i've stained concrete before and i really love the look. we've done both inside and out...we found we were happiest with mixing at least two different colors together or layering them, to give a real stone look. we sprayed and sponged and mopped-- all different techniques.

i like the acid stains mentioned above by pesky a lot! but once when i couldn't find them locally, i used a cheaper brand from the local hardware store (but better than the ones at the big box stores, which i was warned had flat colors). i was pretty happy with the stain. i got green and blue stain and layered them with a sprayer to give a slate look for an exterior patio.

for inside, i would decide if you want grout marks, or you want it to look like concrete, in which case you don't need to do faux grout. there are a lot of cool patterns that you can use to make it look like limestone or whatever stone rocks your boat.

have fun and post your pics! can't wait to see!

May I join this discussion? Pesky, decorpas, can you give an idea of what DIYing a living room would be like? Prep after ripping up the carpet, protecting walls, spraying stain, aftercoat of some kind, drying time...

which brands of acid stains? where do you get them? How much do you need, square-footage-wise? What's the difference between using acid stains and using wood stains?

I hope punamytsike sees this thread: she is extremely visually talented and has done some flat-out gorgeous concrete projects (and other projects) in her home.

Thanks in advance!

Or if you have well water that has tannins in it then all you have to do it water it on a daily basis. That's what happened to our sidewalk where the sprinkler system hit. Looks pretty neat too. It's just not all done. We are thinking this spring and summer we'll have to hit the rest of it with the hose so it will all match. I'm just happy that our inside water is treated and our drinking water if reverse osmossis. 8-O

Punamysike, a member here, has done GORGEOUS concrete staining. I hope she sees your post as she's very generous with information for us all. But just in case she doesn't see it, here is her site with photos at the bottom of this post. Here is the product she said she used http://www.decosup.com/ . I say go for it!

Here is a link that might be useful: Punamysike's concrete staining

prep is a drag-- rip up carpets, tape protective coat over bottom of wall, get glue off from carpet and carpet tack strip....ugh. once we got going, we had to do three coats (different colors) and one sealing coat. we used a garden pump sprayer, which was easy and light to use. we did in one day of different colors. the wax sealer we did the next day.

another thing that adds to prep time is cleaning the floor and making sure it's level everywhere and then we made our own grout pattern with tape and it took forever to lay it all out! but in the end, it was very affordable and looked awesome! concrete stain picks up aggregates in the concrete so it looks like stone, with variable color throughout.

i haven't used wood stains...but i used a concrete stain from a local hardware chain once and it was just fine....

here's a link to the line i used: kemiko.

Here is a link that might be useful: kemiko concrete stain

Kemiko is a great stain. DH also uses woodstains and mixes them with muriatic acid (get it at swimming pool supply places).

The acid works with the lime in the concrete to give gorgeous variations.

Oceanna is right about the prep work, but the results are worth it. I'm still waiting for DH to make my concrete countertops and we plan to do various designs in stain.

I personally don't care for the color integrated concrete, because it's too uniform in color. But it's good if you will have exposed edges, like on a patio or walkway. I think a lot also depends on the sealer finish. Our neighbor just had his driveway done with integrated color and stamping, but they put a gloss sealer and it looks really stupid, IMHO. A satin finish looks great.

Buy (or make) your own concrete slabs, then practice. Just make sure they're smooth, not the very porous stuff used for landscape pavers.

Oh, one final note...blue and green tend to fade considerably, especially outdoors. Even with sealer. So if you want to go with more of a brown/red/yellow coloring you've got nothing to worry about.

that's true about the fading; the limestone colors i did on my first patio held up a bit better than the slate ones. however, they both looked tons better than they did before we stained them and it's so affordable. just labor intensive, but not hard to do. you can make tile looking borders of different styles and do whatever pattern you are willing to mask off:-) i think you can buy patterns now, too-- but i don't know a lot about those, as we made our own. a tip here-- we covered the whole area in one color and then used a sponge technique to get "accent" tiles in the corners of the larger tiles and borders. this saved us from having to carefully avoid the accent tiles with the first wash.

i agree with not liking the color that is put into the actual concrete as much as the stain.

Pesky,
What is the ratio for wood stain to acid? Do you know if the concrete is very old, does it affect the concrete? And do you spray or roll on?

justgotabme, what you are seeing is the iron in the water. Much easier is to buy liquid iron from HD (their fertilizer section) dilute it with water and spray. We used full strength on our driveways ;)

Thank you walkin_yesindeed and oceanna for your kind words.

Like oceanna mentioned, I use Decosup products and they are excellent. My oldest projects are now 5 years old and still look like new. If you have any specific questions, please send me an e-mail or ask here and I will try to answer based on my experience.

punamytsike,

I'm going to tackle a long sidewalk this spring and wonder when is the best time to do the scoring. Do you recommend doing it after a base coat or before any stain is applied? Mine will probably be mostly straight lines with a few curves or insets.

