How To Remove Acrylic Sealer From Concrete Properly | Indoor & Outdoor - FAQs - CoverTec Products

[Music] can you remove an existing acrylic sealer from concrete the answer is yes uh typically there's two ways of doing that one is by mechanical means either sand blasting or grinding or even high pressure washer to uh physically remove the sealer from the concrete the other way is to strip the sealer from the concrete typically using chemical strippers solvent-based strippers or you can use plant-based or more uh environmentally friendly emulsifiers to soften and then allow you to strip um you know scrape off or again pressure wash once the sealer has been softened but before you make a decision about removing the acrylic you need to check whether you actually need to do that is the acrylic beat up is it peeling is it lifting or is it just dull and weathered if it's just dull and weathered you may be able to clean it and then reapply um another coat of acrylic but you need to check what type of acrylic you have down to make sure that the new acrylic is compatible with the existing yeah if you have a solvent-based acrylic on your floor then really you want to go back with a solvent-based rather than a water-based a quick check for solvent acrylics is to take some xylene and to apply a small amount uh for about 15 or 20 seconds and then wipe it off then touch the acrylic if it's very tacky then that's a good indication that you have an acry A Sol vent based acrylic and then you should go back with a solvent that will bond or fuse to the existing layer and you'll have a good Reco don't use a water-based acrylic over an existing acrylic what to look for if you apply an water-based acrylic over a solvent Bas so we need to be very careful because unless that solvent is very very worn uh water-based acrylics won't be compatible with an AC solvent based what you're likely to see is the solvent uh based sealer will reject the water-based acrylic it will repel it so it'll be like there's oil on the surface water and oil the water-based acrylic will boil up it will separate it won't lay out in a nice coat so that's telling you that that there's some incompatibility there and probably you're going to have to strip the acrylic the solvent-based acrylic if you want to use a water-based [Music] acrylic so here's an important thing to think about if you're going to use xylene based acrylic sealer they are much more flammable they're much more hazardous to use they release uh fumes into the atmosphere what we call voc's so they're very high in vocc typical acrylic solvent-based acrylic is like 15% acrylic and the other 85% is just pure solv um more and more the industry is moving away from solvent-based acrylics because they're hazardous cuz they're not good for the environment so uh you might think about using a water-based maybe biting the bullet and stripping off an old solvent based and then continuing on with the Much More userfriendly Much much more environmentally safe water-based acrylic sealer what are the characteristics of a good concrete sealer remover well you want to use a chemical that doesn't dry out quickly you want to be able to apply it and it will soften the acrylic and allow you to come back and pressure wash it or scrape it if it dries out or evaporates too quickly then the acrylic will go from being soft back to being a hard resin and it then it becomes more difficult to remove you're also looking for something that's uh safe to use something like our fast strip which uses very safe environmentally friendly emulsifiers to soften the acrylic sealer they it's long lasting it's slow evaporation and effectively can remove multiple layers of acrylic sealer stay away from high solvent highly flammable High VOC Coti chemical strippers which are dangerous to use um May uh dry out very quickly and require repeat application how do you remove clear acrylic sealer from concrete two main ways of removing acrylic sealer uh if it's old and Flaky you may be able to just pressure wash it uh high pressure wash you may need uh to use some abrasive sand blasting or mechanically grinding of course you got to be careful about damaging the concrete cuz these are clear sealers that are thin layers that are applied on the concering a more safer way of doing is to use chemical strippers either a solvent-based chemical SLP uh stripper or for a plant-based type chemical stripper these products are will soften the sealer and then allow you to scrape it off or to pressure wash it off something like our F strip is a very effective seal uh sealer remover it's got these emulsifiers that will soften quickly soften the clear acrylic uh but and keep it soft for much longer time than a lot of these solvent base that just flash off quickly it can be uh applied by spraying or by roller application and then it can be safely pressure washed it's not harmful