Apr 01 2010
Acid Stain Project
We set out last year to stain our concrete floors after having seen some beautiful examples around town and in various magazines. Lisa and I love the deep, vivid colors of the finished floors and the easy maintenance appeals to us. To see if staining concrete was a DIY job, we decided to refinish the sun room this past weekend.
It’s small, only around 100 square feet, and figured we could always throw a rug down if we really screwed things up. It took us four nights, be we think the results are impressive.
Last year we were quoted $2084.96 by a local decorative concrete company to do the job.
Our cost? About $275, including tools and supplies that we didn’t already have. If we had that all to begin with, the total would have been closer to $175.
For this project, we decided to use Quikrete Etching Stain. It’s somewhat pricey at $72 a gallon, and if when we do the rest of the house, I’ll research other solutions from the likes of Brickform or Scofield, which can run cheaper in price.
The concrete staining process, while time consuming and requiring a lot of elbow grease, was straightforward enough: prep the concrete, apply acid stain, wait, clean concrete, wait again, apply topcoat, wait, wait, and wait some more. (click on a photo to enlarge it.)
Day 1
Here's how the sun room looked at beginning of project.
Lots of adhesive and paint to clean up.
The carpet tack strips presented a problem as the nails left divots when pulled up. We decided to not patch them.
A heat gun and/or hot water will remove the adhesive, but it would have taken forever. We opted for Klean-Strip adhesive remover instead.
After stripping the step, we mopped with TSP solution. Total project time spent today, 4.5 hours.
Day 2
Klean-Strip
Apply the stripper, cover with plastic, and use a roller to move agent around. Let sit for 15-30 minutes then remove with scraper. Use gloves since the remover burns.
Using TSP and water with a stiff-bristled brush removes most of the remaining adhesive and paint, plus any surprise grease or oil. In theory, at least. Unless you grind, not everything will come up.
I'd recommend a heavy duty mop and bucket, the kind you see the professionals use. Here, we did 2-3 cleanings with hot water only.
Some things even solvents couldn't clean up. These imperfections will give the floor some character.
Deep scratches, we won't patch these either. Total project time today, 5 hours.
Day 3
Time to stain. Here we wet the floor to get as even coverage as possible.
The Quikrete Etching Stain.
It will take some time to see any noticeable change to the concrete. Here we have applied about three quarters gallon of stain using a standard garden sprayer, no metal parts.
About 40 minutes after application, you can see some color appearing.
About an hour after application, floor is drying and you can see the residue forming. Honestly, the puddling was a bit troubling.
The stain is definitely doing its job.
About 5 hours into drying, and things look horrible in my opinion. There was still some puddling and it was bad enough I attempted to soak it up with paper towels. I don't know my there were white chalky areas appearing and the stain was reacting oddly turning some parts black. The instructions said for best results to wait 24 hours, but I was sufficiently concerned enough I wanted to stop the reaction and wash the residue away immediately.
Things improved dramatically after scrubbing with brush and baking soda solution. Total project time today, 1 hour.
Day 4
Floor is now completely dry and free of acid residue, about 18 hours after baking soda wash.
Closeup of bucket rings which I had not seen prior to staining. The staining process will likely reveal things like this.
A 30 year old foot print.
The topcoat, Quickrete Premium Clear Epoxy. Here I've added the hardener to the base and need to wait 30 minutes for activation.
Applying the topcoat, doing the trim first with a high quality 3 inch brush. It's cream colored so you can tell if you are getting adequate coverage. It will dry clear.
The epoxy topcoat might appear green in various areas due to a foreign substance.
The topcoat is put down using a 3/8 inch nap roller. Total application time was about 15 minutes.
After 25 minutes drying, should be totally clear by morning. Total project time today, 1 hour.
Day 5
About 18 hours after topcoat. This is afternoon sunlight.
Here is a closeup of rings and scratches, as noted in earlier photos. We love these little imperfections.
Approximately 24 hours after topcoat put down. It's now evening, and gives off a warm glow under artificial lighting. You can see the footprint in upper left corner of frame. Baseboards and painting in a few days.
Day 11 – The next weekend
The following weekend re-installing the baseboards, which are simply 1x4 topped by quarter round trim. Simplicity. (The sheets of paper are to protect the floor from paint touch-ups and caulking. To my dismay, I dropped some latex paint on the floor and when I wiped it up it looked like some had permanently set in the epoxy coating. Same with some bug spray. Be very, very careful with any liquids, apparently anything beyond water is bad. I've got to research topcoats more before tackling any more of the floors.)
