acid stain old concrete floor

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templargi

New Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2011
Messages
3
Location
ft hood, texas
I want to get rid of carpet, forever. My wife is in a power wheel chair, so hard wood floor is out. My next thought is acid stain floor. I see it a lot in restaurants here in Texas. Trying to find a pro to do it is, to say the least, difficult. I would try to do it myself but I have such a sensitivity to the smell of certain chemicals, thanks to 20 years in the Army. I would like to get some inside info as to pros and cons, how does it hold up ect.
thanks,
templargi
 
I did a recent training with Ardex for both their moisture remediation products and their stained toppings. It looked like exactly what I think you're wanting. It's a "topping" that is applied over your existing substrate either wood or concrete-------they have a few different products for those different conditions.

Anyway the demonstration was pretty high tech and the guy was a real artist.

Actually staining an existing slab is a different process and probably/possibly a cheaper solution depending on what's got to be done to the surface to get a nice, smooth, even finish.

I'm seeing lots of both types of these floors; acid stained concrete and custom topping products in retail stores, particularly at the malls. They should certainly stand up to wheelchair and foot traffic. Where I've seen them fail is in grocery stores that drag pallet jacks and fork lifts every night, gouging the topping products with the nails sticking out of the bottom of the wood pallets. Some of it also seems to fail to bond but that's most likely due to some failure to properly clean and prep those spots or general instability in the slab-------severe cracking where electrical/plumbing trenches for cleanouts, floor sinks and floor outlets were not properly anchored with re-bar back into the existing slab.
 
Where did you take your class IN ? i took it in Pittsburgh . I'll be doing my brothers basement with the top coating .
 
I did a recent training with Ardex for both their moisture remediation products and their stained toppings. It looked like exactly what I think you're wanting. It's a "topping" that is applied over your existing substrate either wood or concrete-------they have a few different products for those different conditions.

Anyway the demonstration was pretty high tech and the guy was a real artist.

Actually staining an existing slab is a different process and probably/possibly a cheaper solution depending on what's got to be done to the surface to get a nice, smooth, even finish.

I'm seeing lots of both types of these floors; acid stained concrete and custom topping products in retail stores, particularly at the malls. They should certainly stand up to wheelchair and foot traffic. Where I've seen them fail is in grocery stores that drag pallet jacks and fork lifts every night, gouging the topping products with the nails sticking out of the bottom of the wood pallets. Some of it also seems to fail to bond but that's most likely due to some failure to properly clean and prep those spots or general instability in the slab-------severe cracking where electrical/plumbing trenches for cleanouts, floor sinks and floor outlets were not properly anchored with re-bar back into the existing slab.
good info thanks
 
I had customers in a home where the woman had a Power Wheel, and we used commercial carpet tiles. They love them. Just a thought ...

Tia
 
I want to get rid of carpet, forever. My wife is in a power wheel chair, so hard wood floor is out. My next thought is acid stain floor. I see it a lot in restaurants here in Texas. Trying to find a pro to do it is, to say the least, difficult. I would try to do it myself but I have such a sensitivity to the smell of certain chemicals, thanks to 20 years in the Army. I would like to get some inside info as to pros and cons, how does it hold up ect.
thanks,
templargi

Extremely durable. Lots of professionals locally to Austin do it, if you can't find anyone in the Ft. Hood area let me know and I will post some numbers you can try.
 
Living in the land of concrete out here I've seen some great acid stain jobs and some really horrible ones. One thing to watch out for is using patching compounds for holes and cracks. The compound does not take the stain like the concrete does and looks bad. So if you have unsightly cracks and holes I'd opt for the topping instead.

Plus acid stain can be messy and uses strong chemicals.
 

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