Archive for the ‘acid’ tag
Learn How To Stain Concrete Floors
To improve upon the looks of your concrete floor, concrete staining is the most convenient and economical way and is a very interesting DIY project. The other option of tearing down the existing concrete for subsequently being covered with new or decorative overlays, like epoxy paint, is quite expensive and labor intensive that makes it a very difficult DIY project and is better avoided . Some of the things you would do well to know before starting a staining project are mentioned herewith.
There simply are two types of concrete staining namely, acid staining and acrylic staining. Acid stains work by chemically reacting with free lime in the surface to produce a natural looking, translucent color. As a result of acid staining we get speckled multicolored and multihued surface.Every concrete surface reacts differently to acids stains making each job unique.Acrylic stains are waterborne and have pigments that seep into the pores and adhere to the concrete, therefore creating a more consistent, semi translucent color like that of a dye. A very positive aspect of acrylic stains is that they help to conceal some of the defects or discoloration, but acid stains on the contrary, tend to highlight such limitations.
For many surfaces, acid and acrylic stains will work equally as well, but which one you choose depends on the look you want.
Yet, there are situations where a particular type may be found to give better results. For older, exterior concrete (more than 15-20 yrs old) acid stains may not work because much of the free lime has leeched away. Under such circumstances acrylic stains will work very well because of its increased porosity over time. You can’t get this with epoxy floor paint. Newer concrete has enough of free lime and would give very good results with acid stains. If repairs need to be made such as patching pop outs or scaling, then acrylics may be the better choice to help disguise the repairs. Such patches would begin to look apparent on being treated with acid stains. As acid stains do not need much penetration to impart color to concrete, they are recommended for being used on trowel led interior concretes that has less porosity.
