Acid Stained Concrete disaster!?!?

10 years ago

I have hired a builder to build our new home. We decided in the beginning that we wanted to do stained concrete flooring. Well the problems started after the builder's contractors laid the concrete. They did a very poor job with smoothing out around the perimeter of the house. Also, during framing something was dropped on the foundation and left a nice 3-4" hole/spot. The builder told me that the rough sections would look ok after they sealed and waxed, and that he would do what he could with the hole.

Well fast forward to now...we went to inspect the finished flooring and it is horrible. Huge sections that accepted no stain (so bare concrete)....the rough spots look horrible and don't even look like they are the same finish as the rest of the floor...there are other marks that came out after the stain that we hadn't seen before, like leaf marks, etc that must have gotten in the wet concrete.....and his fix for the hole was to dump tons of sealer in it...so much so that it won't even dry and is tacky to the touch. Even in the sections where there are no issues....the flooring was very poorly done.....i.e. streaky, etc.

It turns out that instead of hiring someone...he let his 20 year old son do the floor. The builder is taking total blame and is willing to fix it out of his pocket. My solution, after talking with a few local flooring guys, was to make him scrub up the sealer, add a new substrate over the floor, and then re-stain. That would fix the shotty stain, the rough sections, and the hole. Oh yeah...and footprints!

However, he has spoken with another contractor and is trying to get me to agree to just sandblasting the entire floor and then re-staining.

My question is whether this would be a feasible solution? Will sandblasting be able to get up all the sealer so that the floor will accept another stain? Or should I just stick to my guns and make him re-substrate? This option would also not fix the holes or the rough areas. Is this common in stained floors or am I just being picky about not wanting the rough spots and leaf marks?

Featured Answer

live_wire_oak

10 years ago

Neither. Grind it down and polish it. That was what was needed before the staining happened to begin with. That will be a huge mess for him to contain, but it will be tons easier than containing (and controlling) sandblasting. And I wouldn't want a wax finish on it either. Moisture makes wax whiten and it's not really that protective. I'd want an epoxy. Preferably something industrial, stinky, and expensive.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (7)

stuarbc
Original Author
10 years ago
To follow up in case anyone else runs into this problem in the future. After looking at the floor with the builder and several different professional floor guys....the builder agreed that he screwed up and he hired one of the floor guys to grind the entire floor with a diamond tipped blade/disc.....polish with a polishing disc....and now he is going to re-stain.

The grinding made the rough spots much better and got out all of the leaf marks etc. He was even able to patch the hole. However, I am worried about several by-products of the grinding.

1) The patch on the hole looks much better than a big hole....but makes a square with a different "texture" than the rest of the concrete. I am concerned with how this will look when stained. Floor guy said he would go in and make it look less of a defined straight edge shape so it would blend better....but haven't seen this yet.

2) The grinding left a swirl pattern in the floor. I haven't been able to see what the polishing did yet...it may have removed this pattern. My wife thought it looked nice....but I will have to see how it looks after stain.

3) The grinding took off most of the "paste" and now aggregate shows through. I know some people go for this "terrazzo" look....but I am worried about it looking more commercial than residential. I am hoping that going with a darker water based stain will hide most of this.

I will follow up with pictures after the stain is completed.
Related Professionals
Cottage Grove Flooring Contractors · Damascus Flooring Contractors · Homestead Flooring Contractors · Lincolnia Flooring Contractors · Lodi Flooring Contractors · Montgomery County Flooring Contractors · Hainesport General Contractors · Browns Mills General Contractors · Halfway General Contractors · Hillsboro General Contractors · Lakewood Park General Contractors · Melville General Contractors · Mentor General Contractors · Villa Park General Contractors · Security-Widefield General Contractors
glennsfc
10 years ago
"The grinding took off most of the "paste" and now aggregate shows through."

You will have a one-of-a-kind custom floor and you may just like it. This all may leave you with a stunning and beautiful result. Hope it does.
PRO
Stoneshine
10 years ago
sounds like a mess-is your floor guy an experienced concrete polishing /staining company.
This work requires experience .
sandblasting-no!
Get on the phone and speak with a bona fide concrete polishing company so you can get a second opinion and become an informed consumer.
stuarbc
Original Author
10 years ago
another follow-up....

The concrete contractor finished grinding and polishing the floor and put the stain down. The grinding actually did a good job on 95% of the floor. It took care of the rough spots and got rid of the footprints, etc.

HOWEVER....there were about 4 or 5 spots throughout the house where it appears the contractor that laid the slab did a very job smoothing it out. It actually looks like they let their little "smoothing board/trowel" sit in those spots...and it sank into the concrete...leaving a low spot and then raised spots around it where the concrete was displaced. This wasn't that noticeable at first....but when the grinder went over it...it really dug down in the raised areas...leaving a less finished aggregate layer exposed. Because of the high spots it skipped over the lower sections...so the sealer wasn't removed well. What that ended up leaving was well defined spots in several different locations where you could see that something was not done right.

So long story short.....the builder is finally doing what I thought needed to be done all along...and regrinding and then putting down a skim coat on top of the entire foundation. Then he is going to restain and seal.
michellelongcpa
9 years ago
I'm having problems with our builder and the stained concrete in our basement. Can you post a pic of how yours turned out?

When they regrind it -- does it create a lot of dust & mess?

Are you happy with it now?
PRO
Mint tile Minneapolis
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Hard to see but this basement floor was poured with pigment/dye by a top notch concrete contractor ( not myself) It looked really good throughout....

Lowry Hill Linear drain shower · More Info