A stained concrete floor can bring more than just an update to your space, it can be a piece of art.
Adding color and texture to your existing concrete floor, this type of flooring option oozes subtle sophistication. The pigments penetrate the concrete’s surface, creating an eye-catching mottled effect that highlights its natural characteristics, such as aggregate and veins.
However, stained concrete flooring becomes slippery when it is wet, particularly if it has a coating of high gloss sealer. Getting slippery floors makes them smooth, damp, and glossy which creates a slick situation that makes your movements on the surface risky.
Although pretty, once the concrete’s surface is painted, it can become even more slippery and dangerous, especially when wet.
Most of the sealers and paints add a smooth and thin layer that covers the exterior texture of the concrete. Also, it frees you from its full grip potential.
Whenever water spills over the surface or it starts raining, flooring becomes more slippery. However, it is not always the situation. Experts are already aware of the risk of concrete becoming slippery and slick after being painted.
Hence, they usually take preventive measures beforehand to ensure it becomes as resistant to slips as possible. Anti-slip steps are quite necessary, particularly in public spaces where they are required to minimize the risk of injuries and accidents.
What Can Be Done To Improve Slip Resistance Of Stained Concrete?
There are many solutions and precautions you can consider to improve the resistance of slippery and slick floors. Let us discuss some popular ones here:
Apply Grip Tape
Applying grip tape or slip-resistant pads to different concrete areas helps to offer more slip resistance. Apart from being easy to use, it is also a cost-effective option. Choosing grip tape will also help you increase the grip in your various types of spaces.
Install Slip Resistant Mats
Slip-resistant mats are an ideal option to make an area safer by creating a non-slip surface around wet spots. These mats are specifically designed to provide secure footing and are available in a variety of sizes and materials.
Install them in high-traffic areas, such as near showers, bathtubs, and swimming pool decks.
Acid Etch Or Diamond Grind
If you don’t like the idea of using any tapes or mats, you can opt for an acid etching or diamond grinding technique instead. This process helps to make the surface rough and improve slip resistance. It breaks up the outer layer of the concrete and allows it to adhere better, thus making it less slippery when wet. The achieved roughness level can be controlled with the grinding process level used.
Apply Non-Slip Additive Or Concrete Coating
Adding a non-slip additive or applying a concrete coating to the floor works great and avoids slippery and slick conditions.
The non-slip additive is a fine to coarse granular additive added to the top coating layer. Adding three to four ounces per gallon helps to add more slip-resistant layers.
Besides, using grit additives within paint or sealers is also one of the best solutions to attain more resistance and grip. If you add such grit additives in the color itself, it will not be slippery or have a smooth slick surface.
To ensure that your concrete surface is not slippery or dangerously smooth, double-check whether the sealer or paint you are already using contains a grit additive.
In fact, grit additives are available in different grit sizes to personalize them perfectly.
The way you can reduce or raise the roughness of the surface as needed depends on the area or space of anti-slip concrete.
Add Silica Sand
Silica sand breaks down into tiny granules, which are commonly used as an additive to add sufficient grip to the floor. As it is pretty heavy, it usually settles at the bottom of the mixing vessel, making it challenging to apply evenly.
Therefore, it needs a lot of constant mixing to ensure an anti-slippery surface that evenly spreads as required. However, it also may slightly change the paint or concrete color.
Apply Aluminum Oxide Beads
Aluminum beads are almost similar to silica sand in all manners. It comes on the heavy side, which means it is vital to mix the bucket properly so that the grip is evenly applied over the concrete surface.
However, you need to take a little more care while mixing these additives in because they may also impact the color of paint or concrete.
Go For Polymer Grit
Polymer is one of the most famous and familiar grit additives that are micronized pieces of plastic. Such pieces are very light in weight and are completely translucent. Hence, it does not impact the paint color at all, and it is pretty easy to mix them into the paint without settling to the bottom again and again.
Polymer is smooth and becomes better for walking barefoot, such as in the side area of the swimming pools. Besides, it also has unmatched anti-slip properties. Thus, polymer grit is known as an excellent grit additive.
DIY Method: Finishing Concrete Floor
Apart from the above-discussed methods, you can go for the DIY task if you want. The steps you need to follow are:
- Level the poured concrete and try to smoothen it using a steel trowel.
- Wet the bristles on the broom slightly appropriately after the concrete surface is dry and is ready to work easily.
- Stroke the Workable and damp concrete floor gently with a broom using broad strokes and light pressure. Exerting uneven force on the broom can result in dips or rough areas than necessary. Allow the concrete to cure.
- Wash out or rinse the broom thoroughly immediately to remove all concrete before hardening occurs.
Final Thoughts
The beauty of stained concrete floors is undeniable. However, it may become slippery when wet due to the smooth surface. But, you can make stained concrete floors less slippery and more secure by adding gritted additives or sand particles on the floor to increase traction.
Either let the professional contractors do it for you or follow the DIY methods mentioned above. Most of all, make sure to use the right grit additive according to your area’s needs.
