Staining Concrete Floors

We did it. It's not difficult, but it is a tedious job. My hubby does work in road construction, so he knows a lot about concrete. In this case I think it just helped us make a few decisions (like no overlay), but I did all the research about the staining process. We also went to a company that specializes in staining and got sample colors. We taped off parts of our garage to see how the stain may react to our concrete. There is a bit of unpredictability with the color. Apparently it can react differently according to the concrete underneath. I am glad we did this, because the color we thought we wanted had green undertones when we applied it. So we went with a different color. When we removed our carpet, of course it was dusty dirty. There was a lot of paint splatters underneath that we had to scrap by hand, but not too much glue for us. And we opted for some routes to make it easier and cheaper on us. We did not put down and overlay of concrete, we just used what we had. For the nails that held down the carpet, we simply clipped them off. NO ONE has ever noticed the nails. We also didn't worry about the cracks we found. (We did have the company that designed our slab come over and evaluate it - they were determined to be cosmetic. We got a formal report of this, so we would have it when we decide to sell the house). Instead of filling the cracks, we just left them be - it adds a little character. It's inexpensive to install and very easy to maintain. I have to wax it twice a year...I just use a mop on wax and it's pretty easy. Other than that just sweeping and occasionally mopping it. And I have noticed that I don't have to mop very often at all (maybe once a month and I have a dog and two kids). I love the look and I love that we have a lot less dust. We get lots of compliments on it. The only bad thing we have found is that it is very slippery when it gets wet and we have a pool, so we have to forewarn swimmers when they are over. And any furniture that may slide over it can scratch the coating you put over it. So we added an area rug under out bar stools and piano bench...no biggie. We have been thrilled with ours. I took pictures of our project step by step. If you want to pm me, I would be happy to email the pics to you so you can see our process.

3 moms found this helpful

We too looked into it but decided to tile w/travertine instead. We were remodeling and would've hired someone else to do the staining. By the time we added pulling up and discarding carpet, cleaning the concrete and the actullay staining it wasn't much cheaper than the tile. I do love the look so if you can do the work yourself and save some $$ it may be worth it. Be sure to really reasearch as it seems a bit tricky if you don't have experience. You will love living without carpet. We have hardwood upstairs and the tile downstairs and don't missed the carpet one bit. Much cooler looking, easier to clean and healthier with solid floors!

If you decide you do not want to do it yourself you can call Chuck Hammons with Star H Concrete. He does great work. And he has lots of colors to choose from. His number is ###-###-#### Cell. he charges $1.35 per square foot. Very reasonable if my opinion and it saves you from doing it yourself.

We stained our floors and love it! We too suffer from allergies and have been able to breathe so much eaiser. However I would hire a professional to do it. Our house was built in 1978 so the professional had to do alot of repairs in the concrete and do an overlay to make it smooth. We stayed at my Mom's while we had it done. The smell is sooo strong for about a week after the work was finished. It took them about a week to complete the entire house. If your house is newer it may be eaiser. We pulled up all the carpet and tack strips ourselves and it is a big mess, you will be shocked at the dust and stuff under your carpet. But it is totally worth the inconveince. We have had it for over a year. We use dry and wet swiffer sweepers to clean it. The only thing our guy told us to keep away from it was nail polish remover. We had all our rooms done and have no complaints. You do have to put heavy furniture on rubber pads or velcro. It does show some scratches but most can be rubbed out. The guy also told us that he could come re shine the entir house for $200 if we wanted to do that, we probably will have it done when our 2 month old starts to crawl. The guy we used is named Tony and he is in Cresson. His guys do great work and our house is almost 1500 sq, ft, and cost us about $3200. Good Luck!

Make sure you do a lot of research on it & that your husband is prepared for all of the prep work. We just had it done to our downstairs & we are going to have to put wood over some of it & we'll probably put carpet back in the bedroom. We have 4 kids (and one bonus on the way!). We have high ceilings & it's super loud in here. Plus our 10 mo old trying to walk & me not wanting her to fall & hurt her head! But that's not our main concern. The company did not prepare the floor correctly & we trusted them too much. We now know that the key is a perfectly prepared floor before you get started. Our tac holes from the carpet were very big & there were places where paint or texture from the walls was on the floor. The stain did not work on top of that, even though they assured us it would look fine. It doesn't. It looks awful. The tac holes were filled after we complained but they didn't do that right either & it looks like gray silly putty with some stain over it. We have seen floors that look great & I wish you the best of luck. Just make sure your floor is a "good candidate" for the stain, if not, re-evaluate before you go any further.

