Concrete paints completely cover and protect the concrete surface but require a lot of prep work.
Acid painted concrete floor.
Allow the cleaned surface to dry.
Acid based stain the color palette is more limited but the stain typically lasts longer than water based so it s the best solution for high traffic areas.
Before you can apply a concrete paint clean it with degreasers to get rid of any oil or grease stains followed by muriatic acid to remove any curing chemicals on the concrete s surface.
The chemical stains or acid stains react with the concrete s lime content and produce the color.
Use a floor buffer for scuffing away the loosened spots of paint.
Our floor required a mixture of grinding filling divots with concrete crack filler using acid cleaners filling and leveling out tension breaks in our floor sanding and scraping.
Floor and concrete stains are usually easier to apply than paints but they require more frequent reapplication to keep looking fresh.
A moist surface isn t ideal for further cleaning or painting.
For many years it was a standard method of concrete preparation used by nearly all industrial commercial and institutional floor coating installers depending on the floor size and system to be installed.
Acid staining and sealed.
Solid colors borders or stencils are great tools for painting concrete floors.
As with floor paints there are two primary types of floor stains from which to choose.
Therefore a concrete surface that is painted or sealed cannot be acid stained.
It also won t fade peel or chip.
Painting concrete floors finishes.
You can rent a floor buffer from a hardware supply store.
These solutions are for etching the concrete.
Rather than coating the floor in one entire color concrete stains create a pigmented marbled effect.
Step 2 buff the concrete surface.
If the concrete surface is painted or sealed acid stains cannot penetrate the concrete and react with the lime.
How to repaint concrete floors.
Here are the pros and cons of each.
Mix 3 to 4 parts water with 1 part acid or follow label instructions for a 10 concentration 15 for hard smooth concrete.
There are two types of products you can use for staining concrete floors.
Acid based stain and water based stain.
Acid based and water based stains.
In the end we were left with a surface that was far from perfectly smooth but that we knew would work for the look we were going for.
If your painted concrete floors scratch touch up with concrete floor paint and epoxy paint.
If you re just removing mineral deposits efflorescence use a much weaker mix 10 1 or 16 1 for muriatic acid.
Doing the prep work before you repaint a concrete floor avoids a peeling paint job later.
Acid etching solutions or stains are a different look take more time and skill to transform your floors completely.