Footprint Cleanup

Picture yourself walking up to the basement floor you stained the evening before. There they are – footprints leading from the patio door to the stairway. Oh, #%*&!

It can happen, and regardless of who’s to blame, it’s your job to fix the problem.

Chris Mirabal, Senior Tech Advisor, has some suggestions for dealing with the issue.

Reactive Acid Chemical (RAC) stained floor:

  1. Use a floor machine with a black pad and scrub, scrub, scrub the surface. Your goal is to get as much of the stain off the entire floor as possible. Yes, it’s like starting all over. (The footprints will still show up, but will be much lighter.)
  2. Reapply RAC stain using standard procedure, blending in what remains of the footprints.

OR

  1. Use a floor machine to scrub as above.
  2. Reapply RAC stain using standard procedure.
  3. Use rags, sponge, HVLP or pump sprayer to apply Water Reducible Concentrate (WRC) stain to create a faux finish that camouflages what remains of the footprints.

For a Water Reducible Concentrate (WRC) stained floor:

  1. Apply more WRC to mask the footprints. You will likely have to do the entire floor for a consistent look. Faux finishes hide flaws well.

As the old saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” To prevent this nightmare from happening again…

  • Explain to your customer what to expect during the decorative concrete installation, and the importance of not touching the floor until you give the go-ahead.
  • Use caution tape to block off the entrances or to surround the entire area. Use Keep Out signs.
  • Alert other workers on the job site about the importance of not walking on the surface.