Final Cleaning and Washing of the Basement Floor

January 3, 2018

We had another basement day today – our last step before epoxy! I was able to go in to work a little early so that I could get home a little early, and
Liz spent the second half of her last vacation day working to repair the remaining cracks in the floor.

After I got home, we
relocated all the remaining items in the basement, scrubbed down the newly patched concrete, and got to work using a cleaning/degreasing solution.

We went back and forth a bit – with Liz putting down the mixture, letting it sit for about 5 minutes, then scrubbing the areas. After that, she rinsed the area with the powerwasher as I helped clean up everything with our shop vac (a tool I’ve grown to really love, these last few weeks).

We only used the cleaner in a few spots, and it was… marginally effective. But man, were those fumes strong! We ended up having to open the back basement door, despite the cold outside, just to get some more ventilation in the area. A horrible choice, really – smelly fumes, or cold drafs.

For the areas that didn’t get cleaner applied, we still ended up rinsing them yet again, and using the shop vac to pick up any residual water/debris.

Fast forward to us in the back room, cleaning off our housekeeping pad.

We were about 3/4 of the way done, and debated stopping and continuing the next day. But then decided to just keep pushing and finish everything tonight. Final stop time: 9:25 PM. Surprisingly, a lot of the floor dried up by the time we were done with our cleaning.

We’ve done the basement twice now, and I have to say we got it as clean as can be. Expecting one more visit to relocate our big utility sink, and to see if we need to do any additional sweeping.

But that’s it, folks! We should be in pretty good shape for our epoxy application. Which, if all goes according to plan, will happen this weekend. I’m excited at the idea of a painted basement floor – but I’m equally excited at the prospect of not having to do any basement work tomorrow night, after work.

basement liz our first home

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