Acid Stain Floor Prep

Our concrete stain prep and our wax remover are both excellent concrete degreasers.

Acid stain floor prep.

Mop or rinse a couple of times with clean water. Clean re clean and then clean again. Allow the surface to dry completely before proceeding with acid staining. Trisodium phosphate and water.

Applying any stain requires not only skill but also the ability to understand how to prepare a slab to accept color. Consider using an air mover to fully dry the floor in order to avoid any water or droplet stains. Once the stain is done reacting typically between 2 to 8 hours the floor should be rinsed with water or a wet mop to get any residue left behind by the acid stain. Floor prep is hard work it s messy and it takes some time but it s worth the effort to be sure your decorative concrete installation lasts.

Your floor is clean and contaminant free perfectly prepped for a gorgeous acid or water based stain. Acid staining on concrete provides the surface with a luxurious richness that no other coloring resource can provide. But everything can be done by even a beginning diyer. Now you re ready to go about the staining process.

Acid etching is the process of applying hydrochloric muriatic or buffered phosphoric acid to a slab then rinsing it off with water. Depending on the amount of preparation your surface needs you can get this unique durable flooring option for as low as 60 cents a square foot including all the tools needed to apply the finish. Broom to clean the floor and also for applying the stain wet vac this will be used to clean the floor and remove any excess liquid on the concrete. Use a stiff straw scrub brush or a floor buffing machine with the aggressive scrubbing pads.

No two acid stained floors will be the same. A lot of people think they need to acid etch the concrete like they do before applying a paint or coating to get the paint to adhere. Yes stains offer a fantastic variety of design possibilities just consider the difference between an acid stained floor and a water based stain job for example. Instead of producing either an opaque or solid effect on your floor the stain goes through the pores of the concrete to create translucent tones that bring out an extra depth and dimension to your garage shop patio or other interior surface.

For final cleaning you should do a good scrub down using t s p. Allow the concrete to dry completely typically 24 hours run your finger across the floor to make sure you got all the acid stain residue off the floor. 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 concrete stain get enough to finish the job.

But acid washing depletes the lime content which is what the minerals in the acid stain react with.