New Garage - Anyone Use Concrete Stain?

[imported_KevinA]

I`m moving into my new house this weekend and I`m not sure I want to do an epoxy finish on the floor or any kind of paint.



Has anyone stained their floor and then just sealed it? I think that would be a good way to have some color down and avoid lifting.



Thoughts? Let`s discuss.

[Ern]

I just moved into my brand new house too! Gratz! I dont wanna lay anything down for the 1st couple years due to new concrete. I havent done a moisture test either. I have a feeling if I layed that stuff down with my luck the concrete will expand and contract and ruin the finish.

[2JZFAN]

I did a stain, don`t do it. :down It won`t last no matter how well you thought you applied it or how many steps you took. Get the good stuff and congrats on the new home! :bestwish

[armoredsaint]

Look into UCoat-it, I got my kit last week and will be applying it when it gets warmer! Remember prep is the most important step.

[ChargerDaytona]

I did the Paint/Epoxy Kit on my garage floor 2 years ago and so far it still looks perfect.



Prep is very important. I used a Muratic Acid to strip the old sealant off, then washed out the garage (very important to make sure you wash it out COMPLETELY) and let it dry overnight.



Another tip with a good Paint/Epoxy setup is to buy the pumice texturizer to mix in with it...makes it a bit harder to lay down, but it will keep you from falling and bustin` your butt when the floor is wet.



Also, as was previously mentioned, you shouldn`t do this to new concrete until it`s several years old.



Before-n-After pics below:









Before:













After:

[vdubbya]

Looks nice!

[blue-sun]

I close on my new house friday, so I`ve researching concrete flooring stuff too. I wonder how long I should wait to paint/seal my floor. . .poured about 3 months ago.

[ConyDarkss]

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[DellinM]

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[betonme]

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[tramadolll]

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[twitch]

I`m interested in this as well.



I have 2 of the RustOleum epoxy kits ready to go but I have procrastinated due to the fact that I don`t want to do it and then have it lift up or peel. I know my concrete has numerous products on it including oil and silicone dressings. I am hoping that all of it comes out of the concrete and I guess muratic acid would be the best thing to use.



ChargerDaytona - how exactly did you clean it with the acid before hand?

[smokin180]

Staining concrete stain should go in while mixing in truck.

[jsssvt]

OK I`ll help you out here. this is what i do for living. just make sure it is xylene base and a water base.



if you going to stain it. you got to acid wash the whole floor. let that etch into the concrete so the poor`s can open up. after that dry out for a day. you can stain it. what i would do is saint the length of the garage, than the width of the garage. than i would a clear seal as a top coat. it would look very good.



another idea i am going to do to my garage is acid saint. than polish it to a wet look finish.



if i can help you please pm me.



heff

[Glossy McGlosserton]

I developed a neighborhood where we used stained concrete as the finish floors in the homes. (Integrally stained, polished smooth in first day after pour, then scored in 3` squares on the diagonal. Beautiful--people thought it was a kind of Mexican tile.)



There are two ways to stain concrete. The pigment can be mixed right into the concrete in the truck (integrally stained). This is the way we did it in the homes. I highly recommend this. Even if something chips the concrete, you have color all the way through and it hardly shows. The color is rich. My floor looked like leather.



For floors that are already down, acid-etch stain is what is used. I used this in the community building for that neighborhood. The color isn`t as dense, in my experience, as with integrally colored. The prior poster said to acid wash the floors--for floors that aren`t new concrete--and then stain them. New concrete doesn`t necessarily need the acid wash. Make sure you use an acid etch stain meant for concrete. This sort of stain interacts with the alkaline in the concrete and really stains it. It`s not a pigment on top situation, where traffic will wear off the color. You may need to apply the product more than once to get the density/richness of color you want.



Acid etch stained concrete can be seen often in commercial situations. We`ve got a Whole Foods Market nearby that took an old A & P, the original floor, and stained it. It`s held up great to a lot of traffic. The colors that are easiest and least expensive to achieve are in the red/clay color range.



Topping it off--I`ve had some people use special polyurethane and like it. I`ve also seen polyurethne start separating from the concrete, especially where there is an impact, then it chips away. But in other spots, it stays really bonded, creating an awful mess that just needs to be ground off to start again. In my own home, I used an acrylic wax that could be topped easily (water based), and could also be easily stripped. In a garage, I`d be tempted to just stain it and leave it alone. Butcher`s wax can also be used, but that`s more of a maintenance item, I would think.



Sorry for a long post. I haven`t used any of the epoxy systems, but thought I`d throw my experience with stained concrete into the pot .