stained concrete Austin

Despite its recent popularity, stained concrete floors are really not that new. Historically, it started dating back to the 1920's when floors were stained to spice up the look of dull concrete surfaces. Concrete staining isn't like adding some color pigment to wet concrete. Instead, it is done on cured concrete. Caffeine result of the stain (acid) and the concrete made from rocks and binding cement increases the gray colored concrete a "natural earthy" color.

There are 2 kinds of staining concrete floors - acid and water. Most acid stains are a combination of water, hydrochloric acid and acid-soluble metallic salts that work well its way below the concrete surface and reacting chemically using the hydrated lime (calcium hydroxide) inside the concrete. The acid inside the stain lightly scrapes the top of the concrete allowing the metallic salts to penetrate easily. After the stain reacts, the stain now becomes a permanent part of the concrete, thus not exposed to fading, chipping or peeling away after a while. The only real drawback for acid staining will there be just isn't much choice in color - only tans, browns, terra cottas, and soft blue-green to resemble piece of rock, polished marble, stained wood and even tanned leather.

Similarly, using the water based staining you can still attain the same effect but unlike the acid staining, water staining is water coating that bond using the concrete and, the effects, therefore, is probably not as thorough. Unlike acid staining, newer products including the water-based penetrating stains and water-and-solvent based concrete dyes have become you can find with colors ranging from soft pastels to vivid reds, oranges, yellows and purples.

You have to remember though that in selecting stain colors:

-» Expect wide color variation, especially with acid-based stains. This will be a little more pronounced when the final coat of sealer is used.

-» What one sees in the liquid form might not be what you've planned when the chemical reaction relating to the stain as well as the cement occurs. The genuine color will only appear when left on the concrete for a number of hours or longer.

-» Along with effect will probably be darker or targeting new concrete than on older concrete.

Of those, it might be a good idea to make use of the stain into a small test area first before applying generally floor.

The thing that makes stained concrete unique isn't two concrete floors, walls or countertops can look alike even though they are treated with the same staining product of the identical shade. Factors concrete composition and age, porosity, texture and environmental conditions help with this uniqueness. Therefore, words like "antiqued", "variegated" or "mottled" have the ability to become accustomed to describe stained concrete.
stained concrete Austin
The fee for staining concrete floors will differ depending on the work to be performed: kind of stain, surface preparation, area, and sort of sealer to use among others. Generally, though, given a nominal amount surface preparation, a fundamental one-coat application with sealer will surely cost from 2-4 dollars per square feet. More complex projects would up the price about fifteen dollars per square feet or even more, with respect to the some time and level of skill involved.