Took about 8 hours to complete the baseboards. I'm not the best carpenter, it takes me a while. You can see the result of my paint fiasco around the center of the photo. Ugh, that still bothers me.
The room getting back to normal, Lisa and I decided to create a bar/serving area using my father's old workbench. We're loving it already!
UPDATE 04/16: Having put down the epoxy topcoat 12 days ago, I have observed that after a wet mop, certain areas of the floor become milky or cloudy in appearance. I must admit a certain disappointment with this and I get a bit sick to my stomach considering the time, effort, and money Lisa and I have put into this project.
But, I need to troubleshoot this problem. I called Quikrete customer service (800-458-0047, will answer as Valspar) and they confirmed it was moisture causing this, likely due to a thinner application of the epoxy in those areas compared to the rest of the floor, and slow curing of the coating. I was told that Premium Clear Epoxy Coating can take up to 4 or 5 weeks to fully cure, a fact that Quikrete doesn’t document in their literature. The good news is the cloudy areas should eventually disappear, but should this happens again after a month or so, Quikrete recommends a second coating of the epoxy.
UPDATE 10/30: It’s been six months now, and the cloudy areas are still around. In fact, it spread quickly to about 1/4 of the total area of the sunroom. It has certainly been disappointing. Still, it appears it has stopped spreading, and I’m convinced it’s a problem with my concrete. Not much I can really do about it at this point, and I will say that we are both still quite happy with the results, even if it’s not quite perfect. Next Spring I’ll add an additional epoxy topcoat for good measure and to follow Quikrete’s recommendation.
[...] You can see a photo summary of the project here. [...]
WOW!! This looks sooooo great!!! how do the puppies like it?
We’re being overly cautious and not allowing any traffic on it for 72 hours, so we’ll have to let you know then!
[...] Last weekend we completed the sun room by touching up the walls, re-installing the baseboards, and moving in the furniture. (More pictures here.) [...]
we are doing the same thing in our basement and had some puddle issues too…we have now scrubbed the residue off with the baking soda and water solution but still seem to have some dust issues….it has dried and we have not done clear coat but if you rub your hands on it you may get some dusty stain color on your hands….did you have this?? not sure if we need to wash again or what?
thanks for sharing your project and in advance for any help you may have for us
If you still have some residue, as we did, I’d mop again and pick up as much as possible. If I recall, I think I mopped at least three times, always starting with a bucket of clear water. Of course, that means you’ll have to wait longer for it to dry before you put down your topcoat. Kinda sucks, but worth the effort I think!
Thanks for your blog. My wife and I are redoing our basement with the stained concrete and I am constantly checking to make sure yours looks like ours does. Mostly because I am truly an amateur when it comes to DIY projects. Thanks for keeping me (mostly my wife) sane in this process
That makes two of use, I’m a DIY amateur myself! But I hope the photos we’ve posted will help. Hope you’re taking pics yourself to document the process, we’d love the see your results!
Thank you for sharing your experience with acid staining. I was just googling how the stain should react. After three days of back breaking work on a 25 year old floor we were beginning to be a bit discouraged. We applied the stain about and hour ago and were worried that it was not fizzing up. Apparently, a lot of websites mention that it should fizz for some reason. I found your website and found a bit of hope that at least it might not be a total loss. I went with acid stain because I really do like a non-uniform look. Yours turned out wonderfully! Also, the acid stain page led me to your other photos. So enjoyable! We have been to many of the same places. I swear the old abandoned gas station on the way to Alburqurque is the same one I was looking for on a trip there 2 years ago.
I remember reading about the fizzing, but never noticed anything during our application. I recall being a bit concerned about that, but let it go, especially as I noticed the color change over the course of a few hours. I was expecting something spectacular with the acid reaction, but it was kind of boring quite honestly.
If you come thru Abq in about 20 years from now, I’m sure that gas station will still look the same!
Hope your project goes well, post some pics, we’d love to see the results! Good luck.
SO glad you posted the progress of this project. I was looking to make the final decision on acid etching, or semi transparent concrete stain after spending over a week scrubbing the living, dining and master of the new home we are moving into. I wasn’t able to find much in the way of information, or reviews in regards to Quikrete’s acid etching process, and I really needed advice from someone who actually DID it. This helped me make the decision that this product was exactly what I was looking for.