to the environment and when it's diluted like that it won't damage surrounding plant or grass can household ingredients be used to remove acrylic sealers from concrete in general I would say no the concentration and the amount of household ing ingredients needs to be uh much higher than you typically have and I don't think they'll effectively remove an acrylic vinegar or uh catic chemicals they may dull out the surface or the shine on an acrylic but they won't totally remove [Music] them will vinegar remove acrylic sealer I would say generally no vinegar is a mild acidic solution and most acrylics are resistant to vinegar uh plus vinegar needs to work on Mineral based surfaces the acrylic is a polymer it's a resin that's going over the concrete so vinegar might clean bare concrete but it's not going to actually have any real impact on removing an acrylic polymer resin will muriatic acid remove acrylic sealer from a concrete surface generally I would say no acrylics will hold up to M muriatic acid it uh can be sourced at very high concentrations and typically you need to dilute it to use it safely and that won't uh impact or really harm the or soften the acrylic sealer uh AC acids work best on cement or mineral type surfaces remembering acrylic is a polymer it's a resin so it's acting as a barrier uh to the concrete so the acetic acid or muriatic acid is not actually touching the concrete itself so I would say don't use muriatic acid and be very careful because that comes as a concentrate and needs to be D diluted to be safely [Music] handed will baking soda remove acrylic concrete sealer the answer is no baking soda is a mildly alkaline product or chemical even in solution uh it may dull the surface uh but it's not strong enough or powerful enough to break down an acrylic generally uh you need to use something that's got a much higher alkalinity or higher pH than you would find in uh baking [Music] soda will mineral spirits remove an acrylic concrete sealer mineral spirits can soften an acrylic sealer to allow you to scrape it or remove it um it really depends on the type of acrylic sealer that you have interior High shine maybe some of the acrylics that you you get from a off-the-shelf big box uh that are softer they could be removed using mineral spirits the tougher acrylic sealers the tougher stain and chemical resistance like our ac450 again are going to be very resistant to Mineral Mineral Spirits they may dull it a little bit but they're not going to effectively strip it you need to use a stronger solvent or a stronger emulsifying product something like our far strip or our floor strip HP how long does a typical acrylic seal it last on concrete how long an acrylic sealer last really depends on how it's formulated and the type of acrylic resin that's being used and how much of that resin is in the formula what's its uh solids content typical offthe shelf big box acrylics are softer resins they have a lower polymer content and they'll last one to two years right they're softer they absorb water they wear off quickly and they break down faster due to UV light uh exposure we formulate with a much harder resin something that uh dries out with a very hard film that is very resistant to water water absorption very resistant to chemical resistant and extremely stain resistant so our acrylics are lasting 2 to 3 years exterior exposure high traffic exposure how to clean and maintain concrete that's been freshly sealed with an acrylic sealer well a good acrylic sealer a good tough hardwearing acrylic sealer should be much easier to keep the concrete clean right you put a nice barrier across the floor that's resistant to dirt pickup it's resistant to chemicals oils and stains so you don't need to use any harsh chemicals mild uh dishwasher neutral cleaners uh low alkalinity type cleaners nothing harsh nothing acidic uh shouldn't be necessary uh you can use uh slight scrubbing action it's important to just agitate the water a little bit it and then uh remove it either by damp mopping or by Wet Vac not to leave a residue onto the floor if you got a higher shine softer resin then that make uh require more care some of these acrylics that you get from the off the shelf big box doors are softer they trap dirt uh but they're also very moisture sensitive they'll leave mop marks they'll leave wet uh or they'll water white so you need to be very careful about the cleaning water uh don't leave pales and damp or um mops around that will potentially leave permanent marks into your acrylic sealer but again avoid using harsher chemicals mild chemicals neutral cleaners like the gloss clean or the emerald cleaner are great for cleaning acrylics interior or [Music] exterior [Music]

Channel: CoverTec Products

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Length: 10min 45sec (645 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 05 2024