Stained Concrete. The Mother of all Projects.

HI! Let's talk about stained concrete floors, shall we? I feel like so many people don't understand when I tell them I'm staining my concrete slab.  "Huh? No carpet? No tile? You're dumb. What a dumb idea." Arg, you don't understand. You've seen stained concrete a million times you just haven't noticed it.  Well, if this is your first time hearing about it, GOOGLE "stained concrete" right now (GO! DO IT!) and come right back. Or there's the girl at Lowe's who told me that my "feet would hurt if I did that" because she has to walk around on it all day at work...As if I'd be rackin' up miles in my house for 8 hours a day.  And then there's some of the people that DO know about stained concrete: "I don't like that, that's ugly." WELL, YOU'RE ugly. (Not really, I just don't have a better comeback than that...)

I LOVE stained concrete.  I HATE carpet.  Stained concrete is modern, clean, easy to maintain, and just looks freakin' cool, industrial, and urban.  Whatever it is, I just totally dig the look of it.  Don't think my house is going to be all cold and morgue-y (yeah, it's a word now).  I'm going to have an area rug in the living room.  There are so many different looks and designs you can do with stained concrete.  However, I have my eye on a dark brown flooring color.  I really like the mottled, variegated look that acid staining gives.   I have been researching stained concrete for a solid two months.  I was originally going to do acid stain but after we found out what our flooring looked like, and weighing the pros and cons, I decided on a water-based stain instead.  It's also safer AND less expensive so that's a plus.  It won't make me go blind OR broke.

The thing about staining concrete is the PREP WORK.  It's all about the prep.  What a JOY that was.

Scotty and Dad worked hard at the house while I did some makeup for a wedding on Saturday. They started by pulling up that laminate flooring:

What they found underneath was not just carpet glue like we had originally thought from pulling up a small piece of flooring.  This is WET paint.  They painted and just laid the flooring right down over it, probably thinking it would dry.  Who knows how long it's been like that.  This gives us a whole new obstacle to deal with.  'DOH!

Oh yeah, and TACK STRIPS ARE THE DEVIL.  They are very difficult to remove from the concrete and they leave some lovely HOLES too.  They are all around the room like a charming polka-dot border.  See what I did there? I'm looking on the bright side!

Son of a paint-stain!  Ok, let's get this crap off.  Contractors don't take care of the slab because normal people like to cover it up with carpet or hardwood flooring.  Also, this house was built 10+ years ago before it was cool to do residential interior concrete staining. Looks like they sprayed the doors (and the walls) and the overspray is just chillin' on my floor. There are a couple thin cracks, which I'm fine with, it'll give it character. We just need to get it clean. The living room looks like this:

We went down to Rental Guys and got this concrete grinder.  Let's do some damage.

We want the floor nice and clean and porous in order to accept the stain.  The blade on the bottom didn't cover a ton of area at once so this was a very time consuming process.  We also had to apply pressure so it was a good workout too.

It's getting clean! Look at the difference! 

A few hours into it, we didn't think the paint was coming off as easily as it should have been.  Here I am brushing on paint stripper.  This loosened it up just a little and the grinder was able to get a little more.

Being an innovative thinker.  Small spaces, small person, no big deal.

A huge improvement in the living room.  

Dad was able to use a handheld grinder to get everything else the rented machine didn't get like corners, edges, stubborn paint stains, etc.

Before we left tonight, we scrubbed the floor with hot water and a stiff brush (there was concrete dust EVERYWHERE) then shop-vacuumed it up. Dad and I working together to get everything so clean!

I wanted to do a sample test just in case I discovered that the concrete wouldn't accept the stain and I'd have to eat the money I spent on it.  I think I paid $7.50 for a little sample bottle.  It's meant to be diluted and actually goes a long way.  For the test, I just mixed it in a spray bottle to apply.  However, when we apply the stain to the whole house, we will use a plastic pump sprayer.  I tested it out in my closet, so it would be hidden in case it sucks.

I DIG IT.  I sprayed it on, looked at it for a minute, then turned around and threw my arms around Scotty.  He didn't understand but accepted it anyway.  I was just SO happy that it worked.  These are transparent stains and I like that you can see the concrete underneath. It gives it that mottled look that I like.  I did get a darker color to give it even more contrast. I mixed it up and sprayed that on over the "Milk Chocolate" brown.

Obviously my spray bottle was being dumb and dripping spots all over the place but it actually looks kind of cool, like more textured and stoney.  This is not what it will look like when we are finished.  We are going to apply a glossy sealer to it.  But I am REALLY happy with it so far and I can't wait to see what it looks like with baseboards put in.  We are getting close! Stay tuned for the end result! :)

*THE FINAL RESULT WITH THE SEALANT AND THE BASEBOARDS CAN BE FOUND IN THIS POST HERE.