"Leasing" - Stained concrete floors

March 2010 Job of the Month - Stained concrete floors look great in almost any application. This particular floor was a newly built leasing office for an apartment complex in Garland, Tx. We love to stain concrete floors in "new construction" as there has never been another type of flooring on it and they almost always clean up very well. We don't have to deal with tile "ghost images", linoleum or carpet glue, or spray paint or magic marker because the general contractor is usually pretty clear to all the other subcontractors that the floor must be kept as clean as possible. Acid staining doesn't hide anything and that includes cracks, which are visible in these stained concrete floors.

Cracks are very normal in concrete. We don't think they take anything away from the look. In general, acid staining is a rustic type of flooring and cracks fit right in; they just add character to the floor. There's nothing that can be done to fix cracks in a direct acid stain. The cure would be worse than the disease so we just leave them alone. However, if you really don't want to see the cracks in the stained concrete floors then we can always apply a microfinish overlay first. The overlay, in effect resurfacing the concrete, creates a new floor that hides cracks and other possible problems under a thin layer of new concrete. We can then stain this layer whatever color you wish.

For new construction projects, we usually just have to do a light cleaning of the floor, that's why we normally charge less as there is not so much prep work necessary. That was the case for this Garland, Tx project. We usually use buffers and a gentle concrete cleaner to get the floor ready for staining.

Before determining the color of the stained concrete floors, we always put down some samples using different acid stain colors. In this case we put the samples down in an area that was going to be covered by carpet. Once the acid stain has gone down, it can be tough to remove, that's why we always look for areas that are going to be covered up for our samples, either by carpeting, cabinetry, or even a stove or refrigerator.

Our Garland office manager decided to go with an umber acid stain

that we sprayed all over the floor in a couple of coats. Once the stain had reacted, we cleaned the floor and applied the solvent-based concrete sealer to protect and enhance the color. We always finish it off with a couple of coats of wax as these serve as a sacrificial barrier to protect the sealer on the stained concrete floors. The office manager was delighted with her new floors, and the cracks didn't bother her one bit. "It looks great" she said, and we agree.

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