[Duke76]

I recently bought a home that has an unfinished basement with a concrete floor. The floor has been painted but was apparently not prepared properly and the paint sticks to whatever is placed on it. I'd like to remove the old paint, properly prepare the concrete, and repaint.

I would appreciate any suggustions as to how to remove the old paint.

Thank you,

Duke76

 

[sirwired]

Stripper, if you can stand the fumes, or maybe a pressure washer if it has a drain?

 

[Duke76]

Thanks for the reply. There is no floor drain for a pressure washer. I have a marine aquarium located nearby, in a finished area of the basement so the fumes from stripper would be a problem. May be the only solution though.

 

[yummy mummy]

I finished doing just that. Removing paint from concrete basement.

I also did not want to use a stripper with fumes so I was able to find a product call safe strip that has no fumes, enviro friendly, water based that works really well.

It is pricey but worth it to me.

 

[NAV]

you are going to have to scrape it up or use a floor buffer with a sanding pad. sounds like most will come up easily.

the problem may not be a prep issue. you said it's a basement. the floor is below grade so hydrostatic pressure will cause moisture to come up through the concrete. if that is the case you will not be able to coat the floor with any type of paint (possibly a slurry coat but that runs close to $20 per square foot for jobs over 10,000 sf)

you are better off just using an indoor outdoor carpet and gluing it to the floor (bet you can do it for under $6 per sf). leave the existing paint it will help when you go to replace the carpet after a flood.

there are other options that involve moisture barriers and sub-floors but you are getting up to the $20 sf range again.

 

[slickshift]

Rent a floor grinder from your local rent-all shop
Removing all the old coating and applying a new proper one is the solution

 

[poppameth]

If you want to strip it look into Peel Away 1. It's a thick paste you put down and press a paper into it. Let it go overnight and you should be able to peel back the paper with a putty knife and take all the paint with it. This product is zero VOC. No fumes. It'll still burn your hands though if you don't wear gloves. It does require an acid neutralizer afterwards though.