Photos of unfinished cement panel floor (hardibacker)

I link back to livemodern when I click on the thumbnails. I don't know how to make them bigger when you click them. Sorry! I'll add a link to snapfish for full sizes..

Here are some of photos of my experimental Hardibacker floor. We set the tiles 'wrong' side up on purpose. It has less print than the right side and we liked the color/texture. We used two coats of garage floor epoxy. I'd like them to have a glossier finish so we'll experiment with waxes and other topcoats.

Some of the panels are permanantly set and some are not. You can tell by the uneven grout lines. The ones that are even - are set. We haven't grouted yet either. Not sure what we'll use.
Some of the panels will need to be replaced because we dried them standing on end and they bowed....also we used underfloor heating and it didn't go so well. The connection was not as thin as the distributor claimed and it sort of buggered us...not a big deal.

What else? Oh yes..I left one panel dirty so you can see how well it holds up and doesn't show dirt. The only problem I can see is that the four corners MUST be even/level otherwise it will wear unevenly....like anything else. I think we'll use a different pattern when all is said and done. You know how they set subway tiles? Offset instead of a grid? I think we'll do that to eliminate the problems with the corners.

That's the great thing about this stuff...it's totally cheap so you can pull it up and re-do it if you have to.




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Here is the link so you can see the photos full size

You don't have to log in on shutterfly just click to view the pictures.

Very cool. It is great to see how an imagination can create something so innovative. I like the idea and have not seen it before but hope to see it again.

Excellent. We are considering using Hardipanel as a wall surface in our guest bathroom renovation. It's the same material as the hardibacker, but comes in 4x8, 4x9, and 4x10 sheets with a smoother surface. Home Depot has them available for special order at less than $1 a sq ft.

On a floor, I would be worried about the surface fraying. The material will wear down fast, but some sort of wax or epoxy or urethane might help. For the walls, we were expecting to put some sort of epoxy up, but we were not sure if we would stain the hardi and put clear coat on top, or just use an epoxy paint.

- Chad

Chad-
I tried the HardiPanel from HD also. I liked it because it was nice and smooth. The problem I had was that the 'right' side of the panel is already primed and I wanted a more natural concrete look. I considered using the underside of the HardiPanel like I did with the Hardibacker but the underside of HardiPanel has cream colored paint streaks that were nearly impossible to sand off. If I had planned to paint the panels then it wouldn't be a problem.

Will the Hardipanel accept a stain with it being preprimed? How do you plan on attaching it to the wall?
I've heard butchers wax will make it shinier but I've never seen butchers wax and when I asked at HD they didn't know what I was talking about. If you find a wax, I'd like to hear about it.

I used 3x3(I think) panels of Hardibacker as a wall treatment in my salon and used metal flashing as a reveal. We used lag bolts to attach it to the wall and it looks pretty cool. People always ask are those doors? Do they open? and one person said it looked like a mausoleum....
cool!

Would you need to have grout lines w/ cement board? Couldn't they be butted up against each other?

Already primed, eh? I thought that was justfor the in-store display. Thanks for the heads up, guess that means I'll be doing the epoxy paint route.

I was somewhat undecided about the manner to hang them. The larger panels laid horizontally allow me to not have any vertical seams. I was thinking about using stainless steel thumbscrews to make something that worked as fasteners and as small hooks. But I think the fasteners would look best with smaller panels. Just putting the panels up with some thinset would hold them just fine, so it's a question of how I want to treat the single large horizontal seam running around the room. My ceiling in there is just a hair under 8 foot so the two panels would only leave the one long seam. Hmmm... Maybe some iron or steel covered with an epoxy? Then I can attach all sorts of shower and bath accessories to the stip with magnets? Or mount several of those ikea GRUNDTAL rails? I could also just put a 1 strip of glass tiles, perhaps backpainted with glow in the dark paint?

Ah, I love home renovations.

As for staining the hardipanel, I wanted to try some concrete stain, the kind with nasty salts, acids, and VOC's. Like http://www.distinctiveconcrete.com/images/cellarFL_acid.jpg. I would have to try it first, though, since hardi is exactly concrete, but as a lot of other stuff mixed in to reinforce it. As you point out though, this won't work at all for panels with primer on them. Darn labor saving factory finishes! Actually... Why sand? I bet some stripper would do wonders... My wife put polyurethane floor stipper on our steel entry door, and in less than 20 minutes we had a gleaming bright front door.

