Features:

  • Blend of hydraulic and other cements
  • Self-drying matrix
  • Mixes with water only
  • Trowelable
  • Mold and mildew resistant
Used for subfloor prep for covering cutback residue, mastic, or glue!

Long story short, we used Ardex Feather Finish to encapsulate cutback residue (mastic, glue, etc...) on concrete that was left from asbestos tile in our basement storage room. Which it worked perfectly! A little insight: Our first "major" winter project in our new home was to clean/renovate our basement storage room. The floor was partially covered in asbestos floor tile. We had the tile professionally removed, but the job did not include the removal of the cutback residue leftover from the tile. We thought about just covering the concrete with vinyl plank and call it a day, but the cutback residue had a really musty smell, which kind of stunk. (no pun intended). After doing a little research and getting a recommendation from a friend (who's a contractor), we decided on the Ardex Feather Finish. It's main purpose is to prep your subfloor for a covering, whether it's carpet, tile, or some sort of plank flooring (wood, laminate, etc...). It can be applied to ALMOST any surface to including old floor adhesive. Which is what we were looking for. We ended up using DriCore for the floor covering. READ THE INSTRUCTIONS! Probably the most important thing! Since our surface was already clean from having the tile removed (they washed the whole room down, floor to ceiling), there wasn't much prep. I did wet mop the area one more time to be safe, and let it dry overnight. It was winter when we did this, so we had space heater in the room to bring up with ambient temp. We live in Minnesota, and the room is unconditioned, so it was pretty chilly in there. You need to make sure the surface you are applying it to is the minimum temp recommend in the instructions or you could run into issues with it properly adhering. I started with a small test area, about 12"x12". I wanted to make sure it would stay adhered to the cutback residue. I checked the test area after 24hrs, and it was rock hard. I then proceeded to do the rest. I used a 12" flat trowel with a sweeping motion and feathered the area until it was pretty smooth. It levels itself, so you don't have to be super picky about getting it perfect. If I remember correctly, the consistency is like heavy whipping cream, maybe a little thicker...(It's not like mortar you use to lay floor tile). It does dry fast, so only mix as much as you can work with! I let it sit for a week to be safe (cold basement), before installing the DriCore,. I did apply this a year prior to writing this review, and it's still sound and holding well. We did contemplate just leaving the feather finish uncovered, but Ardex states you should use something over it. Although this was a storage room, we didn't want to risk damaging it, or have it wear through. That's when we decided on the DriCore, which has worked well. Hopefully this helps! Cheers!

Love this for DIY concrete counters over laminate.

I did the whole Pinterest DIY concrete counters with this stuff and it worked great!! Love the counters. I sealed with a food safe sealant Miracle 511 sealant and then coated with a few coats of Safecoat Acyrlaq. They look great and are holding up well (the arcylaq is the key to keeping stains/water out).

Wonderful product to use!

WOW! This was a learning experience / adventure for me!! We live in a 30 year old mobile home. We previously had a "rock" fireplace with a hearth that was raised about 6" off the floor with large stones on top. The mantle was rough cedar, and above the hearth, it was that tacky paper-laminated excuse for panelling. We replaced the panelling with sheetrock; we taped & embedded & textured the walls. We removed the "rock" as well as the entire hearth. I cut and secured the thin hardy board to the wall for the fireplace surround, using screws. I sealed the seams with fiberglass (sheetrock) tape, and I painted them with red sealant. I used this Feather Finish with some cement colorant from Home Depot, and I applied about 7 coats to the front of our fireplace surround. I need to figure out how to add pictures, because it turned out great in our opinion. NO, I had no previous experience with cement, but I have done quite a bit of sheetrock repair and floating of mud in this lovely money pit! (lol) The only reason for so many coats is that colorant makes the cement or feather finish product CHANGE COLORS as it dries, and it dries almost as fast as plaster of paris. You have to work soooo fast, but when you start at one point and go all the way around the fireplace, you end back up at your starting point, right? Since the feather finish mixture is almost dry at this point, and since the colorant changes colors as it dries, you end up with two totally different colors touching each other. It took me a while to figure out how to make this work. I had to start at the top center of the surround and work down from there down both directions! That part was NOT easy. You have to work fast, but this way I would end up at the center bottom of the surround. Again, this is all because of using the colorant. I've been told I need to write my own blog! Probably so!! Since I ran out of this bag mid-project, I learned that you can actually use another product called Henry Feather Finish - product number on the box is 549. ALSO, we had to use a paddle stirring contraption - normally used for stirring paint - or you could use the one for actually stirring together joint compound. The Henry Feather Finish is the same stuff as is in this Ardex bag. They are made by the exact same company -just different packaging. I found the Henry at Home Depot. You just have to search because different territories in the US carry different products and brands. DO KNOW THIS - I found the Henry product - the powder before mixing - to be of a much darker gray that the Ardex. I called the company back and they explained that all cement is that way, that it will vary from batch to batch. Makes perfect sense. I had to then adjust my colorant a bit in order to allow for the Henry feather finish being so much darker. I had originally hoped to have a glass tile fireplace surround, but our tile contractors couldn't come out for weeks! My husband was nervous about us trying to learn to do tile (chicken - haha!). I thought he was gonna stroke over the cement! This feather finish allowed me to rescue our project of making a slimmer profile of our fireplace and giving it a sleek, modern appearance. We now have no hearth, though maybe one day we will create one, but now the surround goes straight down to the floor. We painted the gold colored accents on the screen facing with black paint. That cedar mantle - we took it to a cabinet shop and had them plane it down. I sanded it smooth (didn't take much after going through a commercial planer) and stained it, then put a couple of coats of satin polycrylic on it I think. Totally different room, now. Looks awesome!!!

