OK, it’s taken me a while to actually document the painful progress on our concrete floor project. It’s disappointing… not what we expected. The concrete grinding is good in theory, but definitely much more dirty than we thought.
Here’s the docu-drama:
In the beginning, we removed the carpet in the atrium to reveal a pristine cement floor. But, it looked too new for our mid-century home. We looked at many options and finally decided to grind it down smooth to expose the aggregate stone, then seal it.
We contracted with a concrete company that quoted $2/sq. ft. Fantastic! Our atrium is about 250 sq. ft. so $500.00 is right in the budget.
Prep: We did not have the glass install in the atrium yet, so we bought a roll of plastic ($2.99) and sealed off the atrium to minimize the dust in the rest of the house.
Grinding day 1: No concrete guy! No show… where is he. “Oops, forgot!”
Next week.
Grinding day 2: No concrete guy! Now what? “Not done with my other project.”
Another week goes by.
Grinding day 3: Arrived at 8:30 to a city work crew tearing up the water main in front of my house… NO ACCESS to my house! The concrete guy rescheduled for the next day.
Grinding day 4: Finally, the grinding begins. He calls me mid project with a NEW QUOTE… $8/sq. ft. And if that wasn’t shocking enough… he estimated the size of our atrium at 400 sq. ft…. EQUALS… $3200.
You are done. Just clean up and leave.
The house is a mess when I get there. Apparently, he opened the plastic to get access to the breaker box… tracked concrete dust through the house, and then left the plastic open.
DUST EVERYWHERE!
The floor is smooth… but little to no aggregate is showing.
It couldn’t get any worse… or could it?
Solution 1: We decide to just stain and seal the concrete. I buy the stain/sealer and leave it for Steve to apply. He calls me when it’s done and says two words… “it’s dark!”
I arrive home to see a CHALKBOARD BLACK floor! Huh? Thought I bought a dark grey…
Solution 2: Let’s just go over it with a light grey… Huh? Now we have a weird chemical reaction… looks like concrete on an acid trip.
Solution 3: Let’s roll it out. Now it looks like we painted the floor with grey paint. Huh?
Solution 4: I start to SPONGE PAINT. Bad idea. The last thing we want is a faux finish, and I’m not big on craft projects.
Solution 5: Steve lightly sprays the black stain over the grey. It is speckled… not what we initially wanted, but it will work for now.
Note: Actual square footage of the atrium = 245 sq. ft.
I hate contractors like that. The ones that put “con” in “con”tractor.
I think you guys should get their CCB number and file an official complaint with Oregon CCB. For one thing, any future customers might see it if they do a complaint search when they are evaluating different contractors. Further, if you paid them, you might send them a certified letter that you were extremely unhappy with their service and the quality of their performance. Let them know that you are filing an official complaint with the CCB.
Who knows, maybe they’ll make things right and give you a refund.
I’ve dealt with several “con”tractors in my day and I wish that I had thrown down the gauntlet when I had the chance. I might have gotten some different results.
-Dave
Sorry to hear about your atrium floor. But, it doesn’t look that bad now. (I have seen worse.)
I would file a complaint with the CCB. Sending the certified letter to the contractor is also a good idea. You could also file a report on Angie’s List (www.angieslist.com).
We are planning to have most of the concrete floor in our house polished. Which “con”tractor was working on your floor? We’d like to avoid him! You could post the info to our blog or maybe email us at marci_brandt@yahoo.com?
It is great to see another Rummer blog!!! Thanks for all your postings. You have done a lot of work on your house this summer – it is starting to look pretty good, cork floors and all. However, we must admit that we are a bit envious of the pool…
Marci & Nick
http://www.bonniebraeproject.blogspot.com