I built my shop in 92, 40x70 and the floor was sealed. Over the years I kept the spills cleaned and salt removed from where the vehicles park.

I'm planning a good deep cleaning this spring and want to refresh the floor. I need advice on a cleaner that can be applied with a hand sprayer that would remove most stains and left over sealer, followed by pressure washer and a reseal of the concrete.

All ideas list them, this isn't a spot spray deal, but a whole building floor.

 

Wow... not one reply, looks like I'll have a nice article to post when I'm done.

 

Sure, get yourself a good strong, VOC compliant Citrus Based cleaner from DSSCC. Their products are for industrial/commercial applications and work about 10,000% better than any crap you are going to buy at Home Despot, or Fall*Apart.

They also offer sealers, ranging from nice easy VOC compliant stuff, right up through a really strong garage/auto industry sealer that resists brake fluid.

The products are available from concrete contractors supply houses.

Here is a link to their offerings:
http://www.daytonsuperiorchemical.co...oduct_home.htm

The 800 number to the office serving Ohio is 800-745-3700.

They can get you a local dealer.

 

I have used a product called Oil Eater on my unsealed driveway spills and it works fairly well. I am uncertain though if it would remove residual sealer. I have seen product coatings especially for garage and shop floors that are epoxy based and look very nice. They use a treatment with muriatic acid and a rinse before application. They look like a textured paint. Home Depot offers installation but you can probably do it yourself. If your sealer has done a good job, look at it, was there a recommendation for a solvent to clean up excess? If there is a material data safety sheet it usually has the composition and solvent. When I worked in grocery stores we used a floor machine with a green scrub pad which you could probably rent. As long as you have cleaned the surface, removed contaminants such as oil, wax, if you reseal with the same or compatible sealant, not sure you need to remove it? Muriatic acid would probably remove residual sealant but I might be relunctant to use it. It is supposed to etch the concrete to get a better bond for whatever you apply. Let us know what you find.

Scott

 

From all of the research I have found, acid based cleaners are not recommended. Where I work we have a stripper like whowey mentioned. The local rental store has a floor scrubber with a variety of pads.

 

What type of sealer or coating was used initially on the floor?

 

Spray applied, water based sealer I think, smelled like deisel fuel or Thompsons when applied.

 

I recommend going to each of the big paint shops in the area. Around here, that's Sherwin Williams and the like.

In the end, for my project, I saw that cleaning and resealing wasn't going to work. Had the sealant been better. Had its condition been better. Had the floor been smooth, I would have just cleaning it up and resealed it.

Keep in mind that the strongest chemical in an auto shop is the tire touching the floor, so in a peculiar way, that's your enemy.

Oil Eater is great because it doesn't attack asphalt but it's pretty heavy (it leaves a lot of soapy, residual chemicals) so it's better as a cleaner than as a preparation.

 

Sealers are usually either water based or solvent based. If it smelled like diesel fuel it may have been solvent based. Did you have to mix it when you applied it? You will probably need to use the same type when re-coating.

 

No on the mixing, your probably right on solvent based. The guy that originally poured the floor used it, I did some Thomson's where the salt dripped down of the vehicles and had no problems with reapplying it.

 

Call that concrete chemical company listed and ask them for a recommendation. Usually the water base products are concentrated and mixed at the job site to save freight costs, no use shipping any more water than necessary.

 

Unless you're putting down 100% epoxy solids, there will be a solvent that cures the paint. Whatever you use, it's either mixed at the paint shop or on site and Epoxy has to be mixed at the site and applied within minutes.
I'd also suggest you look at the existing floor for any evidence of hydraulic activity and consider a water barrier sealant. If it matters all that much.
Cleaners like muriatic acid are vicious but necessary depending upon what you're cleaning and whether it can be sanded instead -- excessive sanding can create problems, but a little sanding can help create that pool-table, glassy-smooth finish you might be wanting.
Rotary sanders are slow and ineffective.
Try to get a belt sander (and, like almost any sanding job, start with the finest grit, work your way up to the least coarse grit that gets the job done, then come back down to a fine grit to finish.
An essential step is to rinse and dry and vacuum and repeat until water runs clean on the surface, otherwise the paint will be trying to hold onto dust and grit and it will break because it doesn't have adequate support. So make sure there's no dust or grit once you're done. Anticipate going through some materials. If you're using something like a wet/dry or dust-vac, you'll be pumping dust into the air which will settle over night and you'll still have a dirty floor to clean. An industrial vac can be an expensive deal. I used water and leaf blowers (despite not having good run-off) and just had a line of guys blowing the water out the door. Water tends to sheet and flow if you let it and that helps carry dirt in the water. Letting water stand and evaporate obviously leaves the grit behind, so you have to pretty much work quickly and get all the water flowing out the door. That's pretty dirty, often polluted water, so have a chemical absorption barrier (usually looks like a ten inch thick snake) that's large enough to create a catch area, then the clean water escapes or evaps.
So it's a ton of work to get a really excellent result.

 

You would be honestly suprised how many people would rather use 'ready-to-use' products rather than have to bother reading and measuring.