Concrete Stain
Most that know me also know about my love of all things concrete. From concrete canoes to translucent concrete in buildings, I have always loved concrete as both a building material with structural properties but also as an artistic element.
When my parents first moved into their house in the Rolling Green retirement community, I did several upgrade projects for them. The hardest was the back patio expansion. Partly it was harder because the person in charge of approving architectural changes would not let us pour concrete to the existing concrete curbs. Instead only to the building extents. This meant there were about two feet between the patios and the existing concrete curbs. We came up with a pretty decent solution of using river rock and concrete stepping stones that can be easily moved to fill the space.
Mom wanted to stain the back patio and seal it to hide some of the rust stains from her furniture. I have stained concrete in the past using an acid stain but now they have these new products for staining concrete from the paint companies. I spent a lot of time reviewing the process and reading reviews. The reviews for the products at both Lowe's and Home Depot were pretty bad with a majority of people complaining it acted more like a paint than a stain. I needed it to act like a stain and penetrate into the concrete to create the color change as opposed to forming a bond on the surface like a paint would. If it acted like a paint it would be likely to peel at some point with the weather exposure.
So I went to the store to actually talk to someone about it (definitely a first world thing I miss). While at the store I ran into someone from the paint company who was there with a new product. He and I talked about 20 minutes about why so many have problems with their application. To be honest, after our discussion I am not sure this is a DIY type material. But having done acid stain I knew how to do the things he stated I needed to do to get it to work.
First, clean and clean some more. Make sure there is no type of grease or surface stain that will prevent the color stain. This works great with the rust stains from the furniture because they will not prevent it from soaking in. Second really etch the surface.with an acid to get concrete ready to receive the stain. The problem I had here is the product they sell that is easy to use did nothing to etch the surface despite being called an etching product. You can tell if you do it right because you will see a little cloud form on the surface as the acid reacts with the minerals in the concrete. I tried their product once and then went back to using muratic acid mixed somewhere between 10 and 15%. I got my cloud on the surface and could actually hear it when I first pour it out. At that concentration it only reacts for about 5 minutes then it is neutralized and can be washed off.
Next is the stain and it has to be done right. I strongly recommend not following the directions about using a sprayer for the first coat. I applied the first coat using a brush. It does affect the coverage area by reducing it to half the sprayer coverage. But you will get a better look than the sprayer or the roller. This next part is critical. When they talk about the temperature you can apply the stain they are serious and they are talking about the surface temp of the concrete. So if your concrete is in the sun it will often be 20 degrees hotter than the ambient or air temperature. This gave me about 1 and half hours between the time the concrete surface was cool enough and it is too dark to work. I put two coats on a day apart. The first coat was applied using the brush and the second coat with the sprayer in small areas then brushed out to get a more even appearance.
After that is your sealer and guess what it has even tighter temperature restrictions than the stain. I apply the sealer with a sprayer then roll it out to fill all the surface imperfections of the concrete. For this job, I used a wet look sealer so it would pop a little more.
When my parents first moved into their house in the Rolling Green retirement community, I did several upgrade projects for them. The hardest was the back patio expansion. Partly it was harder because the person in charge of approving architectural changes would not let us pour concrete to the existing concrete curbs. Instead only to the building extents. This meant there were about two feet between the patios and the existing concrete curbs. We came up with a pretty decent solution of using river rock and concrete stepping stones that can be easily moved to fill the space.
Mom wanted to stain the back patio and seal it to hide some of the rust stains from her furniture. I have stained concrete in the past using an acid stain but now they have these new products for staining concrete from the paint companies. I spent a lot of time reviewing the process and reading reviews. The reviews for the products at both Lowe's and Home Depot were pretty bad with a majority of people complaining it acted more like a paint than a stain. I needed it to act like a stain and penetrate into the concrete to create the color change as opposed to forming a bond on the surface like a paint would. If it acted like a paint it would be likely to peel at some point with the weather exposure.
So I went to the store to actually talk to someone about it (definitely a first world thing I miss). While at the store I ran into someone from the paint company who was there with a new product. He and I talked about 20 minutes about why so many have problems with their application. To be honest, after our discussion I am not sure this is a DIY type material. But having done acid stain I knew how to do the things he stated I needed to do to get it to work.
First, clean and clean some more. Make sure there is no type of grease or surface stain that will prevent the color stain. This works great with the rust stains from the furniture because they will not prevent it from soaking in. Second really etch the surface.with an acid to get concrete ready to receive the stain. The problem I had here is the product they sell that is easy to use did nothing to etch the surface despite being called an etching product. You can tell if you do it right because you will see a little cloud form on the surface as the acid reacts with the minerals in the concrete. I tried their product once and then went back to using muratic acid mixed somewhere between 10 and 15%. I got my cloud on the surface and could actually hear it when I first pour it out. At that concentration it only reacts for about 5 minutes then it is neutralized and can be washed off.
Next is the stain and it has to be done right. I strongly recommend not following the directions about using a sprayer for the first coat. I applied the first coat using a brush. It does affect the coverage area by reducing it to half the sprayer coverage. But you will get a better look than the sprayer or the roller. This next part is critical. When they talk about the temperature you can apply the stain they are serious and they are talking about the surface temp of the concrete. So if your concrete is in the sun it will often be 20 degrees hotter than the ambient or air temperature. This gave me about 1 and half hours between the time the concrete surface was cool enough and it is too dark to work. I put two coats on a day apart. The first coat was applied using the brush and the second coat with the sprayer in small areas then brushed out to get a more even appearance.
After that is your sealer and guess what it has even tighter temperature restrictions than the stain. I apply the sealer with a sprayer then roll it out to fill all the surface imperfections of the concrete. For this job, I used a wet look sealer so it would pop a little more.
I am happy with the finished product. It still shows the beauty of the concrete.
I was also happy to get this project finished with the good weather before I leave to head back over to Tanzania. I leave this week, Thursday and will spend a couple of days in Arusha reacclimating and get my Kiswahili that I have back in order before I move to Moshi and eventually to the new site in Kiruani.
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