Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Painting a cement Floor

My short work week gave me some much needed time off and a chance to begin the painting process of my studio floor.

First, I cleaned the floor. Swept, swept more, and swept some more. Repaired some of the deep gauges in the edges of the floor where old meets new. Swept again and mopped the floor to get rid of the fine dust that had settled. Three days later it was finally time to paint.

I went to Home Depot to get the garage and basement concrete floor paint and primer. I picked out the perfect shade of grey as the topcoat for the floor only to find out that they can't just match any ol' color from the paint samples. It has to come from some little booklet in the floor paint aisle. Bummer. Luckily there was a color extremely similar to what I wanted. Win!

First, I primed the floor so that the topcoat would stick to the concrete better and last longer. As I was working my way out of the room I put the can outside the door. I was trying to be careful, to not knock it over as I made my out. Well, that didn't work out for me. I tipped to can over with my foot and spilled the rest of the contents on the pallet/temporary landing to the studio. There wasn't much left in the can after that. Quite a bit was spilled. :(


Photos of the primed floor and application of the first coat of paint.


It's a little hard in the photos to see a difference between the primed and painted floor. If you look closely you can tell that the painted floor has smoothed out some of the imperfections of the primed floor.

After about a day and a half I used the rest of the can of paint to apply a second coat to the floor. This will help to even out the coverage from the first coat. There were definitely some places that needed some attention.


 
I love the even-ness that comes from a second coat of paint. Once it is dry it will look great. The last photo shows the completion of the insulation on the triangle part of the big window wall. Eventually the ceiling insulation will be completed and the walls and ceiling will be finished.

In my last post I talked about the paint scheme for the floor. Now that the topcoat is completed, I could potentially start painting the squares the way I want. Here's the downside: Home Depot does not sell cement floor paint in anything smaller than one gallon. : / I do not need a gallon of three colors of paint. I must do more research and see what my options might be. Also, since I can't just pick any color I want, I have to use what the manufacturer allows in that little aisle booklet, I need to make sure the colors they provide match what I envisioned. I did notice in the booklet that there was a slightly darker grey color, white is easy enough, and a bright not-quite-turquoise-but-close-enough blue that would work great for the floor squares, if the paint came in a unit smaller than a gallon.

The progress is slow, but I enjoy being able to do some of the work myself instead of paying someone else to do it for me. A part of my creativity and hard work will always be a part of this studio, and I love that.

There is so much more to do with the studio, as well as home life. Work days and birthdays are coming up so I am trying to get ahead of the game. I made the cake that will be for my daughter's and husband's birthdays Friday and Sunday. I made two round cakes from one box of mix instead of just two cakes. Their birthday's are two days apart and we don't need that much cake in the house. One round cake will be for the girl and the other will be for the hubs. Presents have been taken care of and decorating the house will take place on Friday, as well as finishing the cake for my girl.

Back to work for me.

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