Also, did you add any sand to prevent the sealer from become too slippery when wet?

annz, are your going to use different colors like a pattern, or not? If you will use one solid color, then depending if you want the lines to be more visible or less, you would do the scoring before or after. Obviously if you do different colors, you need to score first and then use brush to apply the stain (this applies only if different parts of pattern are different color, rather than going over the same area with different hues to get more interesting surface). This method is much more time consuming but will give you more spectacular result.

I did not add any sand to the sealer, as the concrete itself was not too smooth. I would test it somewhere before committing to see how slippery it would be without and how comfortable for bare foot with ( of cause if this might be an issuer)

OK, thanks. I may try two colors. One more question: if you score and then stain the scored area, how do you keep the second color out of the stained/scored area? I guess with a brush.......and by being very careful?? :)

Maybe I'm better off just leaving the scored area natural and brushing on the other colors............

It is not that difficult but best to try in an area where little mistakes would not be very noticeable.

I first did a little area in front of our guest house, as I knew if I messed it up, no big deal. I did not mess up and ended doing countless projects, as my DH really likes the look :)

I have specific questions. My front walk and steps are boring old concrete. They're in good shape, just not charming. I would love to stain them this summer. I'm sure I could dream up some patterns.

But I'm not so sure about cutting grooves myself. That's just not in my area of experties. So... can you do patterns without doing the grooves? How?

I think you can do something like you would use watercolors. They will blend.

The 4" grinder, that we used, is not that difficult to use. Get one and try it out, if you feel you are not upto it, take it back. Or ask, maybe your son will do the lines for you.

I have not heard the question of what to do if your concrete is next to grass.How do you protect the plants that are right next to the concrete.My patio is surrounded by grass and my concern is if the way you apply the stain has to be sure it does not get on the lawn.
My next question is if you use a garden sprayer to apply , I assume that it should be a sprayer used only for this project.I really would like to try this and you all make it sound like its not too difficult and worth the effort.

DH usually mixes the stain 50/50, but you can use any concentrate. The more stain vs acid means a deeper color.

He uses anything to apply, roller, brush, sprayer...each one gives a bit of a different look, but the sprayer tends to be the most difficult as it can leave the little blobs that will give a freckled look.

As for protecting the grass, use a plastic drop cloth. The stain will dry quickly.

The main thing to remember is that the surface HAS to be clean first, or you will get weird blotches. Wash with TSP, rinse, then scrub with a mild (about 15-20%) solution of muriatic acid & water. Rinse, and let dry.

Also, if you dampen the concrete before applying stain, it absorbs a bit more evenly.

oceanna,

i'm not an expert, but a diy-er. i didn't grind in the lines for my concrete. we used tape (florists tape, in whatever size you want) to make grout lines in the pattern we chose. it was easy, if somewhat time consuming. it looked great and the house showed really well when we sold it.

I would not use any chemicals to clean the surface as all chemicals react with the concrete and the stain will react differently then. This is at least true with true acid stains.

I scraped the areas that had paint on them and rented the floor machine with the circular pad for the patio area but it was not really necessary.

Cover the lawn with plastic strip, that's what I would do.

We used the plastic sprayer from HD that costs $ 10.00. But we used it only to spray liquid iron, so that was not poisonous at all. If you spray acid, I guess you could wash it well afterwards and then use it for round-up or bug poison or something like that. But $ 10.00 is not that much to just get rid of it afterwards either.

Pesky,
thanks for answering. A roller sounds much better as my mind was seeing a wind coming up and stain blowing onto the house. And another question. You mentioned wetting down the concrete first. Does the stain need to be water base?

This is a great thread, finally tons of answers and ideas for something I've wanted to do for two years....with 2 gal of stain sitting in storage that long. Haven't had the nerve to go for it.

If you wet the concrete down, you get more even absorption rate. Especially if you do this in hot or warm weather, the stain might dry too fast and not be absorbed enough to get nice color. (but do not have water puddles either ;) )

punamytsike, I'm intrigued by the spraying-liquid-iron idea. What does it look like once it dries? Did you seal it?

BTW, was wandering around your website: that is an amazing rose garden you built, and what cuties your sons are! (:

walkin_yesindeed, if you saw the rose garden then you know. The edges are just plain liquid iron with out sealing. The seats are liquid iron sealed :)

Ok you have me all excited to try this out but some of my cement may need some minor surface repair.Some of the top is flaking off.Anyone have a simple fix that will look ok when its stained or will it always look like a patch.
punamytsike_ you have done some really nice work.Another really dumb question but how many different stains did you use besides the iron.I dont have the guts to begin to do such elaborate patterns.I think I will stick with some abstact shades,lol.

bigbaz, I do not have experience on patching, if the surface is really bad, then you might be better off doing a complete new skim surface, but cheaper and better option might be to use some pattern to fool the eye.

