Thread: Anyone have advice on Concrete and Staining concrete?

Gentlemen, I'm working on a condo I bought. Ground floor, concrete slab. At first I wanted to lay down hardwood flooring, but have now decided on staining the existing concrete floor. Any news on the internet as well as Youtube, have mixed results from mixed methods of applications and brands.
The broad strokes, I interpret, are : Acid etch, then stain with solid color stain, then finally seal to high gloss with what is usually epoxy sealant.
Are there any of you that are familiar with concrete and concrete stains? Any knowledge shared would be very helpful. Thanks-J

I have no experience with stains but with colored epoxy on factory floors where I have worked. We used sand in the finish. Without the sand it was slipperier {spell} than heck. With the sand you couldn't mop it because it grabbed the mops. We hosed it so that wasn't an issue. It wore out the toes on my boots when i knelt on it.

Just a couple of thoughts.

Tim

You can "etch" it with muratic acid, you can find it at pretty much any lumber yard or hardware store. Beware of the fumes! I've only seen staining done on wet concrete. Shouldn't be much different than wood though...open up the pores with the acid (of course get all paint drips off it as well), stain ( I would use some sort of sprayer like for weed killing or deck staining), then seal.

Good friend of mine just did his garage floor with a colored epoxy in the last couple of days. Had to prep the floor with some sort of etch. I'm not sure of the details but it is doable and according to him a durable finish for moderate traffic.

What I've left out of the OP was my biggest concern. When I pulled up the carpet and then the tack strips it left hundreds of small craters in the concrete throughout the house. I've heard a sand based grout may not bind to the crevice very well, and over time will come back out. I found a non sand based grout that with a special bonding agent will fill the holes and leave a very smooth finish. I don't know how well the stain will adhere to whatever grout I fill in the holes. Do any of you think that an acid etch will penetrate either grout I use and thus allow for the Latex stain to adhere?

Being from DC, have you checked out American Concrete Institute ACI - American Concrete Institute

Gentlemen, remember when I was asking about concrete flooring? I finished my house the other day and thought I would share with you.[ATTACH][ATTACH][ATTACH][ATTACH][/ATTACH][/ATTACH][/ATTACH][/ATTACH]Well, this what I ended up with. I am very pleased.

That's concrete? Didn't know that concrete could look so nice!

Thanks Brian.

Wow, that floor looks great! How long did the job take you? Just showed the pictures to the wife and she wants to do that to the kitchen floor.