Super Easy! Love the dimension!

Wow, this is beautiful! I finally ordered this stuff and applied it on my backsplash. Did i have every thing necessary to prep and do this professionally? Heck no but it still worked lovely. I used a spatula from my kitchen and sanded in between layers with a nail file. I did this on a snow day with my kids indoors all day and it only took about 2.5 hours total. It was also easy to wipe the splatters off of the counters because i didnt prep in any way. Basically if i can do it with a sand bucket, a spatula, and a nail file- so can you. Will have to seal and update my review with that as well **UPDATE** after looking (WELL) into sealants i made the decision not to seal. I have no trouble with stains on my backsplash and SHOULD i get a splatter stain its just a matter of mixing a dime size amt of the cement & covering it up. I just decided to do the wall behind my fireplace. Also will not seal, and the more i do the more i learn. I did 2 coats (was going to let that be it) until it dried and i saw the inconsistency. Some parts were lighter some darker, depending on when i finished one batch and started a new. Its crucial to mix the same amt each time to get a consistent look. I found that equal parts of both water and cement worked best for me. I used a triangle trowel this time, and swept the cement in many directions just covering as much sq ft as possible. In some spots i used the trowels edge to "scrape", in some i used the back side to smoothe, some spots i pressed hard and some lightly. It was all done VERY differently but turned out great i think because i used the same amt of water/cement each time. Another tip would be, cover any bare spots u can while youre still working in that section, i made the mistake of going back even 5 min later to cover some white spots showing through, and when it dried there was clearly dark marks on the spots i touched up. So try to cover every blemish or bare spot WHILE you're still working in that area. Its hard to go back and touch up without it drying a different color (at least on your final coat)! *ALSO DID NOT SAND AT ALL FOR FIREPLACE WALL* sanding isnt completely necessary because you can get a smooth finish as you're cementing.

Love this stuff- would use again.

I covered my old, ugly bathroom bathroom countertop with this and it looks great! It was easy to apply, took a few days to finish it with having to let it dry between coats, and it took a TON of sanding (but it sanded very easily). It was very messy to apply, do it during nice weather when you can keep windows open to cut down on dust. I also taped off the room I was working in with plastic to cut down on dust in the rest of the house. I actually wasn't sure how well it would hold up because it sanded off so easily, but after being on for about 6 months now- it still looks great! It is in a room that doesn't get a ton of use (it's in the guest bathroom), but I can honestly say that I am very happy with how it has held up, and I have had a lot of compliments on how it looks.

DIY Countertops!

Awesome stuff! I used this to cover laminate. You have to mix it 2 parts powder to 1 part water. Don't pack the powder in your measuring up, fill it loosely so it's easy to mix and spread. MIX WELL. If doing a countertop redo, do not mix anything with this. Left intentional trowel marks for movement. It's not a 'black gray', it's a warm gray.

Worked great over drywall for us

We used this in our son's nursery for a cool concrete faux finish on one of the walls. It worked out great. We put on two skim coats and it looks like a poured concrete wall. We've very happy with the results.

So easy to work with

I was able to build a 60" x 24" counter top and stain it. It came out better than I could imagine, this was for a temporary fix until I have a bigger budget but now I think we will keep it!

Great product!

I was scared to use it. I read and studied it for about 6 months. When I finally started, it was pretty easy. I love the results!

Used for concrete countertops

Used Ardex Feather Finish to make concrete countertops while we save up for Quartz. It works really well and is holding up well. It looks beautiful and the Ardex was easy to work with and sand. We created our countertop out of plywood and a 1x2 frame, then troweled on the Ardex. I did 3 layers and sanded between each layer. I then sealed it with an impregnator and waxed it. The countertop has patina'd a bit, which is and why I'd never want concrete countertops as my permanent countertop. It's a great in between option for now.

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