As for colors, most designs I use only 2 or 3 colors but I have used as many as 5.

If you want to post some before photos, then we can maybe give you some more specific suggestions.

punamytsike,

Your rose garden is wonderful. The concrete stain/pattern looks more than profressional to me. You actually did this with iron oxide?

I want this thread to keep going and see before/afters. And now I have spring fever to get out and finish my back walk and patio.

Bigbaz,
I had a guy do a concrete skim on the driveway. All went well with the exception of an area where the previous owners used salt for snow. It is peeling up in the area, am sure this is due to his not prepping correctly. Plus it was done during the hottest of summer and kept drying out too quickly, even while watering down.

My back 14 X 16 patio was every level imagined. Last year I used concrete patch which comes in a bag and requires mixing. Mixed a little at a time as I was patching small areas on hands/knees using a trowel. It held up well through summer and snows. There are still a few places to even out, but that was due to my getting a bit bored at patching, was actually easy to do though. I am more casual than formal, if staining comes out differently tis' fine with me. Am going to try the taping for a flag stone look or paint grout lines, as I'm sure the patch and old concrete will take on different hues.

emagineer, only the edges and seats are done with liquid iron. The center circle is done with decosup acid stain. Although the medium brown is very close to the color that liquid iron produces.

Below is an informative site I came across. Just as punamytsike recommended, the site also states not to use any chemicals for cleaning, but power wash instead.

I don't know if it was acrylic stain, but I once used a stain that tended to sit on top of the concrete. Needless to say after a hard winter of ice and snow, it was peeling away by summer. That's why I'm going to use acid stain this time!

bigbaz,
I have plants and mulch around my walkway and I take wide plastic strips and tuck them along the edge of the walkway with wood shims. It also keeps mud/dirt from getting on the concrete between washings.

Here is a link that might be useful: Acid stains

I want to thank everyone for there advise, this is very helpfull.

annz, your link was the best I have found yet and very educational.

punamytsike, I will try to get pictures as we start and also as we progress to let everyone see if we do well.
It seems this is a very popular subject and I hope to see more of how everyone elses projects turn out also.

I've read all of these great posts and I am so excited to start but I am also so chicken... Pesky I was wondering if you got my email I did ask a lot of questions. I really do not know where to start...is there a place to get patterns I'd be interested in that. I too will post pictures when we start. We've done several projects around the house and I always said we would do that and then never do. Thanks for all your great advice. I really love this site.

Okay, if I'm reading this right -- if I seal up the cracks in my driveway with concrete patch and then I stain the driveway, the patches might show through as lighter?

Also, around here our concrete turns dark over the rainy winter. It's mold growing, I suspect. A pressure washing in the spring/summer turns it clean again. But once you've stained it, won't it still turn dark and will you be able to pressure wash it? Or would pressure washing ruin your stain?

Also, for outdoor staining in rainy country, how long is this going to last and if it fades away will it do it gracefully? Or do you need to reapply stain frequently forever? Do you seal outdoor projects in some way?

Punamy, your rose garden turned out gorgeous!

Oceanna, if you use descoup stains and the sealer, then in my extremely sunny and sometimes very rainy FL, the 5 year project still looks like new. I have not even had to apply sealant again.

You can powerwash it as much as you want, the sealant protects the surface. Also, as long as you use true acid stains, the stain is absorbed into the concrete, it is not on the surface. The Decosup sealant does not allow water to penetrate, so the colors do not change whether it is wet or dry. The HD sealant allows water to penetrate, so when it is wet, it is darker and when dry then it gets lighter again. How do I know, I needed little sealant and did not want to order the big 5 gallon thing from decosup and bought the HD stuff. I will not use HD stuff anymore and have some decosup sealant available all the time. It does not get bad in the canister.

I am still intrigued with all the suggestions and possibilities.

Found a link on using iron mixtures. Fairly cheap for testing out on some blocks laying in far back of yard. The link has good pics for seeing results of the user's attempts.

So, when the foot of snow that arrived this weekend goes away and we get some nights around 50 degrees....CO springs are all over the place temp wise...will play with the ideas.

My attempts will be nothing more than a solid color, right now the thought of doing all with any type of design could get me in real trouble.

Punamytsike, do you seal the iron solutions?

Here is a link that might be useful: iron recipes for concrete stain

What I used was liquid iron, not what emagineer link talks about. I did not observe any damage. You use baking soda water mix to stop the process, so rather than just try to wipe it off, you pour baking soda water mix on it first.

