Do It
Yourself Concrete Staining Guide
Thanks
for stopping by our site
and taking a look around, we appreciate your time. We have
tried to make this staining guide as simple as possible but if
there is anyway you can see to improve it please let me know
personally at help@concrete-floor-stains.com
.
When you
purchase our products you will receive my personal cell phone
number to which you can call, text or email me with any
questions you may have before and during your application
process.
We
realize this may seem like a complicated process, it really
isn't, but we're here for you every step of the
way.
Thanks,
John Groom
Printable .pdf
A. Preparation of Existing Concrete
Surface
Curing agents, sealers, paints, coatings, waxes
or water repellents must be removed prior to the concrete
acid stain application. Curing agents are products that
are sprayed on the concrete after it is poured to help
hold in moisture during the curing process. You may not
be aware that they are there.
An easy test to find out if they are there or if
there is any kind of sealer on the concrete is to pour a
small glass of water onto the concrete surface and spread
it around so that it coverage approximately 1-2 sq. ft. .
Let the water sit for about 5 minutes and then check to
see if it is absorbing into the concrete or is just
beading up on the top.
A good indication that it is soaking into the
concrete is a slight darkening of the color of the
concrete.
Mechanical methods of removal are not advised as
they may scratch the surface leaving unsightly patterns
of scratches in the surface.
Older concrete surfaces also need to be tested
for acceptance of the acid stain. The cleaned surface
must be penetrable by water. Again, if water beads on the
surface and is not readily absorbed into the concrete,
mild acidic detergents such as our Dyna-Blue concrete renovator may be of assistance in your
concrete acid stain application. Never acid etch concrete
to be acid stained. This will use up the free lime in the
concrete and leave you with a surface that is not
stainable for concrete acid stain application.
B. New Concrete:
Freshly poured concrete should be sufficiently
cured, a minimum of thirty days before concrete acid
stain application. If score patterns are desired, a
diamond blade grinder may be used to score various
patterns, borders or designs onto the surface prior to,
or after concrete acid stain application. If light
colored grout lines are desired score after staining
process is complete.
Freshly poured or recently poured concrete needs
to be scrubbed thoroughly, sometimes more thoroughly than
old concrete due to what is known as latentcy, this is
the "dust", if you will, that remains on top of the
concrete after it is poured and cured.
This latentcy will not allow the concrete stain
to penetrate as is needed to provide a beautiful concrete
acid stain application so we need to use a floor
maintainer (buffer) with a black or green scrub pad and
TSP (trisodium phosphate) or our favorite, Dyna Blue, to
scrub and shop vac the floor clean.
C. Cleaning of Concrete:
These next two steps will take you from having a
good concrete stained floor to a
Fantastic concrete acid stain application. As
we say in the Decorative Concrete industry, application
of the pretty stuff is easy but the preparation of the
concrete is what makes the difference and boy will this
make a difference as you'll see and be very happy you
took the time and effort to do it.
First we need to scrape the paint and other
things off the concrete before the concrete stain
process, you will not find them all but when you wet the
concrete you will see everything as we see here, we have
scrubbed the concrete and are now vacuuming.  This a great time to have a razor scraper handy
as the materials that are left on the floor after
scrubbing have been sitting in water and Dyna-Blue
solution and will be much easier to scrape off
now.
Be careful with the razor scraper and you may
want to place it in the little holder for the extra
attachments on the shop-vac if you have
one.
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