Thanks for the exposee on paint components, guys! I'll try the "Latex/Acrylic", Bailey 09. We finished the pour today, I'll get a picture when the form comes off. Laura, I'm leaning toward a huge flower or two, orange Montbretia? Streaks of red-orange and black freckles, once I've tested the "latex" wash. We can sit like drunken bees and gaze upon the glories! Maybe I should use white portland/sand for the top coat? I'd be coming up way above that rebar, Dena, if I can pull it off. My helpers were excited enough to cheerfully put up with a zillion mosquitoes in the inside-of-a-dog's-mouth air, but he's going for solar energy engineering. She is very young, but we're happily sharing Jim Hensen nuts and bolts and she lent me a book "The secret art of Dr Seuss" (great!!) which I'd never seen, so who knows.. (I now feel totally justified getting a weeping Norway spruce) Here's an April view of the location, not the view, but you get the picture. The couch is now over on the left, where you can just see a wood bench on a levelled spot. Those trenches still have to be "laid" with dry mix, heigh ho.. There's a glimpse of the pond on the far left. Here is a link that might be useful:

Hi, I really need your help. I'm doing some painting in my backroom, in my basement, on the floor. In looking up prices on painting the backroom floor, in the basement. It's about $0.50 to $1 per sqft from what I can see. It's about 100sqft with some odd shapes and the area equipment removed from the sum (eg water heater, sump pump, hvac). My nephew had to learn how to do this for this job, which meant I had to learn too, step by step talking to each manufacturer, store personnel etc as he was with me listening as I asked the questions, we both listened. So essentially I had to instruct him even after this pretty much exactly what to do and over see much of this. He is in late 20's. So far we are 1/2 through it. He has etched it, and the next step is painting it. The first part took 5 hours buying and 4.5 hours to etch using acid to make the concrete porous. The next step is two costs of paint. on the floor, It's already bought. My nephew will have to do the trim and then roll the paint, and then do another coat. He has experience in painting so that part should not take that much time, maybe 3 hours then some dry time and then the last coat and then clean up. So I look at this as a learning experience but I want to be fair paying. Any guidance? hp

"Thanks Jmagill, that's what I was intially thinking - but when there is living space underneath, there by code, needs to be a whole lot of extra support. I am still looking for the actual cost. Thank you for yout time.' First there should be no different code for above living space or above crawl space. It has to be enginnered for the weight the floor will be. No one here will be able to tell you the cost because they have no idea on size, where your supports are now etc. I can tell you that we went from floor joists on 16" centers to 12" centers and deeper joists. That will add about 1/4 -1/3 extra on the cost of the floor joists. The factor in concrete and finishing. Concrete and the flat work varies from place to place(maybe 1.50 to 3.00 per square foot for a 2" depth) Staining I have no idea on the cost because we did our own. Then factor in how much you will not spend on carpet, wood floor or tile. For us it ended up less than regular floors. That includes the extra cost of floor joists. Yours will depend on where the floor is supported on your design.

I used Muralo Quik-Tred in our utility/laundry area (concrete floor) 12 yrs ago. In the interim I did one quickie refresher coat in the walk path (which happens to be floor drain area too and yeah, our laundry sink has overflowed on occasion in that spot when someone left a rag in there and it clogged the sink drain when the washer was running.) Last year I repainted the entire floor to freshen it. There were small areas that had pulled up (pea size at most) but again, in the primary walk path. Overall I've been quite pleased with it, they have a nice color selection, and I have taken an old fashioned electric scrubber with rotating bristles to is when is was muddy from dogs and that didn't even phase it. I do keep a lot of rugs down (dogs beds are in there, and basement door to outside). If it were in my day to day living areas I probably wouldn't do it. It's very tough paint and has held very well but I don't know how well it would fly in areas that get much heavier use, such as rooms where furniture could slide around alot (a chair), table legs scrape it, etc. You might find yourself going crazy touching little spots up. I have used Muralo Super Tred (an oil-based formula for exterior). Used it on a rental concrete stoop that had ancient brown paint on it. Pressure washing just would not pull that brown paint off, so I opted to repaint over it. On sides of stoop and backs of steps it looks fresh as new, but on tops of steps and porch there are tiny (fleck size) areas where it's pulled off. (That porch is covered and someone protected from elements.) Also, the oil-based has more shine and would be more slippery than the water based Qwik Tread I used, which is a satin finish. I have seen stained concrete in person (a new local salon I've been to did it during a remodel, very fancy inside and the floors look great, a really appealing look). If you check over in Home Decorating here and ask for photos, I know some members have done it themselves. If you don't want tile, another option might be the novalis vinyl plank flooring that looks like wood. You can see a photo here. oceana did it herself and she paid .98 per sq foot at Lowe's . (It's noted further down in her post). That's about the 3rd room I've seen done in vinyl plank that mimics wood and all look very nice! (Can't beat that price, either ;)