Bare, cleaned and sealed concrete can be one of the most permanent and maintenance-free flooring options available. Discuss what your wife wants to do with a concrete restoration specialist...not a typical DIY project IMO.

You just can't throw a floor polyurethane down and hope for the best; the product must be one designed for the application.

Let me clarify.

In general I think stained concrete is a poor flooring choice for a residential structure. It can be striking and impressive at first blush but it is completely impractical and in a basement without radiant heat cold and generally uncomfortable. I am consoled by the fact that the lion's share of the floor will be covered by a rug.

The concrete restoration specialist will present me with three options 1) grind the floor to a smooth surface, (this is obviously a popular option as you can find many youtube videos of professionals with grinders going over floors with the tell-tale dark stains of cutback residue aka asbestos ridden tar that is very safe until some idiot takes a floor grinder to it) or 2) Lets throw some top coat or skim coat on it to completely cover up the effect you are trying to protect or 3) Throw a floor polyurethane on it and hope for the best.

Which brings me to the fact that I could just throw a floor polyurethane on it and hope for the best. But instead I wanted to check and see if anyone had any knowledge or experience with an oil based poly adhering to a floor which has absorbed the petroleum based cutback.

Or put another way I can think of no reason why a petroleum based adhesion product will not adhere to another petroleum based adhesion product, but I would like other confirmatory or dissenting opinions.

This post was edited by Bry911 on Mon, Mar 24, 14 at 14:37

Nothing is going to stick to the old cutback-type adhesive.

Talk to someone who works with concrete coating products...there may be a coating out there that will marry over adhesive residue.

Rustoleum has an epoxy-type concrete sealer that may be of interest to you and is available at Lowes and probably Home Depot. Also, Abatron from Wisconsin sells concrete restoration products.