Many homeowners walk out to their garage in the middle of January, slip on a patch of uneven concrete, and decide it is finally time to fix the floor. Up here in Hermantown, MN, the brutal freeze-thaw cycles and heavy winter snowplowing put a lot of stress on residential concrete slabs. By the time spring arrives, plenty of homeowners are looking at pitted and spalling surfaces and searching for a way to fix them.
Floor Refinishing is a solid, cost-effective alternative to tearing out the whole slab and starting from scratch. However, Primetime Concrete Coatings sees homeowners making the same avoidable mistakes during the planning and hiring process year after year. Homeowners need to know what can go wrong during Floor Refinishing and how to save themselves from a massive headache.
Skipping the Moisture Test
Concrete acts just like a dense sponge, and our local soil conditions in Hermantown, MN do not do us any favors. If a contractor shows up, looks at your basement or garage floor for two seconds, and starts laying down an overlay without testing for moisture vapor transmission, do not hire them.
Trapped moisture underneath a new coating will build up hydrostatic pressure until that new surface starts bubbling, peeling, and delaminating. A reliable crew will always check for moisture content first. Primetime Concrete Coatings will not lay down Floor Refinishing material until we know the slab is stable enough to hold it.
Falling for Cheap DIY Kits or Lowball Bids
Everybody likes saving money on home improvement projects. But when it comes to concrete overlays and Floor Refinishing, you truly get what you pay for. Box-store DIY kits might look tempting on the shelf, but they simply cannot handle the thermal shock of moving back and forth between sub-zero January nights and humid summer afternoons in Hermantown, MN.
The same goes for contractors who come in with a bid that is much lower than everyone else. To cut costs, they are usually skipping the mechanical grinding phase. If they do not profile the concrete properly to open up the pores, your new overlay will not bond. Within a single winter, you will watch your Floor Refinishing investment flake right off the floor.
Ignoring Existing Cracks and Spalls
You cannot just put a thin polymer layer over active and moving cracks and expect them to stay hidden. If a contractor does not properly rout out and mend structural cracks with high-grade patching compounds before Floor Refinishing, those exact same cracks will reflect right back through your new floor very quickly. Surface preparation is ninety percent of the job.
Homeowners in Hermantown, MN should take their time, ask questions about the preparation work, and make sure whoever they hire understands what local weather does to concrete. For homes in Hermantown, Primetime Concrete Coatings is here for all your Floor Refinishing needs, and doing the work right the first time means you will not have to think about your floors again for 15 to 20 years or more.