We laid down the etching stain Sunday, and returned Monday evening to scrub with the baking soda and water mixture. The floor looked great although I can tell I was a little more heavy with the stain where I started, and then lighter and uniform from there on out. After the first vigorous scrub session I decided I would like to clean it once more to ensure we got most of the residue up. After Tuesday nights scrubbing session of baking soda and water, it appeared to have a powdery residue (maybe the baking soda) after we scrubbed and sucked up the water/residue with a shop vac. Paranoid it will leave the white spots you documented, I went over the floor again with water, and picking up remaining water with the shop vac again. To much avail, I still see a slight white powdery residue.
Since this has taken a week longer than expected due to the condition of the concrete once we removed the carpet, we are going to be laying the top coat down tomorrow powder-or no powder.
I am excited to see the finished product and will post a link to my facebook photo album of the step by step process of our project as well. Thanks for sharing and providing me with the sanity to take the leap
Glad you took the plunge Brook and look forward to seeing your results!
I just finished my basement with this product! I had to use the stain twice to “darken” the areas that didn’t take the acid the first time. It worked out even better after a second treatment of the acid. I put two coats of the sealant down. I am a little concerned about how long it is taking to dry and a bit cloudy in a couple of low areas of the concrete. Maybe I put too much sealant on? I will have to see how it plays out…I’ll keep you posted.
Daniel- we had a few cloudy areas as you described, and it turned out to be sealant that just took longer than the rest to dry. Now, we also had other clouding as well that showed up after the floor went down, and that unfortunately is moisture/concrete issues that have not gone away. I hope in your case it’s the sealant!
Wow, your floor looks great! What color did you use? I’m acid staining the majority of the floors in my house. So far I’ve done the gym, bathroom and kitchen. I must say it hasn’t been easy. In fact, after staining the kitchen floor I ended up using muriatic acid to tone the color down because it was too orange. Ugghh
We used Tan. Sorry you had to break out the muriatic acid!
It has been over 48 hrs since we put the top coat on. We’ve had a few things happen that I am worried about.
1. We had somebody come in with snow on their feet!!!! They tried to mop up the water, but it just made the floor cloudy…. Hope this goes away!!!
2. My husban is pulling the tape off the baseboards and has a rag under his knees… Where his leg is… there is a cloudy spot.
Should I worry about these spots?
Elizabeth,
In our experience, you should be fine, the spots should clear up. (Of course, we have some spots that haven’t cleared up, I think that’s due to concrete issues.)
In any case, you can always call the company’s tech support line for real, expert help.
How is the stain lasting? Does it still look good?
Dave, so far the stain is holding up great. Still looks good and seems quite durable.
My husband and I are just on the brink of tackling this project for our lower level rec room/kitchenette and bath. Its Memorial Day weekend, so I thought it would be a fabulous project to get “done.” We had a tough time locating the epoxy from Quikrete and thus spent a lot of time calling various Lowes stores in our area. One rep knew quite a bit about this product and stated that it is best to tackle concrete staining/sealing during the dry season — avoid spring when ground below the concrete is wettest. She said to aim the summer months… June/July/August are the best times for staining and curing seals as they are typically drier months.
Man, am I bummed… as my project is being pushed back. Just thought it was good advice to pass on…
Prepping the concrete today and waiting, scraping off latex paint blobs with a razor blade…
Hi Lisa and Michael,
Much thanks for your weblog. It has been a great resource of knowledge for the finishing of my basement. I put down the Quikrete etching stain and sealer, and now, 1 week after application of the sealer, I have the same problem with an area of cloudiness, that I am hoping will not get worse.
Did you find that the second application of the top coat / sealer remedied the problem? Did it eventually go away? I will be contacting Quikrete about it but wanted to gain (again!) from your experience.
Thanks!
Dave
I am having the same cloudiness issues. I called Valspar and was told it was a moisture issue. The 2-part clear coat epoxy we used is only milky white where we slightly overlapped. We tackled about 1200 sq ft.
Our floor has white square outlines all over. The majority of the floor looks great. I even tried the heat gun trick that Valspar recommended and did not observe any difference. Valspar said they are contacting a sales rep to come and look at my floor. Hopefully they have a solution, short of doing it all over again !!
F.T.
Please let me know what they say. I am about to rent heat lamps to see if that will make a difference.
