Coloring and Staining Forum

Blue chemical stain colors get black spots outdoors or on concrete with high moisture.

feeds@kickapps.com (DavidR) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 11:37:31 PST

For as long as I've been doing this, (14 years now), green and blue chemical stains devolop black splotches when there is a good amount of water vapor comming from the concrete. This is especially true on outdoor installations.

Has anyone tried to stain, then densify, and finaly seal a floor in order to minimize this reaction?

Any suggestions on alternative products to a chemical stain? Water based perhaps? The floor does get alot of sunshine. It's about 14,000 sq. ft. total.

Veranda stain

feeds@kickapps.com (cro123) — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 10:13:43 PST

Customer would like front veranda "funked"up (marbled). Outdoor. Could I thin finish, then microfinish, stain then seal? And how would I get a grey colour? diluted black ? with marbling.? Acid or Ultra?

black granite

feeds@kickapps.com (nobbyc) — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 12:57:22 PST

How do I create black granite?
Nobby

Reflector Color Samples

feeds@kickapps.com (Cabby89) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 11:43:34 PST

I decided to make some small samples of the colors I picked up. One of the things that is intriguing me is the Blue I received. It is a white power and when mixed it stays white. It was not until the gunmetal started flowing into the blue did it turn a really magnificent blue. Also the Moss poured out with those brown veins but the more it dried the more they have gone away.

The lighter streaks in the copper, gunmetal and blue were charcoal.

Anyone else find this with the blue? I was hoping to test out the blue in a bathroom but now I have to figure out if I should do a main coat in Gunmetal and then hit it with a lot of accent color in blue.

Deeper red than Brick red?

feeds@kickapps.com (mdornbrook2) — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:51:57 PST

Im trying to acheive the look of the brick porch on the splatter texture brochure from elitecrete. I know that there is a sypp red but was wondering if there is a red not so bright but deeper looking. Thanks in advance.

Acid stain just will not dry....

feeds@kickapps.com (TommyBrewer) — Sat, 01 May 2010 21:14:00 PST

Stained the floors last night be fore going to bed, woke up expecting to walk around and see how it looks but it was still wet this morning. It is now 9:00 pm the same night, and although the floors have dried a little, there is still a tremendous amount of moisture on top of the stained concrete. It rained last night and most of today so humidity is high, but I'm starting to panic a little.... What is the deal? Any help would be greatly appreciated....

Where can i find a hydra-stone color chart?

feeds@kickapps.com (KIMidwest) — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 14:54:32 PST

im looking for a hydra-stone color chart

any help?

thanks
Nate

Anyone ever have Acid stain flake/wear off?

feeds@kickapps.com (KIMidwest) — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 15:59:59 PST

we did a floor and had the no about 8 months later we had the Acid wear off,
i would post a picture if i knew how.

any ideas?
sealer failure?

thanks
Nate

Clemson Orange

feeds@kickapps.com (Hobo) — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 20:27:57 PST

I have a customer that would like the Clemson tiger paw overlayed on his pool deck. I was thinking of mixing yellow and red SYPP to get the orange and then splattering it on. Does this sound like it might work? Any ideas how at what ratios to mix to get a bright orange color?

Thanks,

PS- This is an awesome forum.

Oak Hardwood foor color

feeds@kickapps.com (BrightCrete) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:39:17 PST

Anyone have any suggestions to simulate a natural red oak hardwood floor.

I tried using micro and a wood grain tool but I think this thicker than EC recomends. Made it looked like distresed old hardwood floors and I'm not happy with the color. I think I used chocolate micro with a desert beige TF basecoat.

Thanks

staining over heated floor

feeds@kickapps.com (kc) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:46:45 PST

I have a 3000sq. foot interior ,1yr.old concrete floor to stain, the owners were told with heated floor in the home that the stain will change alot.Its all earth tones.I no it will change with or without heat a little,but I dont think it will be noticeable. Any info would be great.also what type sealer,wax ?. thanks , ken

hydrastone stain

feeds@kickapps.com (jrod1) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 18:29:47 PST

Hey guys, has anyone ever reduced hydrastone with anything else besides the reducer? I heard denaturized alcohol works. any ideas?

"Ghosting" with acid stain

feeds@kickapps.com (Hotrodbiker) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 13:05:20 PST

I'm pretty much finished with cleaning my garage floor and should be staining tomorrow.

The idea struck me yesterday to "ghost" in the Texas Lone Star in the middle of my garage floor. My initial thought is to do the first coat of stain and prior to the second, mask out the design on the floor so it is protected from the second stain spraying.

The other thought is to do the 2 coats and then mask of the design and use a third to possibly darken it a bit more, but use a brush for this third application.

I'd like the lines to be as crisp as possible, but with it hopefully being "ghosted" in, that may not matter.

Any way, looking for thoughts and opinions on what I want to do, if it should work and the best way to mask out the design. Thanks everyone.

Tim

Hydrostone & Logo?

feeds@kickapps.com (gregg513) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:57:28 PST

Large pour

feeds@kickapps.com (krrich) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 23:06:33 PST

We are having elite crete in our new home. The primary area is a great room which includes living, dining, and kitchen; and we are also including the front door entry way, a hallway off the main door entry, and our master bathroom/closet.mudroom.

The contractor said that the installer stated that since this is such a large area, we need to have a break to split the pours over 2 days and, that we needed to figure out what to use between the 2 pours. He suggested marble or tile.

Is there any other way for them to do this? I would prefer to have it all look the same without introducing another medium as a transition. The elite crete we are getting is called stamped overlay with no grout lines. Any help would be appreciated.

prep for acid stain

feeds@kickapps.com (everlast) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:42:02 PST

ok so my backround is in epoxy. i know how to work it, fix it, whatever to it to get paid. in preping these floors i use a blastrac or a diamatic, but thats to aggressive for an acid right? just took the ec seminar and worth every penny unfortunately not so detailed on prep. i want to use a floor machine(buffer) but what pads do i use? if there is a sealer what do i use? what detergent works best? etc.....

acid staining boarders

feeds@kickapps.com (everlast) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 15:59:58 PST

say you want a dark border and a lighter stain in the main floor, how would you achieve this easily. do you tape off the primary floor and stain border first? I 'am new to staining. can you put down the stain with a roller? or do you always spray it down?

recommended sealer

feeds@kickapps.com (appliedconcrete) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:06:28 PST

I am quoting a 3000 ft resturant that wants acid stained floors 4 different colors seperated with saw cuts. What sealer is recommended for a high traffic floor..im thinking epoxy. any ideas?

Final Step

feeds@kickapps.com (CJD) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 16:56:26 PST

I am staining a new pour which is a month old and has a coat of Ashford denisfier placed on in 3 days after the pour. It was hard troweled. It is a flat slab. We started with 80 grit and worked up to 400. Applied Chemstone stain which appeared to react well. Now the plan is to take it to 3000 grit, however what would be the best top coat to maintain the gloss? Since it had Ashford should we just go with a stain guard or use something like spartic?

BTW this is a commerical lab so it does get wear from carts and chairs.

Blues & greens on outdoor overlay. US or Acid?

feeds@kickapps.com (briandeas) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:44:38 PST

It's my first request for blues & greens outdoors. HS is a no no, US not sure and acid, well I heard if you spray blues and green acids outdoors, they can turn black on you over time.. Not sure if that's true but what do you guys think? This is going to be an overlay over agg outdoors. Thx