Sports Basement Becomes Reality with DRYTEK®

LATICRETE helps lifelong fan show the love for his favourite team with emblem embossed on floor in basement football headquarters.

The first step in the process was to get rid of the excessive adhesive markings on the floor, which Leahy noticed during the initial meeting. The markings were a result of carpeting that previously was pulled off of the floor. To get the job done, Leahy enlisted the help of four LATICRETE team members – including Dean Cunningham, Gilles Bignolas, Rick Carino and Art Mintie – and Modine, to diamond grind the floor. This concrete pavement restoration technique is designed to help correct irregularities such as faulting and roughness. In this case, it was to smooth out the cracks and eliminate any leftover adhesive residue.

After they diamond grinded the floor, Leahy noticed that there were more cracks on the surface. “Once you remove glue, you can see fully see the concrete,” Leahy says. “That’s when we noticed there were more cracks.” To further smooth out the floor, they put mesh tape on the cracks, and then laid down DRYTEK 104S Epoxy Primer, which would help further smooth out the cracks in the concrete. The two-component, high-solids epoxy primer, part of the DRYTEK Decorative Wear Surface System, is applied with a sand broadcast.

Next, Leahy poured DRYTEK 7400, a fast drying, dual purpose, self-leveling cement in gray. The cement can be used both as a durable and attractive interior wear surface and as a high performance underlayment for troubled substrates. To give the floor that Steelers’ look, Leahy poured a black liquid dye in the concrete, and then poured the floor, which took a day to dry.

The next steps included spraying one coat of LATICRETE Epoxy Primer (which takes eight to 12 hours to dry), positioning in the Fathead logo (followed by painting the “Pittsburgh” and “Steelers” word logos), spraying another coat of clear, and then adding a coat of LATICRETE SPECTRALOCK DAZZLE, which adds a metallic, micro-chip glitter look.

The last step involved using a spray that would lock in the micro chip glitter and give the emblem that shiny look. The enthusiastic installation team also sprayed yellow epoxy paint over the words ‘Pittsburgh’ and ‘Steelers’ in the logo.

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