Thanks
Dave
DaveRootz@yahoo.com
My wife and I have been going back and forth about a floor finish for our basement. I really love the depth and color variants, as well as the durability of a properly finished stained concrete floor. My wife is loving the simplicity of a manufactured floor material that we can lay down without all the heavy scrubbing, not to mention the waiting.
In my previous occupation, I was a floor care professional, and I would like to offer a tip. Once the final topcoat is applied (and please do not wait too long to apply it, as the longer you wait, the greater the likelihood of dirt and contaminant build-up that will need to be completely removed for uniform results…), like I was saying, once the final topcoat is applied, take one extra measure and apply one or two coats of a sacrificial layer. In layman’s terms, by ‘sacrificial layer’ I mean wax it.
A good durable hard floor wax will take the brunt of any scratches from pet claws, furniture being moved, or high heels, protecting the epoxy layer from getting damaged by abrasives. And the great thing is, if the wax gets scuffed, it is easy to re-apply and buff smooth.
I love your project. Great color combo between your lime walls, burnt orange floor, and crisp white baseboards. You are an inspiration.
Blessings,
Mark
P.S. oh, by the way, I think you’re right about the white being a result of something in your concrete, namely, moisture. Now that the epoxy is on, the moisture is trapped, and is reacting to the bottom of the sealer. The only real fix is the strip the sealer, find out the cause of the moisture leak and repair it. Run heated air over the area for 48 hours to dry, then tape a small piece of plastic to the floor and check it in 12 hours to make sure it is dry. If it’s free of condensation, go ahead and apply the topcoat (epoxy sealer). It will set up naturally and should be free of chaulkiness or condensation.
Your project looks fantastic! My husband and I are going to try to tackle this project in our basement. It’s about 1200 sq. ft. We are a bit concerned because this is a high traffic area. We usually enter our home through our garage, then into the basement and up the stairs. We are concerned about it being slippery with wet or snow covered shoes. I was also wondering if there were any fumes during this process? I don’t mind the hard work of scrubbing, but I have a child with asthma and I also have sinus problems and do not want to complicate it with toxic fumes. Any information you could give would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Sorry to bother you again, our existing concrete is gray and it is about 6 years old. We were thinking about using the “Coffee” colored stain. I was wondering what color stain you used because I really like the end results of your flooring project.
Thanks again,
We did the same in our basement and I am so pleased with the results! We actually taped off 36 inch squares and painted on lines to make it look like tiles!We did run across the problem with the floor drying with cloudy or milky white areas. We are going to try and apply the second coat to see if that will work. If not, I seriously think I will find a nice area rug for that spot. It is the side of the basement up against the wall that lines the outside of the house.
I would recommend this project to any average person who has no clue about staining concrete floors. It really does require lots of elbow grease but I agree that the results are well worth it! How can I post a picture for you guys to see?
@Denise: We used the Tan color. As far as fumes are concerned, I don’t recall that being too much of an issue. The stripper was a bigger deal, it burns if you are not careful and get some on you.
@Jennifer: While you can’t post pics with a posting, if you send me one I’ll add it to the page to share with everyone.
Just found your site today after searching for info on Etching Stain offered at Lowe’s. We occasionally have the white dust on a couple of places of our unstained concete floor. Do you know of anything that I can do now to prevent this from happening to finished floors? Also we have about 1283 sq feet that I will be doing. It will have to be split into two sessions. Should I do a jagged edge so that when I come back and do the other side it won’t have a line connecting the two sides? I was thinking of using cayenne red but seeing how rich and warm yours looks, I think I will use tan also. How much coverage do you with one jug on etching stain? Is the information about the baking soda wash in the DVD that comes with the product? I can’t find anything about that. That for all the help you have been! Great info in this post.
The cloudiness in the sealer was probably caused by sealing too soon after final cleaning of your floor. Even though the floor looks and feels dry, there is still moisture under the surface that is trying to evaporate. As it leaves the concrete it becomes trapped between the concrete and the bottom of the impermeable epoxy, making it turn hazy. This is referred to as “blushing.” Since epoxy and many other types of sealer are very moisture-sensitive, the floor needs to be COMPLETELY dry before application. You may need to allow several days of drying to successfully apply the sealer.
@Lynne: The product covers approximately 300-400 square feet. The product literature explains the baking soda application. Can’t answer your questions about white dust or application over 2 sessions, maybe someone with more knowledge can. You can always call the manufacturer, too.
@steve: That’s excellent information and advice. I sure wish the Quikrete people had mentioned that!