The previous youth minister at our church was going for the whole "unfinished/warehouse" look in the youth worship area. I think it looks awful and want to make the space look nice, but don't have the budget to do it. From what it looks like, they ripped up carped and tried to "stain" the concrete, but didn't prep it at all. There are still huge chunks of carpet glue all over the floor and it makes it impossible to clean. Basically the room just looks like a dumpster. He covered it up by turning off the lights and putting "cool looking lights" (so you can't see anything) everywhere, but I want my students to be able to read their bibles, so that went out too.

Anyway. How hard is it to get the polished concrete look? I know it's a thing, but know nothing about it. Is that something I can just rent a machine and do it myself?
Here's a picture:

I've only seen someone rent a grinder and resurface the concert. It wasn't smooth when they got finished. They finally just painted it. After several coats it's was fairly smooth. But I would be willing to bet there is a better way.

You'll have to clean it first with a grinder. Use clear seal, stain and seal it or use a paint/stain. I use a paint/stain from increte. Check their site out. Has a lot of information and products. It's not cheap and you better open up the doors if you use it. Grinding the old surface off and painting it would be the easiest way to make the floor look better. imo

au08 might have some sample disc he could donate to the church.

How big of an area?

I guess I should say that the floor maybe wasn't stained before, it was possibly just painted. either way it looks awful. Here is a picture of the whole room, I don't know the exact area but you could tell from this picture maybe.

Here’s the problem now. You really don’t have a whole lot of choices due to the existing paint will keep from any floor finish adhesive or thinset from adhering to the existing substrate. Also grinding the concrete will make a lot of dust in the building plus clean up if done wet.

First I would try a heavy duty buffing machine with a good course pad and a stripper product that will cut that carpet glue residue. Once you get that off It will be more cost effective to go back with a concrete paint to cover up the existing.

If it has paint on the floor a sanding disk will gum up.If the glue is still gummy it will gum up as well . it will either need it be scraped up with razor scrapes or the rent a concrete resurfacing machine. you can rent one at home depot. It's very dusty process so take appropriate measures to prepare. staining concrete isnt bad. most of the work is in the preparation. on a side note if you remove the cove base cut the top where it needs the sheetrock so it won't rip the paper off the sheet rock. kinda pull it from the top down.

Wow you are a few strobes away from one of them millennial rave bars.

You got alot of room to work with, unfortunately that means a lot of work too. Lol

This is what I'd do. We do it at work once a year and the stripper we use will remove anything.

They used to have the strobes lol

It’s not easy.

The best stained concrete starts out planned as stained concrete

If in good shape, probably cheaper to lay LVT plank flooring

I would look at trying some type of chemical to strip the paint and glue. I've stripped sealers off concrete and I believe that stuff would have taken care of the glue too. Go to a paint that sells concrete staining material store. Don't mess with the stuff they sell at lowes.

For sure the way to go.

I’ll send pic of stripper you need when I get to office in morning, but again, not cheap

Sounds like a fun Monday you have planned, if ya don't mind send me a pic of stripper also...

With all this good advice, what could possible go wrong?

Talk to youth leaders about fundraisers, save money, have a flooring company take care of it professionally.

Something about youth, grinders, chemicals, scrapers just dont seem like a good mix.

Better watch out with those strippers jono. Our contractors use a lot to get up mastic under floor tile and some of them require an acid gas cartridge with a respirator. If you have any questions about the chemical hazards in a certain stripper, send me a pm.

Warehouse full of strippers

You use a stripper wrong you might see Jesus & the Devil within seconds of each other

You can rent the disc machine from lowes, just buy plenty of the disc pads (sandpaper) be sure to start in the middle of the floor til you get use to running it!