painting a basement concrete floor

[shireen]

I'd like to paint a bare concrete basement floor. Except for a few shallow holes that need to be patched and some paint stains, the floor is in good shape. I'd like to apply a solid color, nothing fancy, just to hide the ugly floor.

Has anyone done this using Sherwin-Williams/Duron products? According to
http://www.sherwin-williams.com/homeowners/ask-sherwin-williams/concrete-surfaces/basement-how-tos/
I'll need two coats of either Sher-Crete Flexible Waterproofer, H&C Concrete Sealer Solid Color, or H&C Concrete Stain Solid Color.

Any advice on how to proceed? I've never done it before.

Thanks,
shireen

[Melissa G]

1. I painted a garage floor 8 years ago using Home Depot

gray paints. It was hard to get the oil stains out of the garage floor. I was never entirely successful and the paint is now somewhat peeling in those areas. The rest has held up pretty well. I went with a light gray. If I had to do it all again i might have gone slightly darker. The paint does not clean well and I can see the difference as to how much cleaner it is under the carpet.
I like the way stain looks better than paint but the oil stains made me choose paint.

My two cents. YMMV.

[shireen]

3. thanks ....

since it's a basement, i don't need to worry about grease.

[NEOhiodemocrat]

2. I did something similar over 30 years ago

I use Sherman Williams paint, thinking it was the concrete sealer solid color. I painted it and then flicked other colors over the top for a multicolored effect. It held up well, was in a basement side room that we used for toy room. The only thing I would recommend is to be sure you let it cure for a good while (week or so?) before being to rough on the floor. I would hold off on moving furniture on it until then. Good luck, hope you get the effect you want. I loved my little room! It sure made the room look more finished.

[shireen]

4. thanks, that's a cool idea

I'll probably go with solid colors since the room is for my plant collection. But playing with colors would be a cool thing to try someday in another part of the basement.