I have an older home with the usual poured slab concrete basement floor. The original owners had tiles down, but they were removed well over 20 years ago. The mastic remains.
Where there isn’t the old mastic is plain ol’ concrete.
My mom is positive that the old flooring tile had asbestos. Knowing it was put down probably 60 years ago, I wouldn’t be surprised. But again, the tiles are gone.
Now we’re having problems with the cats. I have been using cat urine remover diligently, and it does work fairly well. It is, however, a pain in the hindend.
I know murietic acid can be used to remove the urine from the concrete, then I’d be able to seal the floors. The thought of using it in the basement scares me. There is only so much ventilation down here.
Mom said she’d pay to have it professionally cleaned and sealed. I would like it to be professionally cleaned, but I can seal it myself - I think.
Have any of you self cleaned concrete floors with acid? Sealed concrete floors? Have you hired out? Is it expensive?
We have very similar floors in my boyfriend’s camera shop. Here’s what we did WHICH YOU SHOULD NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES DO.
We rented a pressure washer, thought we had enough ventilation (really, it seemed like plenty) and while we did get the floor much cleaner, we quite literally almost killed ourselves.
Do not do that. The electrical ones don’t have enough oomph, either.
So far today I’ve received one estimate - $500 to do an extraction cleaning and sealing of the whole area. Each room is approximately 13’ x 16’ (but the furnace takes up 2.5’ x 8’ of the furnace room). They will move my washer, but not the gas dryer or the hot water heater. They would prefer I at least have the dryer moved out.
I spoke with another concrete guy and he strongly stated not to use the acid. It eats the concrete rather than cleans it. According to him the extraction will remove most, if not all, of the mastic residue and it will completely remove the cat urine. Then he half jokingly commented that if it were him, he’d just get rid of the cat. While I appreciated the information, I declined his services.
I dread cleaning out the rooms. My basement is a pit on the best of days. Tons of the ex’s crap still down here, plastic bins of toys TheKid hasn’t played with in years, and spiders. Lots of spiders. But what the heck. Once the floors are done, I’ll repaint the walls, install shelving for all the bins, and life will be good… Until I move to clean out the family/office area down here.