If you are only concerned about the here and now, you can put down a finish. HOWEVER If you can maybe kinda sorta in the future see yourself putting anything other than carpet or floating floor down there (ie tile) - DON'T!! We would LOVE to tile our basement floor... but to do so will be expensive and messy because the people who sold us the place 'did us a favor' and painted the floor. Now if we want to go with tile we have to strip or sand the paint off and THEN we can tile. Not something I'm excited about doing.

Thanks for your response vineyardflute. We ued a similar product for our garage, but didnt have good luck with it. It peeled. But maybe a basement would not get the kind of abuse a garage does. We stuck with the proper preparation, but it still peeled. The product we used was rolled onto the cement, so maybe your product is different. I will look into it. Thanks Diane

Remove the wax would be the first step. You should never put wax over a clearcoat. #2 would be my suspect for the issues here. Whatever clearcoat she used wasn't compatible with the first clearcoat and she tried to disguise it with wax. Unless you have underfloor moisture mitigation like a moisture barrier and insulation, any basement will have moisture issues with the floor. Concrete is a sponge, sucking up moisture from the soil below and transmitting it to the interior. Trying to address that from only above with a dehumidifier is a teaspoon against an ocean. The hydrostatic pressure of the moisure below the slab against the film forming coating would be suspect #2. Was a moisture test on the slab done before starting this project? Stained concrete in a basement wouldn't be my first choice ever, because of the inevitable moisture issues.

As much as I love the look of a beautifully finished concrete, it is cold, hard, loud and it can be SLIPPERY. It etches and stains BEAUTIFULLY. Yep. It etches like marble. It stains WORSE than marble. It is harder to maintain then marble. And above all else, many homeowners cover up their concrete inside of 7 years....because it is so hard to live with. The concrete floors that have the BEST wear and the BEST lifespan and the LEAST amount of problems are epoxy coatings. Not the "over the counter" DIY garage epoxy finishes at Home Depot, but the professional grade epoxy finishes that takes an epoxy specialist to deal with. A basic clear coat epoxy (nothing special that is SUPER slick when wet) can start around $7/sf. That includes the labor and the prep to get the epoxy to stick. If you need additives (like colour or grit) then the price goes up. A stunning 3-stain finish coated with clear epoxy + grit additive to increase the slip resistance = $15 - $25/sf. Finished concrete floors are a lifestyle choice and not a cost saving measure. And even then, they are often covered up because they are cold, hard and loud. The echo created by the concrete is impressive. It takes quite a bit of extra noise insulation in the walls and ceiling to dampen the sound bouncing around because of the concrete. If you wish to try to live with them, I would suggest getting them prepped and add a microtopping that is burnished (ground and polished) to a lovely sheen. Then leave them be for a while. Yes, they will stain. Yes they will etch. And yes they will crack (spider web like cracks are absolutely normal and to be expected/accepted). Once you have lived with them for a while (even if it is just to get through the renovation) you can decide if they are the floors for you. If you decide to cover them up after all, then the only thing you have done is made a PERFECT subfloor that is ready for ANYTHING. If you go ahead and "finish" them (with stain, epoxy, urethane, etc) but decide later on to put down something else (like tile or stone), you will find you need to get rid of the product you put on them (grinding or shot blasting all over again). The "finish" is considered a contaminant that must be removed before a permanent floor can be put down....including vinyl.