July 2, 2013 editor1 Concrete

Stained Concrete Floors Part III

I’ll admit it… it took the wind out of our sails to have to scrub paint off of the entire floor surface of the house. We did it, though, and were very happy with the products we bought at thestampstore.com. This time, we tested a small area of the laundry room floor (the part where the washer and dryer will sit) before staining the entire house. After we did this, we were able to gauge how dark the stain would be and whether or not we had cleaned the floors of the paint (Valspar from Lowes) sufficiently to get a good result.

Prepped floors and acid stain application

From this, we learned:

1) the stain at a 2:1 dilution rate was a bit too dark for our tastes (we ended up with 3:1 water/stain)

2) We had not cleaned the floors sufficently.

So… back to the buffer rental center we went again. We were getting very good at this process, so it went more smoothly the second time around. We also used a stainless steel scrub brush (bought in the paint dept. at Home Depot) for around the wall edges. Using more TSP (trisodium phosphate) solution, buffer, squeegee, shop vac and mop, we once again cleaned the entire floor. This time we were more satisfied with the amount of paint removal.

The initial color is not an indication of the final color

Using a simple nonmetal garden pump sprayer, we applied the acid stain over the floors and let it dry completely. After it dried well, we cleaned the acid residue from the floor by applying water (we tried using the pump sprayer, but found it took too long, so ended up dumping water and spreading out with the squeegee), then squeegeed and shop-vac’d. Repeated this until the water was clear.

Then, we used an ammonia solution to neutralize any remaining acid… again applied water to remove all residue and squeegeed and shop-vac’d.

Final result after sealing and waxing...

We bought two different types of sealer (on recommendation from the guy at The Stamp Store). The first layer of sealer (the 2500) we applied (using respirator masks — this stuff really stinks) was fairly thin. It was sprayed on and then back-rolled for a nice smooth finish. After it was well dry, we applied the second type of sealer (the 3000), which was much thicker in the same way (again using respirator masks). After both sealer coats had dried well, we applied three coats of Cherry Wax with the 12″ Wooster Lambswool applicator and ended up with a pleasant smell and a very nice finish.

REVIEW of Lowe’s/Valspar regarding the fiasco with their “stain”: After letting the Valspar agents know of the difficulty we had because of the incorrect information given to us by the Carlsbad Lowe’s paint dept. personnel, they were very helpful. Lowes gave us a full refund of the cost of the stain/sealer products they sold us. In addition, Valspar sent us a $300 Lowe’s gift card to repay us for the cost of the rental equipment and cleaning products we had to buy to get the stuff off our floors. All in all, I have to give them a good review on their customer relations.

May 19, 2013 editor1 Concrete

Stained Concrete Floors Part II

Ok… we have this post as a warning to other would-be concrete floor stainers. We have effectively discovered nearly everything not to do.

Before we began the process, we had looked around online and in local stores to find good products to use. During our visit at the Lowe’s in Carlsbad, the paint dept. manager convinced us that their Valspar products would work very well on our house interior. Well… the etching product seemed to work fine, so we thought all was good.

Yesterday morning, with plans for an easy day, we began early spraying the “stain” on the prepared floors…

Mistake #1: Failing to test a small inconspicuous area before continuing with the rest of the house.

Yes, being generally optimistic and very hopeful, we sprayed the entire house in quick time. As we were checking it out as it dried, we were concerned that the stain didn’t seem to be penetrating the concrete at all… the more it dried, the worse it looked.

Mistake #2: Believing the sales personnel when they said products clearly marked as exterior products were fine for interior use.

When we called Valspar, we discovered (to our dismay) that the products we had just covered our floors with were not suitable for interior applications, even though the sales staff at the Lowes had heartily recommended them.

NOTE: Do not use on interior applications!!!

Mistake #3: Thinking that product labeled “Semi-transparent Stain” would actually be either semi-transparent or a stain. It looks like concrete floor paint, sprayed over concrete in a (very ugly) spray pattern.

Conclusion: We are now in the process of removing all the “stain” from the floors with a rented buffing machine, TSP solution and bristle brushes. This is not an easy process. We are about 1/3 finished with the removal project, and guess we have another 10+ hours of hard labor before we get the floors back to the way they were before our staining adventure.

