"Green" Round-up alternative etched concrete flooring
My wife bought a "green" pet / kid friendly alternative to RoundUp that ate through the packaging and ended up etching my garage flooring. How do I repair my floor?
First figure out if your floor is sealed or coated. Put a few drops of water on the floor. If it beads or sits on the surface for more than a minute it is probably sealed. In that case you can thoroughly clean the affected area. Let it dry and then apply new sealer.
Eh, first thing, go back and see what the active-ingredient is, and what else is in the formula. That LOOKS like it's from either an acid (which removes a miniscule amount of concrete) OR a soap / surfactant (which removes the seal / coating.
Worst case scenario, have the kids / nieces-nephews / grandkids / color it in with sidewalk chalk, sign it and don't worry.
Best case? Order another batch of the stuff, get a sponge mop, and wipe the entire garage floor to get a light color. Then rinse and add a sealing coat.
I looked at several products. They all contained a soap product to break down the coating on the weed. Some had salt most had some type of acid.... like vinegar.
Vinegar is probably what ate your floor.
Oh, a follow up- getting back to your INITIAL problem- environmentally friendly weed killer.
"South Philly weed killer" aka "Italian / Sicilian Round-Up" IS incredibly effective.
When you make pasta, as you drain the pasta, pour the salty boiling pasta water into a teapot / kettle, then pour boiling salty water on any weeds in the cracks of the pavement. The weeds die instantly, all the way down to the roots.
When the solution started leaking out of the container, we threw it out. I am pretty sure that the active ingredient was concentrated vinegar.
The garage floor was sealed when the house was built. I am not sure what the builder used to seal it. Is it possible to simply reseal that spot and have it somewhat matched to the existing sealant? Otherwise, it would take me a while to reseal the entire garage...lots of stuff to move around.
Hal, thanks for the note about the Italian Round-Up. I'll try that. Sounds cheap and effective.
The "active" ingredient in vinegar is acetic acid. Just because it can occur in nature or a food doesn't mean it's not a chemical.
The problem is an acid actually eats the Portland cement in the concrete. If you look closely you might see that the concrete is rougher in that area. You can thoroughly wash and scrub the area to remove any loose material and any residue from the weed killer. Let it thoroughly dry. Then coat that area with a sealer. There are different sealers and yours looks like it might be a high build, or wet look type sealer. It won't match perfectly but it could come out looking better and you'd have that area of concrete sealed to help protect against future staining.
Hello,
I have a legacy model 496cd/b which suddenly won't open the garage. It worked (open/close) earlier today, and by the time to go get the kids back from school, the system won't open the garage. I used the emergency pull/cord to open and close the garage. I unplugged the system, and still nothing. If I use the remote or the button on the wall, I can hear a click and see the sensor red light. The system light also comes on, but still no activity by opening the garage.
Can anyone advise here?
[color=#000000]I've seen these types of gambrel trusses discussed from time to time with various opinions of how well they work and how strong they are or can be if built in a certain way. The first time I had ever encountered them was in a factory built shed that my dad purchased years ago. It's 14'W x 18'L with 6' side walls framed 24" OC and has 24" OC trusses made from 2x4s and plywood gussets which are stapled. Its probably close to 30 years old at this point and has seen 2-3' of heavy wet snow sitting on the roof a few times in its life (located in New Jersey-ground snow load for the area is 30lbs/psf) and the trusses have not sagged and the walls have not bowed. When the shed was purchased there was nothing tying the trusses together at the bottom and aside from a small (4' or so) loft that my dad put in himself at the back end there still isn't. I'm considering a slightly larger (16'W x 20'L) to use as a sort of guest cabin/office on my property but the construction would be identical. This company ( [/color][url]https://www.pinecraft.com/amish-made-classic-large-gambrel-barn-panelized-kit.html[/url][color=#000000] ) sells them in panelized kits which are reasonably priced and according to their website the structure is rated for 120MPH wind load and they will supply any necessary documents for permitting in your state. Presumably somewhere, some how, some engineer has run the calculations on all of this and blessed it with a raised seal. I haven't been able to confirm the finer details as they are closed until Tuesday. I figure I could either purchase the panelized kit or just build it myself as the photos on the website and the dimensions are all that would be needed in order to duplicate the construction. For good measure I would probably use 2x6s rather than 2x4s and high quality (no voids, etc...) 3/4" plywood for the gussets along with glue. I'm interested to hear what others think of this construction method. I will also follow up with whatever I hear regarding engineering documents, etc...after the 1st of the year. [/color]
12-12-21, 09:38 PM