- Chad

Yeah, the hardipanel is not only primed, but sealed too. Bummer. The hardibacker actually says it can be painted instead of tiled over. So more power to you...

- Chad

SLenzen- Yes, you could butt the panels right up to each other. I wanted the look of scored concrete. I don't about the grout or what to use in place of the grout. The lines are super narrow 1/8 spacers.

Chad I never thought about stripping them. That just might work.
Sanding is horrible and you're continually reminded that your inhaling silica even with a mask on. Almost need a respirator.
Any word on that wax I'd like to know. I steam cleaned a little yesterday and noticed that one of the corners is looking 'worn' but I think it's because the corners are uneven right now..who knows. We're SO in the middle of the remodel. I still have raw drywall ceilings and walls.
I don't even like to open the front door all the way. I squeak out for fear of someone thinking I live in a concrete cave.

Cement Board---- I have gotten samples from a few companies, and in the small sample size, Certainteed seemed to be the smoothest ----if that is what you are looking for. I ended up getting Cem-Stone from U.S. Architectural Products because I wanted unpainted wall panels. All the cement board products seemed to be ink jet printed, unavailable in the northeast, or painted. Cem Sone is more $ (88 $ per 4x8) but by the time you factor in the labor , stripping sanding...........I haven't installed it yet so we shall see how it goes. I was going to cut and seal the stuff with a stone sealer, and put it on the wall with construction adhesive. Any particular sugestions on the sealing and installation?

Thanks

Nyleph-
Where did you get your cemstone? Do you think it would be suitable for flooring with the right sealant?

I love the look of my hardiboard but it's not holding up right around the sofa where out feet touch. Actually, the sealant isn't holding up. I used two coats of garage floor epoxy and thought that would make it pretty tough.

Actually, the sealant isn't holding up. I used two coats of garage floor epoxy and thought that would make it pretty tough. ????

Where did you get this epoxy that is failing?

We can help... We offer plenty of topcoats and 100% solids epoxy

chad @ garagefloorsealing.com

It's just regular stuff from a can. Behr from Home Depot.

We're this close to going with something vanilla. Something snap together bamboo, laminate...regular stuff.

Not that bamboo and laminate aren't beautiful. We were just hoping for something a little more edgy.

My husband works with a woman that has concrete floors and she told him that no matter what they've used, they can't keep a nice finish. They had their floors poured, sealed and buffed by a professional.

Previously De Anna Lavery wrote:

I've just found this site and realize I am extremely late to this thread but thought I might help others (like me) who are scanning the archives for information. I over-researched this issue when I refinished our garage floor. I specifically wanted a permanent finish that did not require a sealer - ever - and that is exactly what I got.

When we bought the house the garage floor had become a chalky mess because a well-meaning but ill-informed previous owner has painted it with latex. The paint was easily tracked everywhere including all the carpets inside. Using water for removal just made it smear. Using stripper was a horrendously slow environmental nightmare. Scraping took weeks and you could never get everything out of the cracks and divets.

I finally stripped it mechanically with an angle grinder and polished it with the same tool in 5 stages up to 3000 grit. I added a concrete hardener I found on http://www.concretenetwork.com after (IIRC) the 800 grit polish.  It's been 18 months of vehicular traffic and use as my workshop but it still glistens when the sun hits it just right. I had planned on using acid stain (mostly for practice) but came to like the natural look too much.

If I were to do it again, I'd rent the concete floor grinder-polisher/wet vac combo from Home Depot that I was too cheap to consider the first time around. You can't get a perfectly flat surface with a hand held grinder because of the small face and inability to keep constant pressure on the head. It's also a very, very dirty process with a lot of waste water that you need to get rid of. I can't imagine doing it inside without a high quality wet vac at the very least. Ruining a good angle grinder is also a possibility but I still used the best variable speed model I could find - cheap ones spin way too fast to do the job.

I bought a set of imported concrete (not stone) polishing wheels locally but they are similar to the ones you find on eBay - get the thickest ones you can find from the most reliable seller you see. I got the wheels to remove the paint and shroud for the angle grinder from http://www.joedue.com.

I hope someone finds this useful in the future.

 EDIT: Actually, visiting http://www.decorativeconcreteforums.com will give you much more accurate advice than what I have typed above. My technique worked but I could have done a better job if I had visited the linked site first. You will also learn there are many "professionals" around who do not know what they are doing.