Yes, I have to wear crocks inside all of the time, no going bare foot!

We are building new home and are leaning towards polished contrete. trudymom, mrs_ egg and suzyqtexas please post pictures!!!

denisehess, I don't have any pictures, but if I ever built again, I certainly would do stained concrete floors. I love them!

I'm learning there are several approaches to concrete floors. Did you use integral color, color hardener, and/or acid washing? Hope you can share some pictures and details on technique to achieve your results. Thanks.

We have stained concrete floors on our patio and in our basement. I love them! But I'm not sure I'd want them all of my main living areas. If I did have them there-I'd definately want radiant floor heating. THey will be hard on your feet and back- same as tile. Wood has some give to it makeing it more comfortable.

I have stained concrete floors.

Yes I wear shoes when doing a lot of walking on them. It is a small price to pay for easy to clean and great looking floors.

We have dogs and a long mud season. The floors make life so much easier.

We have stained concrete floors throughout our house and have lived in it over 6 years. We walk around in our socks because the floors are so warm and comfortable feeling. We have some rugs down here and there for design accents. We have never noticed any problems relating to the floors being uncomfortable or causing back problems, etc. However, if you think they will do this, the power of suggestion is very strong...

max_w, Since the stained concrete floor person did my floors, I am not exactly sure of his process, but the stain is not integral. Our house was a new construction. They poured the foundation, then after that was all done the floors were stained, buffed, and waxed. I'm not sure about the acid washing you mentioned. We have them throughout our entire house except in the showers. The floors are very hard on my knees and legs, but I just wear my Merrill shoes and have no problems now. I would do them again in a heartbeat.

We are finally all moved and settled in and I just happened to see this post. Here are some pictures of our stained concrete floors. Our stain guy came when the house was dried in. He acid washed it, then stained it with Butterfield "Cordovan Leather". He let it dry for a couple of days, then covered all the floors with Tyvek house wrap. This prevented tears, spills, and rips and kept the dirt and drywall dust from scratching the floors. When we were completely done with the house, he came in, ripped all the Tyvek up, and mopped with plain water. He had a big floor buffer and buffed with what looked like and smelled like turtle wax. I was worried about it being too slippery, but it wasn't at all. We wanted a more matte finish instead of a glossy, polished finish, so all he had to do was buff with wax. He recommended getting it re-buffed yearly. We are loving the floors! They are very low maintenance and hide dirt very well. All I have to do is Swiffer every few days (we have two small children and a shedding dog) and then mop as needed. It took a good month for my legs and feet to get used to it, though--very achy and sore! We moved in the latter part of March when the weather was still a little cool, and the floors were icy cold first thing in the mornings. However, now that's it's getting warmer outside, the coolness of the floors is heavenly at the end of the day when my feet are hot and tired. The only down side is the excessive noise. We stained all the floors except the bedrooms and our floor plan is open, so when we have people over, it gets really loud and echo-y. I have an area rug and smaller accent rugs, but it's still loud.

We have stained concrete as well. We've been in the house for over three years now and the floors are as gorgeous as ever. Maintenance is a non issue, you can use any kind of cleaning product on them and when they are dirty it's hard to tell.

On the down side, it did take some getting used to. My feet and back hurt for the first few months but I guess I got used to it. However, the worst is that I really believe that the slipperiness of the floors helped to tear my dog's ACL. She's a 70lb. boxer and takes off running whenever someone comes to the door. We've had to put down rugs everywhere for her because her leg is too weak to support her weight without any traction.