Tips on Removing Concrete “Stain”:

Needed tools/materials:

Rented buffer
Stripper pads (buy at a janitorial supply place — here it was the Southwest Cash and Carry — at the rental place it was nearly $10 apiece. At the Cash and Carry, they were $14.50 for FIVE)
Squeegee
Wet/Dry Vac
Mop and bucket
Palm Sander
Scrub brushes
TSP (trisodium phosphate — sold in the paint section of hardware stores)

1. Use commercial style buffing machine to remove stain. Use TSP solution (1/2 cup to 2 gallons hot water) to lubricate the buffer.

2. Buff a section, then squeegee the buffed floor to assure complete removal before moving on.

3. Use wet-vac to remove liquid from floor.

4. (VERY IMPORTANT) Mop any remaining drips, residue before it dries. If you fail to do this last step, you’ll find yourself redoing parts of the section again later (Ask me how we know this!).

5. Remove remaining paint around edges of the rooms with hand scrubbers or palm sander.

NOTE: This assumes you have not applied any sealer to the stain. It will require other products and be much more difficult to remove the stain if you have already sealed it.

Going Forward

We have ordered products from thestampstore.com, which we are confident will work better. We spoke to a salesperson at the Okla. location and got his advice on what to use and how much to buy.

And… do you think maybe we’ll try out a small, inconspicuous area before we stain the entire house next time???

May 17, 2013 editor1 Construction

Stained Concrete Floors Part 1

We decided early on that we wanted to have stained concrete floors throughout the bottom level of the house. For one thing, the finish is beautiful and durable. For another thing, we really do not like wall-to-wall carpeting at all. Lastly, it is a very low-cost alternative to ceramic tile and easy to do relative to other alternatives.

To prepare for this, we asked our concrete guys to give the foundation a machine finish after it was poured. It has a very nice glassy finish already on most of the house (along the edges of the foundation, there are a few less-smooth spots, but nothing bad).

Also, since we knew this was the plan, we tried very hard during all phases of construction not to get it dirty with building materials, etc. Particularly once we started the mudding and taping, followed by paint, we covered the floor with tar paper (a much less expensive alternative to the expensive cardboard rolls they sell in the hardware stores) throughout the house.

However, as hard as we tried, we still had a lot of work to prepare the concrete for staining. We spent a good two days cleaning the floors, sweeping, vacuuming, scraping off any bits of drywall mud, removing the drips and overspray from the paint process. and finally mopping every inch of the house. After that, we had to mask the lower parts of all the walls to protect them from the stain and etching compound. That was not a pleasant job, but not a difficult one.

To mask the walls, we cut 18″ strips from the roll of painter’s plastic (10 feet wide) that we used to mask during the texturing and painting processes. After cutting the strips, we taped them around the walls and woodwork, using blue tape on the tops and on any woodwork and regular masking tape on the bottoms of the sheetrock, where the woodwork will eventually be installed.

One thing that helped with paint removal was using brush cleaner (for latex paint). By painting it on the overspray or drip, and then scraping after a few seconds, the job was made much easier. This was a relatively inexpensive product. We only needed 2 quarts for the bottom floor our house (2600 sf to be stained), at a cost of about $7/quart.

After the floors were relatively clean, it was time to use the cleaning/etching product we bought to prep the floors to accept the stain. We looked around online and at the local paint store, as well as our local Home Depot. We ended up going with the Valspar products sold by Lowes. We found some very knowledgeable staff at the store down in Carlsbad, who were able to clearly explain just how their products worked and what we would need to get to have all the tools at hand for the process.

Today we finished the etching process for the entire project.

The process is simple:

Dilute the solution 1:1. Wet down the floor first (we did this with a mop and bucket). Spray (using an all-plastic pump sprayer) the surface well. Scrub into the surface with a natural bristle brush on a broom handle. After the fizzing is done, mop the floor several times to remove all the residue. (We found three times to be about right). Use proper protective equipment (goggles, facemask, gloves, shoe coverings or rubber boots, and optional protective suit).

That is basically it… Here are some photos:

Tools of the trade: pump sprayer, protective suit, face mask, goggles and rubber or latex gloves, Etching solution.

Wet down the floor before spraying solution

A few more views of cleaned floors:

Tomorrow we stain the floors!