We went with acid stained concrete throughout our whole house, and we love it. We decided not to get it scored though, because the scores will trap dirt, and you will constantly be cleaning it.

Make sure to pick someone that you can trust to do the staining/sealing. We are having to go over ours again and re-seal + wax the floors because the guy that did them (he did a good job, just not complete) only sealed them once and didn't wax them.

Upkeep is easy on concrete though. You just dustmop daily. You will want to put felt pads on the bottom of just about all of your furniture, because they will slide around and scratch your floor. Wood, rubber, and felt (along with other fabrics) is fine. Plastic will scratch your floor, and can react with the acid stain and cause discoloration.

I hope that helps!

We just did our floors and love them. At first we hired someone to acid stain them.....he did part of the floor and really messed up what he did so I fired him.

We bought the stuff and did it our selves. First we put down a Relay product, it goes on credit card thickness. After it was dry we put on MT-200, cedit card thickness, this makes the concrete very smooth. Then the stain is sprayed on. Rinse, Rinse, Rinse, dry, then 2 coats of a flat sealer and 1 coat of a matte polish.

We saved a lot of money doing it our selves. The hardest part was getting everything off the floor for the process. The other part was we wished the color was more uniformed and less busy... but thats the beautiy of the stain.

We aren't living with them yet, but I certainly hope I love them! I did our own staining which ended up costing me somewhere in the .20-.25/sqft range.

{{gwi:1454452}}

Uhhh, I hope you have a real good plan for protection. Sheet rock, floating and painting is going to create some dust, that will migrate, in places you think they won't. You may have some places to touch up, if you can, without re topcoating the entire areas.

That's an old picture. We should be moving in in about a week. After staining, I covered the floor with 15# felt and taped the seams with duct tape. The felt held up very well through the remainder of construction. Yes, LOTS of dust and a few spots I need to touch up. Because I applied 3 coats of sealer, the touch up spots have been very easy to fix. A little xylene, a little more sealer and it's good as new. ;) The beauty of a solvent based sealer. :)

danniegirl and others: I am thinking about pulling up some tile (stick on type) in a small bath and staining the concrete. Can you provide me with any tips for this process and what products to purchase? This bath is seldom used so thought it would be a good place to try staining concrete. Thanks

Oops, sorry for the late reply, thank-you for your comments. The cost of doing it yourself is sooo tempting. I would love to do it.
I have been quoted 7 - 7.50 psf. Aghhh!
My DH is not really sold on the idea yet, he thinks for resale it will hurt the value of the house, I said it would help it.
He is also concerned about the door transitions being so big if the floor is not as thick as the travertine was going to be.
I figure this route, we would save about 50 percent on the cost of the floors, plus it is a look I absolutely love.
Thanks again for the beautiful picture and comments about the floors.

we had 40 year old concrete acid stained and did it in our entire house 4 years ago. we also had it scored.... both are 100 % amazing.... NEVER a scratch, with or without furniture leg protectors. we did the total renovation of the house AFTER doing the floor staining and NOTHING can damage the floors although we were very concerned at first. We used a company in Texas as I recall... Much less expensive now and I would do it myself next time ...... the scoring catches sand and dirt so it doesn't stay on surface, much easier to clean than having to go over the whole floor... it is the best floor you will ever have ANYWHERE in your house. Ours looks like aged leather and almost no one can guess what the floor actually is at first. We also did a band around the edge to further make it look custom and it surely is...

ibz49--and any of you who have great floors--please tell me what products were used. I would like a finish over our concrete floors which will not show (or will at least lessen) scratches. Recommendations? Our unfinished concrete is almost charcoal colored on much of it. Anyone seen this before? And we would like the light grey areas to be colored to a warmer hue. Acid staining is lots of work and am wondering since half the floor is so dark will the acid stain even change the color in those areas? We like the charcoal color. Is there a product we can just wipe on to change the lighter areas? We may decide just to seal. Will seal alone darken the floor to what it looks like when wet? Please give some suggestions especially with regards to product names. Thanks.

post pictures.... please!