Anyone know anything about staining concrete floors?

[reveriereptile]

My husband and me are in the middle of budget planning for a house. We are going to have a concrete slab for the main floor. He would love to use water based concrete stain on the floor and have it polished. I can't really find to much DIY instructions online and didn't see any books at Lowes.

After searching around it seems like it is going to be expensive to just stain the floor. Maybe it was the site that I was on but they wanted $185 per gallon. My husband wants a dark but bright color blue which I'm not to sure about. We will have a high ceiling in the living room so it might not look to bad. He also wants it polished to give it that nice shine.

From what I read is that the floor needs to have a really good cleaning done. Then it seems like you use the sprayer and move left to right while someone uses a broom to work the color into the concrete and then go back over once you do a strip to cover the broom strokes up and start a new row. Unless this is only for the acid stain. I've read other places for the water based stain to just spray, allow to dry, repeat, and then seal the floor.

He would like to do this himself to save money on labor but I do know it is permanent if you mess up. We could always add a floor to the top of it later on but I want to try to do this right so the floor looks semi good. I did tell him he will need to hire someone to do the polishing.

Does anyone know about how to do this or how costly it is? The area we need to do would be around 998 sq.ft. Is there any reasonable places to order the water based stain from?

 

[Nslangton]

You can use dry-lock water based stain. If it is a new floor no cleaning will need to be done after the concrete cures. Cleaning is for old concrete that could have chemicals or previous stains on it. Any home improvement store should carry it. Look for stucco or siding stain. One gallon goes a long way and you should be able to purchase for under $50 a gallon. I would use a regular paint roller to apply just like if you were painting a wall. It is easy to do and pretty much error proof. Don't be scared DIY!!! The sealer is a clear coat and I would do that yourselves too. As far as the dark bright blue, that is the color we used for our bar room. I think it is beautiful. We actually used concrete stain for the existing plaster walls too.

 

[reveriereptile]

Thank you very much for the information and pictures. That looks like the color he wants to use too. I like the look of your bar also. The pictures are a nice decoration also.

 

[peepacheep]

We did a mineral-acid stain on the concrete floor in an addition we built 10 years ago. The concrete had to age so we covered it with brown construction paper, (brown paper bag in a 4' wide roll) to keep the floor clean during the curing time. The staining process was very easy and inexpensive, dry mineral mix and water in a new garden sprayer. We were able to get sample packets plus a video on how to do it. The sample packets we mixed in spray bottles and tested them in a corner of what was to become the pantry. The one we choose made a beautiful mottled effect in shades of gold and chestnut. We put a few layers of sealant on it after that. The finished has held up to everything 10 years of Labradors, cats, house rabbits, escaped chicks from the brooder, and recuperating hens could possible do to it.

 

[thaiturkey]

An American friend of mine used acid stain on his new restaurant floor. It looked great at first but now you can see the trails to the kitchen and washrooms where the finish has worn away in only two years. Concrete does wear in heavy traffic areas.

We used a different technique for our own restaurant floor. We wanted it sand coloured and the builder mixed an suitable colour powder into the final screed. That's been less successful than I had hoped but I think that the builder bodged it. You might want to look into it, though.

 

[hemet dennis]

An American friend of mine used acid stain on his new restaurant floor. It looked great at first but now you can see the trails to the kitchen and washrooms where the finish has worn away in only two years. Concrete does wear in heavy traffic areas.

We used a different technique for our own restaurant floor. We wanted it sand coloured and the builder mixed an suitable colour powder into the final screed. That's been less successful than I had hoped but I think that the builder bodged it. You might want to look into it, though.

I think she is talking about a house not a business.

 

[thaiturkey]

I think she is talking about a house not a business.

Yes, that's what I thought too. However, stain seems to wear away in time, perhaps not so quickly in a house, and it must be a nightmare to redo it.

 

[reveriereptile]

The staining will be for a house. The main traffic will probably be the hallway but I could always get a rug to cover that or if the whole floor got worn out we would put a flooring over the top of it.

 

[thaiturkey]

Why not look into adding colour powder to the final screed mix and avoid the wear problem?

 

[Royd]

Is the slab already poured? If not, find a high quality concrete company which will jitterbug the concrete before putting the trowel on it. It drives all the aggregate below the surface and gives you a layer of pure cement, so that you end up with a very slick finish.I.E. the floors in Lowes or HD. You do not want the aggregate shining through, if you are going to stain.