Staining Concrete?

[Blake8504]

Me and the wife are in the process of getting another house to fix up like the one we currently live in. We were thinking of going with staind concrete for the floors as opposed to laminate, tile, carpet, etc. Right now it has carpet in some rooms and tile in the rest of the house. Of course we would remove all of this. Then that would leave us with the slab. Has anyone stained their concrete living area? If so how difficult is the process, upkeep, etc. Any pictures or pointers of those who have done it? It seems that concrete is the new thing now adays, and cost wise I feel this could save us quite a bit plus give it that updated look.

Thanks

[Bowhunter1994]

I used to work at Home Depot paint dept.
it works great , we used it in the floor in our paint booth.
It requires several steps before , a special cleaner , then a self etching primer , then the "paint "

Or you could use the "restore" paint also from Home Depot and its a little simpler .
Used for wood decks / concrete

[Johnny Dangerr]

My son does it for a living. Pm me if you want a phone number.

[gargetter]

watching

[Dspivey]

I wish I knew someone that does this around San Antonio I'd like my patio done.

[ramrod]

Get the stuff from home depot or Lowes. Following the instructions.... so easy a caveman can do it.

[homegrown]

When we built our home 6 yrs ago we went with stained concrete in the living room, kitchen and dining room. Bedrooms all got carpet and baths got tile. The stained concrete was only about .50 ft to do it myself so it saved us a couple thousand bucks at the time. Not too hard to do yourself just requires a lot of prep work to the concrete. If you already have carpet the tack strip that goes around the edges will have to come up which usually pulls up some of the concrete at each nail. These spots will have to be filled and sanded to blend with the rest of the slab. A good scrubbing with some concrete etcher will remove any marks and/or dirt and must then be neutralized with water. Once all is dry the stain gets sprayed on with a bug sprayer. Depending on the desired color this could take more than one coat. Once the stain has reached the desired color and depth a sealer is applied to protect the stain. Several products available now to finish the stain from a wet look gloss to a dull wax finish. It's hard on the feet and cold in the winter but with young kids I think we made the right choice.

HG

[Blake8504]

When we built our home 6 yrs ago we went with stained concrete in the living room, kitchen and dining room. Bedrooms all got carpet and baths got tile. The stained concrete was only about .50 ft to do it myself so it saved us a couple thousand bucks at the time. Not too hard to do yourself just requires a lot of prep work to the concrete. If you already have carpet the tack strip that goes around the edges will have to come up which usually pulls up some of the concrete at each nail. These spots will have to be filled and sanded to blend with the rest of the slab. A good scrubbing with some concrete etcher will remove any marks and/or dirt and must then be neutralized with water. Once all is dry the stain gets sprayed on with a bug sprayer. Depending on the desired color this could take more than one coat. Once the stain has reached the desired color and depth a sealer is applied to protect the stain. Several products available now to finish the stain from a wet look gloss to a dull wax finish. It's hard on the feet and cold in the winter but with young kids I think we made the right choice.

HG

This is the part that worries me. We were just throwing out ideas, and didn't know that much, but it seems the more I look up that this is the main thing is the prep work. The house currently has tile in the living room/kitchen/bathrooms and carpet in the bedrooms and the dining room. I would imagine that the prep work would be difficult especially with removing all the mastic and grout from the tile? Is this somethign feasible or by the time you're all said and done it's not worth it? Not to mention it's an older house/slab. The whole idea would be to cut costs on flooring.

[Blake8504]

Also, I see that most have a wax finish. Is this a requirement, or can you just stain and go? I know you can for outdoor applications, at least that's what we did at my parents, so I'm assuming the same applies for indoors.

[BrianL]

When we built our home 6 yrs ago we went with stained concrete in the living room, kitchen and dining room. Bedrooms all got carpet and baths got tile. The stained concrete was only about .50 ft to do it myself so it saved us a couple thousand bucks at the time. Not too hard to do yourself just requires a lot of prep work to the concrete. If you already have carpet the tack strip that goes around the edges will have to come up which usually pulls up some of the concrete at each nail. These spots will have to be filled and sanded to blend with the rest of the slab. A good scrubbing with some concrete etcher will remove any marks and/or dirt and must then be neutralized with water. Once all is dry the stain gets sprayed on with a bug sprayer. Depending on the desired color this could take more than one coat. Once the stain has reached the desired color and depth a sealer is applied to protect the stain. Several products available now to finish the stain from a wet look gloss to a dull wax finish. It's hard on the feet and cold in the winter but with young kids I think we made the right choice.

HG

http://www.kemiko.com/

Not hard, but get ready to do a lot of cleaning and moppinng. Prep work is the hardest part. After spraying stain, you are supposed to clean till nothing on a white rag when wiped across. We mopped and repeated probably 10+ times. For stain you can use a cheap sprayer, but for sealer you will need a $100+ sprayer. After buying mops,brooms, chemicals, and sprayers it cost about $1/foot. You can see some pics in our build thread.

http://discussions.texasbowhunter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=310391&page=7

[homegrown]

The stain needs some type of protection whether wax or sealer. If not the stain will get scratched up and start coming off. We used the water based sealer on ours and if I had to do it again would prob go with the wet look gloss sealer. It seems to hold up a lot better and when clean looks nicer. The Kemiko stain is the way to go IMO. Stay away from the HD products if you want longevity. As far as removing tile to go with stained concrete, can't say as I've never done it but that tile mastic isn't coming off the concrete without a lot of work. You can rent floor sanders and try it that way but then you have to deal with the dust getting everywhere.

HG

[Jaybo31]

You will not be able to do it without floating the floor and when you do that you will most likely have to dye it and not stain it.

Reason is, if there is glue under the padding the oil from the glue has soaked into the concrete and you cannot get it out. It will look gone but its not. When the stain goes on it will not etch the concrete where the oil is and you will see the pattern of the glue.

Had to do this in my house, thats how I know.

[rdkerrville]

It depends on what kind of shape the slab is in under the carpet

[Blake8504]

It depends on what kind of shape the slab is in under the carpet

I think this is the main thing, as well as if how hard it's going to be to remove the tile. Either way we want to remove the tile, it's the small 6x6 squares and just isn't appealing to the eye. That in it's self is going to be a chore..

[RaginCagin]

We did it in every room and really like it. It is time for us to wax the entire floor now and will probably go with the wet look. Its a chore to move everything to apply the wax but that is about the only downfall i can see and if you have any cracks in your slab which pretty much every foundation in the south does you will be able to see them.