor. Let the test spot sit, untouched, for at least 24 hours and then inspect the ground underneath. If the concrete shows signs of dampness then apparently you have a moisture problem in your basement and, according to the information I read, your floor cannot be sealed and painting may not be an option.

Again, I'm not sure this technique works or is necessary but it seemed valid enough to share and I encourage anyone who tries it to let me know how it goes.