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Acid stained concrete floor finish?


reddal

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Hi,

 

There are lots of people on the internet that seem to have achieved impressive looking results from acid staining then sealing concrete floors. e.g. :

 AcidS_Stain_Orlando.jpg

 

The process seems pretty simple (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSlzelQYEOU ) and gives a much more interesting finish than plain concrete paint.

 

Does anyone have any experience of this technique? For every case that looks great on the internet is there 99 that were a disaster that we never see?

 

Any recommendations on where to buy the supplies? (acid stain, neutralizer, sealer etc) .

 

thanks - reddal

 

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I worked on a large new build in the Lake District a couple of year back and the whole downstairs was done

It looked spectacular I marble plastered some of the walls to match

Im not sure how much they paid

But it sure looked expensive 

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7 minutes ago, nod said:

I worked on a large new build in the Lake District a couple of year back and the whole downstairs was done

It looked spectacular I marble plastered some of the walls to match

Im not sure how much they paid

But it sure looked expensive 

 

Yes - it looks expensive - and I bet it is if you get in a specialist company to do it. However it doesn't look that hard and the materials aren't very expensive - so I'm going to have a go on a diy basis. Actually when I say 'diy' I don't really mean doing it myself - I mean getting builders who have never done anything like this to have a go based on watching youtube videos :).

 

From what I can tell, the acid stain itself costs something like £3/m2 , then you need some bicarbonate of soda to neutralize the acid and a concrete sealer product. There is some labor involved but nothing excessive - so it seems like it works out at quite a cheap option - for a finish that could end up looking great.

 

I must be missing something? Why isn't this approach much more popular?

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8 minutes ago, reddal said:

I must be missing something? Why isn't this approach much more popular?

 

Don't you have to have the concrete polished first, to get it dead flat and smooth? 

 

If so, then I think that's a fairly expensive job on its own.  @jack would know, as his ground floor is polished concrete.

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2 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

 

Don't you have to have the concrete polished first, to get it dead flat and smooth? 

 

If so, then I think that's a fairly expensive job on its own.  @jack would know, as his ground floor is polished concrete.

 

I don't think so - you have to get the concrete really clean first, but people on youtube seem to have done this successfully without polishing.

 

I guess the nicest finish would be polished - but I think I'm ok with a rougher, more rustic finish.

 

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10 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

If so, then I think that's a fairly expensive job on its own.  @jack would know, as his ground floor is polished concrete.

 

Can't remember (blocked it out!) but I believe it was over 100 £/m to supply, lay, powerfloat and polish the concrete top layer over our base slab.

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On 07/10/2018 at 16:53, JSHarris said:

 

Don't you have to have the concrete polished first, to get it dead flat and smooth? 

 

If so, then I think that's a fairly expensive job on its own.  @jack would know, as his ground floor is polished concrete.

Yep

The one I saw was polished. Pretty much looked like a factory floor and flat as pancake 

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16 hours ago, mvincentd said:

At the end of the day it's only going to affect colour, not texture...so you need to be happy with your concrete surface as it is, otherwise you'll need to factor in some level of grinding work.

 

Understood. I think I'm ok with the existing surface - its not perfect but not bad and I'm going for a rustic finish so hopefully it will be ok.

 

I'll let you know how it goes :).

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  • 1 month later...

I'm pretty happy with the result. I'd recommend this technique to anyone that wants a cheapish way to get an interesting finish to a concrete floor.

 

It was fairly easy - the most time consuming part was getting the floor really clean to start with. A pressure washer with surface cleaning attachment and a wet vac was very useful for this.

 

image.thumb.png.6292d721343f4a19fbf14cde8e366833.png

 

image.thumb.png.ea42283027696ddf2769c77d782a1a64.png

 

- reddal

 

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6 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

Yup. Looks like a giant block of mahogany to me.

End cost per m2? 

 

About £4/m2 for the acid stain (you could probably find it cheaper), maybe £2/m2 for the concrete sealer, and then some labor. Probably under £10/m2 - less if you do all the work yourself.

If anyone wants to know more about the process, just let me know and I'll detail what was involved.

 

- reddal

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15 hours ago, reddal said:

 

About £4/m2 for the acid stain (you could probably find it cheaper), maybe £2/m2 for the concrete sealer, and then some labor. Probably under £10/m2 - less if you do all the work yourself.

If anyone wants to know more about the process, just let me know and I'll detail what was involved.

 

- reddal

 

Could you do a post on the method and maybe a few pics?  It would make a useful resource for a look up.

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  • 1 year later...

HI Reddal ,

 I know this is an old post but I am drastically reducing budget on my build due to business uncertainty and  with 200m 2 ground floor I'm looking at this technique and wondered how the colour and finish has held up to date. My slab is in and I have powerfloated unpolished finish which should be perfect , I concerned about UFH pipes in the slab.

Thanks in advance 

A

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