We looked into doing this a few years ago due to allergies. After a lot of research, we decided to go with laminate instead. The concrete can crack over time (esp. here in Texas). It is also very hard on your feet. While it looks neat, it is cold & of course very hard. We found laminate that looked like real hardwood with wide planks. It has a padding underneath, as well as a water seal protectant. It is comfy to walk on & super easy to clean... the price was not much more than our staining quote.
Hope this helps.

We just looked into doing our floors and were told that once we treated and stained our floors, we could never put any other type of flooring down. The guy worked at a professional company so I trusted him although you have others who have just totally contradicted his statement. So, what he said was the chemicals you have to apply make the concrete porous so that nothing else will stick to them afterward. He said he has had to turn down new business because of it.... Take it for what its worth.
I also have a friend who did their own and it looks awful. I have a couple of family members who had them professionally done (while building) and they look beautiful, but they still have carpeting down on most floors...
We decided to go with the engineered wood on our floors after talking and seeing what we have. I would say talk to some professionals and find out the facts. I hope it works out for you!

Decorative Crete-Worx - ###-###-#### - did our floors and they are FABULOUS! They did the full prep work and sent us text pics to show us their progress throughout the day. We had a 300sf add on and it took him the whole day to do it. It was bare concrete when we left and a gorgeous floor when we came home!

We had the paint splatters and tack marks. Dave's team took care of all of it.

I was pregnant when my husband stained our floor--so I mainly just watched. We turned our dinning room into a playroom--and the stained floors have been fantastic for a playroom. Very easy to clean and it looks cool too! It's been several years now--so we are probably due for a re-staining.
I think the process overall wasn't too bad to accomplish. However--my husband said the hardest part was keeping the right balance of water on the floor while doing the etching step (spreading that chemical around). We did put plastic up on the walls and the other walkway parts around the room to protect them from the water and chemicals. And we actually brought the hose in from the outside through our house, which made me a bit nervous, but worked just fine. The long scraper tool was helpful in scraping up the paint that the builders had spilt on the floor. (Some of which never did come off.) We didn't necessarily have glue on the ground though. We did have to fix and fill several holes in the ground from the carpet nails and boards before we stained. You do end up seeing cracks in the floor from foundation shifting--but I think it only adds to the character of the floors. Overall the floor has been great--I don't regret it at all! The process took about 2 full days to complete. I think the pay off for those two days has been a good one--and we would do it again. Good luck!

I looked into doing this and decided not to based on talking to three different professionals. Apparently, the concrete really needs to be "good" before you do the staining. Be sure to talk to someone before you commit to do it.

Good luck!
L.

We did it several years ago because I was watching my mom's cat for her and it peed in our bedroom...we just got new carpet yesterday... so we had it for quite awhile.

My husband did it all himself... it was easy.. BUT we picked out a simple brown color.. nothing fancy... I know some people do the cool designs or mix colors, etc. First we had to rip up the carpet and padding.. then pulled up the tack strips from the carpet... some were hard to get up and my husband even ended up pulling up some concrete up with the nails in places. We had to fill a few holes in. Then it took a long time to sweep and clean the carpet.. next thing was to seal the concrete with a special product. We then had to use this special Kilz product after cleaning the concrete because of the cat pee smell... and then applied the stain over it. My husband got some on the baseboards in places that weren't taped really well. I loved it at first.. it looked great.. the only thing.. over time.. you start to see areas of color wearing off due to the texture of the concrete.. and if you scape anything.. furniture, etc. it will leave a mark. Of course, we could have touched it up easily I guess. To me, the main con was keeping it clean.. you realize when you get it.. how much stuff was getting trapped in carpet. With concrete we got dust bunnies instantly.. and it was so hard to keep them away.. I would sweep and clean the floors weekly.. but it would seem like instantly I was cleaning again.. also, the furniture would get more dusty than a typical room. Another issue we had was how hard the floor was... we ended up getting a huge rug in the room because it started really hurting my feet.

Pro's are how cheap it is.. and I bet if your husband is a handyman.. he can make it look much better and more professional than ours... and it will stay looking good for years to come.

Good luck!