Removing paint from concrete floor

[vi edit]

Like others said, a good gas powered pressure washer should be able to peel that up.

Or you could try doing a wet grind of the floor by renting a floor grinder.

 

[NetWareHead]

If your pressure washer won't take paint off a concrete floor, your pressure washer is little more than a fancy garden hose nozzle.

This. Go rent a gas powered pressure washer from home depot, highest PSI you can get. I've seen those things remove spray painted graffiti from concrete walls on the first pass.

Of course, the freshly cleaned area will definitely show in comparison to the rest of the garage floor so you may have to do the entire floor. With a powerful pressure washer, even a 2 car garage shouldn;t take too long; I'd say an hour or two tops.

Get yourself a squeegee and push all of the water out of the garage when done.

 

[inachu]

is there such a thing as a floor buffer with sandpaper pads?

Depending on the quality of the cement flooring I was going to suggest using a sand blaster but your idea works as well and might be cheaper.

 

[destrekor]

never paint cement floors. bad idea.

Why?

 

[GrumpyMan]

Grind it off, refinish if necessary.

 

[Imp]

I'm more curious how deep the paint soaked into the concrete.

 

[Carson Dyle]

I'd be amazed if there's any way to remove the stain that the paint will inevitably leave.

What would be the cost of epoxy painting the whole floor gray, as someone else suggested? If you really expect the landlord to be a dick about it, do it without their consent and see if they even notice.

 

[zerocool84]

is there such a thing as a floor buffer with sandpaper pads?

Not with the paint. The paint will gum it all up.

Like me and many others have said, paint stripper. It's latex paint, not anything crazy.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Is there actually still paint _on_ the floor? Latex paint would have been very easy to remove in the first 24 hours just by scraping it up. If there is not, then paint stripper will do nothing.

 

[MongGrel]

Epoxy paint the whole floor in gray. I did this in my last house I built. It was really professional looking, like a shop. Anything that dripped was a synch to clean up.

This.

A lot of tool shops I've worked at do it as standard practice.

 

[Humpy]

I get the impression that very few people here have ever been near spilled paint or concrete. Or read the OP.

As a public service I will lay it out:

1. Paint spilled on the concrete and was then wiped up. There is nothing left to scrape or grind. There is nothing to sand off that will gum up sandpaper. It probably could have been cleaned better at the time but that has passed.

2. There is a stain left from paint that soaked into the porous concrete. A water based paint stripper, i.e. Citristrip?, will also soak into the concrete, hopefully soften the paint, and can then be washed away with soap and water. A basic pressure washer should help here.

3. It is possible that a second attempt would be needed, maybe a harsher chemical stripper/cleaner. At that point, before getting out the grinder or jackhammer, it would be best to coordinate with the owner to come up with a plan.