Concrete Resurfacing over Gypcrete

Acid Stained and Sealed Lobby Area

Few months ago Gary Jones and I were in Cleveland, OH to consult on a decorative concrete project. The contractor was fairly new in the business and the area was large (4500ft²) for him to handle by himself. Therefore we were invited to consult on the project.

The project entailed –

Acid Stain and seal lobby areas – 3500ft²

Resurface and Acid Stain two rest rooms – 1000ft²

Time allotted – 4 days (Start Thursday morning and finish it by Monday morning)

Project crew – 5

We had planned in such a way that it was all doable in 4 days and nights. As we all know there are always surprises on every project. When we inspected the project site on Wednesday evening, we got a big surprise. The concrete surface that was to be acid stained in the lobby area was NOT concrete…it was gypcrete! This contractor who was new in the decorative concrete business did not realize that the gyprcrete and Concrete are different and gypcrete cannot be acid stained. (I guess you understand now, why I am not mentioning the name of the contractor).

Since walking away from the project was not an option, we decided to resurface gypcrete with a micro-topping (Sgraffino Superfine, SF). There were two big challenges with resurfacing –

1. Additional cost of resurfacing 3500ft²
2. Time restriction

The availability of Sgraffino SF was not an issue because the products were available in the company warehouse that was located in Cleveland, OH.

To minimize the additional cost of resurfacing, to speed up the application process and to give a smooth surface, we decided to spray the Sgraffino SF. By spraying Sgraffino SF we were able to

1. minimize the cost of additional products required (because spraying increases the coverage rate by at least 1.5 times)
2. resurface 3500ft² in 3.0 hours (1 coat) and
3. achieve a very smooth surface (without any trowel marks)

Needless to say the project was completed in allotted time period and as you can see from the pictures the floor looks great. For an additional cost of $0.48/ft², the contractor was able to give their customer what he promised and still make good money.

Please let me know if you are interested in information like – step by step process (with time periods for each step), acid stains and sealers used, etc. I did not want to bore the readers with this trivia.

Lesson learned from this experience: Concrete resurfacing is the best way to acid stain Gypcrete and one can get great results by spraying the micro-topping. Please note spraying is a good option for large areas and when you already have a smooth (level) surface. Since this floor was very smooth (gypcrete installer did a good job), one coat of Sgraffino SF was sufficient.

More and more contractors are adopting this process on self leveling concrete. Most of the self leveling concrete products (those I know), do not give good results when acid stained. Of course they look very good when dyed and sealed. Moreover self leveling concrete surfaces look plastic (for lack of any other words). The best solution is to spray Sgraffino Superfine. Recently, Hudson Concrete Contractors in NYC used this process (self leveling concrete plus spray) for 18,000ft² in Martha Stewart’s corporate office in New York City.  The floor preparation and self leveling this area took almost a week but spraying the whole area was done in ONE DAY!

I know you want to see the pics…unfortunately we are not allowed to take the pics (if you are in the NYC and want to take a look at the floor, please contact me). The floor has typical New York look…different shades of grey.

Food for thought…how about sprucing up stamped concrete with this process! Please feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss this further.

Wish you all a very Happy New Year!

Thank you

Victor Pachadé

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Filed under: Inspiration by düraamen