Acid staining and sealed.
Acid painted concrete floor.
Use a floor buffer for scuffing away the loosened spots of paint.
Doing the prep work before you repaint a concrete floor avoids a peeling paint job later.
There are two types of products you can use for staining concrete floors.
Acid based and water based stains.
If your painted concrete floors scratch touch up with concrete floor paint and epoxy paint.
Acid based stain and water based stain.
Acid etching is the process of applying hydrochloric muriatic or buffered phosphoric acid to a slab then rinsing it off with water.
Step 2 buff the concrete surface.
A moist surface isn t ideal for further cleaning or painting.
A floor buffer is a fast moving high powered machine.
In the end we were left with a surface that was far from perfectly smooth but that we knew would work for the look we were going for.
Our floor required a mixture of grinding filling divots with concrete crack filler using acid cleaners filling and leveling out tension breaks in our floor sanding and scraping.
Rather than coating the floor in one entire color concrete stains create a pigmented marbled effect.
Concrete paints completely cover and protect the concrete surface but require a lot of prep work.
As with floor paints there are two primary types of floor stains from which to choose.
Painting concrete floors finishes.
These solutions are for etching the concrete.
Here are the pros and cons of each.
Acid based stain the color palette is more limited but the stain typically lasts longer than water based so it s the best solution for high traffic areas.
Solid colors borders or stencils are great tools for painting concrete floors.
Concrete paint can be purchased in either latex or oil based epoxy enamel.
You can rent a floor buffer from a hardware supply store.
The chemical stains or acid stains react with the concrete s lime content and produce the color.
It also won t fade peel or chip.
How to repaint concrete floors.
Floor and concrete stains are usually easier to apply than paints but they require more frequent reapplication to keep looking fresh.
Mix 3 to 4 parts water with 1 part acid or follow label instructions for a 10 concentration 15 for hard smooth concrete.
Before you can apply a concrete paint clean it with degreasers to get rid of any oil or grease stains followed by muriatic acid to remove any curing chemicals on the concrete s surface.
If the concrete surface is painted or sealed acid stains cannot penetrate the concrete and react with the lime.
If you re just removing mineral deposits efflorescence use a much weaker mix 10 1 or 16 1 for muriatic acid.
Allow the cleaned surface to dry.