I think whether to seal or not depends on the application. We did our driveway with the liquid iron and did not seal that. It has faded a little, but would be cheap and easy to go over with additional liquid iron, if we wanted to.
The benches in the rose garden, I sealed with HD sealer that has not held up well at all. I probably should re-stain and seal with the decosup sealer, but I have been too lazy to take on that project, as the benches do not look that bad yet :)

Punamy, thanks for all the information. Very interesting about Decosup -- and I can imagine that 5 gallons would go a LONG way?

Where can I get liquid iron and recognize it as the right thing when I see it? I can see going a bit slow with this as I wouldn't want to make any bad permanent mistakes.

Emagineer, thanks for the link.

Liquid Iron is sold in HD and Lowes Garden center in gallon jars and it actually says "Liquid Iron" :) Try it out somewhere before you commit.

OMG! Gorgeous! Punamytsike, what talent..everything you did was just beautiful..can't get over it, very impressed with your talent!!!
Ree

Thanks, Punamy! Right now I'm trying to put together the look I want for the exterior in my head, and it will start with getting the house painted.

Punamytsike,

Thanks for redirecting me on the right process. I'll forget about using the info from the link I posted.

So, use the liguid iron in bottles. HD didn't have any, but it may be due to the time of year here in CO. Do I use it full strength or mix with water, try different mixtures of such?

Is the soda mixture poured on immediately when color depth is at level wanted. Before the liquid iron is dry or while wet? Do you leave the soda mixture on for a specific amount of time and then wash off?

Sorry for all the questions and hope they do not intrude. Really want to do this rather than a stain.

Thanks

Thanks Ree :)

emagineer, We used full strength liquid iron, as we wanted deeper color. Try it out somewhere, as you can always go over it until you seal. Not sure even if baking soda water is required for liquid iron, but it will stop the process for acid. You can leave it on for a while before washing off, as it will not damage anything.

If you use acids, then you would leave acid on for 24 hours before neutralizing with baking soda. Once the baking soda water does not bubble anymore, you can detect no reaction, then it means that the surface has been neutralized.

Thanks again. I missed where this post went and had to dig for it.

Can't find full strength liquid iron. The most is 4% mixed with a bunch of other minerals, even at the garden stores. Am wondering if this is something we don't need around here. May have to go on the net and hunt. So am on hold right now.

I'd love to stain my concrete porch. It is so plain and boring. It's almost rouch feeling though. I do not think I'd get the same results. ???

Just wanted to post what happened to us on my covered front porch and maybe some of my problems where my own fault. I went to HD and bought stain. Prepped as instructed and stained. Within one month the stain was peeling off and everytime something got moved on the porch the stain would come off. I emailed the company and they refunded my money if I would purchase more and try again. They sent instructions how to get the stain off and re-stain. What a nightmare. When I needed it to come off it would not. I emailed them again and they had me use a different stripper which I used yesterday and most of it came off. With a power wash the rest came off and now I am back at square one with stain in my garage I had to purchase for them to refund my money and second thoughts on redoing the porch. The concrete seems to have a glitter type sparkle to it so I am wondering if there is some kind of coating on the porch that prevented the stain from soaking into the concrete. I did my uncovered back porch with a stain from Lowes that seemed to work better however there are place where it too has come off. Maybe part of the problem was I did not seal either front or back but that was an option and not something you had to do. Anyway I love the look of stained concrete but I am really starting to think the home improvement stores is not the place to get it.

I just found this product this season. Definitely worth checking into. Simple to use, low VOC, waterbased, no harsh chemicals to mesh with and it is permanent. The colors they offer are awesome. Checking out their Gallery is a must - amazing before and afters.

They have a clear sealer and then the Trojan Color Sealer that comes in 36 colors. The BEST thing is that you can get 8 oz. samples to test before you buy gallons.

This is the guy to call if you have questions:

Michael Kornell
VP Â Sales & Marketing
866-874-8070 Â Toll Free
703-425-0439 Â Direct Line
www.eco-wares.com

Here is a link that might be useful: Trojan Color Sealer

I've gotten some helpful hints here, but still researching to death whether or not to score a tile pattern first, then stain and re-score, or to stain and then score. I can see the obvious labor differences, but I'm willing to do it if the look is better.
What I'm doing is: back concrete porch, 250SF, one half is 10 years old, addition is 2 months old and more gray than prior one. I'm using acrylic water-based rather than acid for that reason. I'm doing a 4ft diag tile pattern with tan tiles and some random browns. Also, a border of dark brown "bricks" to frame it in. I'll use a 1/4" masonry wheel on an angle grinder for the etching.
Any suggestions...help...feedback?? Thank you!!