Concrete in poor condition
Concrete applications, whether printed or polished, often present unpredictable problems due to deficiencies in their processing, or more likely in their application.
A frequent mistake is to add water to delay drying, since it will lose the initial hardness that the concrete mixer gave it. This usually happens when the application is made with extreme temperatures, or simply the cloth is larger than calculated, and the applicator exceeds the re-wetting.
At first the application will not show any problem, and the result of the work will apparently be satisfactory, but after a few weeks of use it will begin a process of degradation greater than expected, releasing dust at first and as time passes and the degradation continues larger particles visible to the naked eye.
Repair
There are different alternatives to repair the floor that has begun to deteriorate, some of them drastic, such as lifting or milling it to reapply the layer, this time trying not to adulterate the mixture, but they are laborious and in inhabited areas or in use, they can be dirty because of the dust and residue that they generate.
Our recommendation is to repair it with a set of primer, Epoxy Putty and Polyurethane Paint, which will prevent us from removing the current concrete and will leave us an impeccable, resistant result while adding other qualities such as wet and dry adhesion.
Preparation
Since the weakness of the concrete has generated a great amount of dust and residues, we will proceed to clean it in depth, being able to use an industrial vacuum cleaner if we have one.
Primer
In this case, instead of the Jafepox 54 primer, which improves the adhesion of the finishing product to the substrate, we have chosen the Solvent Fixing Penetrating Primer to act in depth, helping the weak concrete to acquire a certain degree of fixation, always being careful not to saturate the pore as this could cause adhesion problems when applying the Polyurethane Paint.
In no case should we apply it on a surface with little porosity or in excessive quantities. The Penetrating Fixing Primer will help us to consolidate the support, while the Jafepox 54 Epoxy Primer would have helped us to provide better grip to the Polyurethane Paint.
Putty
Focusing on the problem, we are going to fill the gap left by the loose concrete using Jafepox 40 epoxy putty, a thixotropic putty that once mixed with its catalyst, will acquire a hardness higher than that of the concrete itself.
Painting
Finally, to ensure that we will not have problems again on the entire floor, we apply several coats of Polyurethane Paint plus Jafep Catalyst, this time we have chosen the gray color, and silica charges have been added to turn the resulting surface into a non-slip ramp, very useful in areas where vehicles will transit and may get wet at any given time.
Result
No heavy work, no debris, no dirt… we have solved a major problem leaving a perfect and professional result, turning a defective concrete into a clean and non-slip surface.