I am confused - are they stained and then waxed or just waxed ? Some stain
companies say not to use curing compound on the newly finished slab if you
plan to stain the floors . I went on the safe side and did not use the compound. You also need to be very careful not to spill anything on the
newly finished slab prior to staining . A friend had his done and the workers
spilled a can of soda on the new slab . The stain guys had a heck of a time
getting that area to take the stain .
Are the swirls in the concrete or the stain ? If you had holes - they should have been filled prior to applying stain and or wax . You could sand the areas down and fill then redo stain and wax . You should have several coats of wax that will protect the floors but plain water is the best for clean up . I have a steam mop which I use but need to be careful not to let sit on floor very
long . You should'nt have to be anymore careful about spills than any other
floor covering .

fayemarie, good questions. They have been stained and waxed. The swirls were in the concrete. Holes are from where workers dropped things, although most of the time thick paper was down--but not all of the time--growl... Are your floors perfect? How long have you had your stained concrete floors, and how often do you re-wax them?

Thank you!

Anyone else?

Ours are new and so I'm still learning how to take care of them. From what I've read, just plain water is needed for clean up and that's all I've used. I use a Swiffer dust mop with microfiber cloths (instead of buying the Swiffer disposables).

My floors are not perfect. There are some swirl marks in the concrete that I wish weren't there, but they don't bother me a whole lot. There are some pits here and there, but those don't bother me either. I think if of it as part of the character of the floor, just as I would if it were natural stone.

The only thing I can think of is that we told the concrete finisher to make sure he didn't burnish the floors with the troweling machine.

I have concrete floors in my current home and I have them in my home that
is currently being built . I acted as my own GC and my concrete finishers did
all the troweling by hand . They knew the floors were going to be stained so
they were careful to get them as near perfect as a human can . I stained and waxed them right away to protect them from spills . I did get a few very fine
cracks which I then filled with a special concrete mix that is used on concrete
counters . I sanded those and then stained , sealed and waxed the floors . I
don't think swirl marks would bother me because I agree with armomto that
it just adds to the character and as I have a country house - like the rustic
look . I use the steamer on the floors in my current home and cannot believe
how clean they get and it is much easier on my back ! Since I saved $$ by doing the floors myself - I decided to splurge and buy a jani-link floor
machine for future floor maintenance . It scrubs , polishes and buffs the
floor . I have 2000+ sf in stained concrete so I think it was a good investment
but you can also rent them from most ace hardware stores . Depending on
how high traffic the area is you will probably only have to add wax and / or
rebuff once a year .

good information. I wonder if my GC told the concrete people that I was having stained concrete floors--our concrete people did trowel by hand, then used a machine with paddles on it. I wonder if that should not have been used. My guys did not fill any holes.

Concrete perfect? Never! Ours of 3.5 years are great. We clean with soap and water. Never wax -- we want to remain standing.

Oh, and it's only rarely that a dropped dish/glass ever gets another chance at life.

You all are making me feel better. Mine are scratched and the sheen is different all over. Is that how yours is? I didn't expect a perfect floor at all, but I thought there would be some consistency. But I do love them and love the maintenance.

Thank you!

We love our concrete floor! We have several dogs and this
is a great floor for them - I love no grout!
They had to use blue chalk vs orange to snap because the orange resists the stain, They scored right after the pour, and then covered it up with plastic and paper and then stained at the end.
It is a black stain that looks taupe in some places. I think the scoring makes a hugh difference - looks like big stones 3' x 3' in some places - and no grout!. the cost was $3.25 for stain and scoring, covering was extra.

We have stained concrete floors and the trowel machine with paddles is what is used to put a steel trowel finish on the concrete in large warehouses. It is perfectly fine for your foundation contractor to use that.

We have dings and divits in our floor, but we love it. There are actually leaves that got stuck in the concrete since we put our foundation in during the fall and the contractor couldn't keep the leaves off. ITs great.

We have about 3000 SF of stained concrete. I'm looking for a fast way to sweep and scrub it.

Large warehouse machines are too much. 15,000 sq ft/hr coverage. Looking for a commercial grade machine that will clean, squeegee and buff but haven't found one yet. That would make it much faster to clean. It is really easy to keep up, just time consuming because of the volume.

Check out my building process at http://www.myhomebuildingmentor.com/blog

Thank you all for your thoughts and pictures.

Are some parts of your floors shinier than other parts? Our stained concrete guy told us that was from the original slab and not from his waxing. There are some parts that just don't get shiny with the wax.

Thank you!

I am having stained concrete floors put in the house I am building. What kind of wax to I need to use? I also understand that I should NOT use a cotton mop, but a microfiber mop. Can you elaborate

Our very expensive concrete floors have lots of scratches, pits and gouges. Even weird holes where some of the insulation "floated" up and came through the final layer. It's incredibly fragile-- everything leaves scratches and marks, no one can wear shoes in the house, and it's impossible to keep clean. There are tape pull marks along all the caulking lines where the stain came up with the tape. We are saving up to put cork on top. So sad ....

We considered staining the concrete on all our decking, we have 1700 sq ft of concrete decking/patio. We ended up coloring it instead, then sealed it. It's all outside, 800 sq ft is a covered outdoor living area, the color is very uniform, in fact the builder liked it so much he did it on his house, same color even. My only problem is how slippery it is when wet but the kids seem to be the only ones who have an issue with that as they're always running an playing in water.

We are going to color our basement concrete before the pour. It is 400 bucks extra and the color goes all the way through. Just seems the smart thing to do.

Old thread, but when I read it before, I had a lot of the same questions. We also did integrated color rather than stain. Our GC is super-meticulous and had the floor protected with a layer of Ramboard and then paper on top for many months. He said if anyone dropped a hammer, it would inevitably be in just the wrong spot.

There are "imperfections" that jumped out at me when I saw the floors for the first time in an empty room, but most are invisible to me now. (I don't know about this thing you call "daily" cleaning, though-- when I see dust bunnies, I vacuum, when I see a spill, I consider mopping.) We did have the concrete guy put some kind of sealer on it, and then it was buffed-- maybe we'll have to do that again some day.

I have stained concrete floors. I have many swirls and such. The one thing that just happened that I do not know how to fix is a discolored spot from my steam mop. I have used it many times for cleaning my floors. Yesterday, it decided to leave a spot while I finished some vacuuming. Any ideas on how to fix this would be great.

I also have stained concrete floors. Yesterday, while cleaning, the steam mop left an imprint while I was finishing up some vacuuming. I have steam mopped them several times. I am wondering how to fix this spot left by my steam mop? Any help would be appreciated.

I have the same-thing ! if you find out how to fix this problem, Please let me know!