We just got our basement floor poured with a black concrete with a seamless slate texture. The colour was in the mix when they poured it and then they put this powder on it, stamped it and let it set then came back and vacuumed up the powder and sealed it with a few coats of sealer.
Now its covered so it won't get broken in before we move in! I LOVE IT!!! We have a radiant in-floor heating system to keep it nice and comfortable.
As far as back pain our theatre room and a couple of bedrooms are downstairs so not much walking to do just lounging.

kbncan- your floor is beautiful. Exact color we are looking for. I am wanting to do the exact same thing as you...basement with a stained floor and radiant heat (from the geo system). Walkout basement so a floor that can take a lot of mud and crap being drug in from the outside would be great. However we will have a pool table area, so I am considering putting a carpet tile style 'rug' down under the table area. Balls falling on the concrete would not be good at all.

Oooohhh I never thought of those loose balls that fly off. We too have a pool room area on the bar side, but we don't have a table yet and it been years since I've played. So I was thinking a poker/cards table instead. Maybe we'll see.

The only stained concrete we have is in the lanai and the garage.

We are planing on stained concrete entire home after my parents did it to their sunroom and best friend did it to his entire home.

I think the only real solution is rugs, and they are great. I would shell out some $ for a main hall garadge entry rug and main living room rug, two areas that get the most traffic. We have 3 kids and will be doing a leave the shoes at the door, they are insanely easy to clean.

In the bedrooms I plan on picking up the 20$ big lots rugs and replacing them fairly frequently, maybe will use them as weed control every couple of years :)

I'm glad I read through this thread and found the idea of stained concrete for a lanai!

Y'all must be youngsters. Ask a physical medicine MD or orthopod about what happens to your joints when you have no relief from walking on hard surfaces.

I realize this is an older post ... hopefully I can help anyone looking at this anew. Finding a competent installer is critical to get a very good look in acid etched stained concrete. We had a nightmare with a local installer and a Kemiko distributer based in Scranton PA. The installer really has to prep the surface and apply the product evenly and in the proper manner or else it will end up splotchy, drippy and uneven. Its great for in-floor heating, but DOES wear on the knees and hips. Be sure to see past work projects form the contractor and by all means, educate yourself on its application and SUPERVISE the workers to ensure that it is done properly. Once it's done, there's little you can do to fix a mess up. I learned that the hard way.

I would love to see some real studies or evidence that concrete is hard on the joints. I personally dont buy it. Floors in older homes may indeed have some give to them but modern building codes require very stiff framing that provide zero walking deflection even when covered with wood. I suggest everyone with leg/back joint pain check out Dr Sholls insoles. I have the type with the gel heel and plastic arch support and cannot live without them. I do not have concrete floors but I have personally stained and sealed three slabs on my new homes.

Good point about competent installers, I also feel its a good DIY project for the right person and project. The integral color is easy, if a little pricey but you dont get the variagation and interesting patinas of a true stain job. Ive had the best success by mixing three colors and patterns. The last one used two browns and a touch of copper-like patina green.

Ive had mixed results with the sealers. Two of the jobs used the same brand (from Sherwin) and were applied under very similar conditions. One of the jobs is holding up fine but the other has some peeling issues in some spots. Interestingly, the one thats peeling was a more professional slab finishing job (smoother, more consistent). The rougher concrete seems to be holding the sealer better.

For this reason, we will probably try the polish finish on the home coming up which doesnt require a sealer. However, it does mean youre stuck with gray or integral color, no interesting stain effect. We will probably try to add some interesting aggregate to make up for it.

Concrete floors have many advantages: appearance, maintenance, affordability, durability and energy performance of the thermal mass.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Does anyone have any pictures of your stained concrete floors next to a red brick fireplace? I’m not sure which colors would work well together. I like the darker acid wash stains with scoring and I like red brick fireplaces that have been either lime washed or a German smear but I don’t know if they would match. Would love some input.

We purchased a home six months ago that has concrete floors upstairs and downstairs. My back has hurt severely from day one. There are times when I can barely straighten up. I've tried every brand of shoes I can think of from Uggs to ACIS, New Balance, flip flops, etc. Love the floors and they're heated and cooled so that's a plus, however, I'm suffering. Literally suffering. Today the pain is so bad that I'm walking like a hunched over 125 year old person.