Good thing elbow grease is free

**Cricketlegs** · 08-05-2007, 04:13 PM

because this job stinks lol!

We need new floors. We are on slab.

I decided I wanted to pull up all the stained stinky 8 year old carpet and do stained concrete.

It is going to look great and per sq. footage it is cheaper that other types of flooring with no measuring, cutting, or mietering.

BUT~~~ my bedroom floors have PAINT on them so I have to put stripper on them($30 per room) plus the cost of the scraper($30~~gizmo on a long metal pole saves wear on my back and knees) Sand paper for small hand sander I already owned($5) Renting big sander and sand discs for final sand($40) and gallon tub of etcher($25) and then there is the actual stain, primer and sealer($50) and misc gloves and mop and towels($15)

About $165 per room or so because the scraper gets used in all rooms.

If I do all my rooms I am looking at about $800 to $1000 as some rooms are small so my supplies got further. Also, I am doing it a room at a time so I will be re-renting the sander so that is running it up but it is still cheaper than all other floor and so dog and allergy friendly.

Hard work though.

**auntie2many** · 08-05-2007, 04:37 PM

It sounds like a lot of hard work, but it will be worth it when it is all finished.

**Jaded** · 08-05-2007, 07:50 PM

Why not just paint the floors? You won't have to strip the old paint then. I'm gonna pull up my carpet and paint mine. I plant to paint a "faux" flagstone floor. Pretty easy, from the instructions.

**Cricketlegs** · 08-05-2007, 09:38 PM

I looked at the paint but I am really in love with the stone stained look.

Esp. after my trip to mexico.

I am in for the long haul to get the look I want for my house. I also have dogs and cats and I think stain will hold up better too.

I hope your floors turn out great too! What I like about it is, when we get ready to move we would have had to replace the floors anyway so this way if we do this and the realator says this has to go we can just carpet it.

(Not that I want to move no matter waht dh says--my 3bedroom 2 bath brick comes with a morgage payment of $563....yeah sure I want to move NOT! lol!

**accountantbyday** · 08-05-2007, 10:32 PM

Originally Posted by Jaded

Why not just paint the floors? You won't have to strip the old paint then. I'm gonna pull up my carpet and paint mine. I plant to paint a "faux" flagstone floor. Pretty easy, from the instructions.

I have a friend who did this in her house and it looks fabulous. She did a different floor for each room--flagstone in one room, cobblestone in the office, and almost sponge-paint in the guest room so it looked like carpet, but wasn't. It really looked amazing.