COLORING, STAINING & SPECIAL EFFECTS FORUM

Dark acid stain on a concrete slab

feeds@yuku.com (YukuCrete) — Sun, 13 May 2012 01:42:07 PST

The customer does not want an overlay, but wants to acid stain his existing slab. I pressure washed it and ground it to remove an existing sealer. The slab has not been treated with any acid before. There is a lot of pretty fine aggregate (1/8" size) exposed now. Floor is polished flat with 30 grid diamonds.

The color he wants is dark. Like this:
http://concretelocator.yuku.com/topic/8924/Kitchen-Overlay-Acid-Stained-Tan-and-black

Are there any issues with acid staining a slab that has exposed aggregate? He's fine with the aggregate not taking stain but what about the rest of the slab? Will it give me problems?
How should I dilute the acid or how should I apply it to get a dark color?

How to color individual tiles quick?

feeds@yuku.com (YukuCrete) — Sat, 12 May 2012 12:03:46 PST

After pulling the tape of my trowel down before I stained I ended up coloring each individual tile with a brush. Too much time and effort.

What is the best time/way to color the tiles in contrasting colors?

Look at this floor as an example:
http://www.elitecrete.com/Master%20Photos%20-%20unsized/Troweled%20Finish%20-%20deck%20-%20multi-colored%20ashlar%20slate.jpg

Are the tiles colored BEFORE pulling the tape or not? Basically running the brush a little over where the ghost image of the tape is seen?

Acid stain sprayer pattern

feeds@yuku.com (briandeas) — Fri, 04 May 2012 22:38:14 PST

Can't say this has happened before but it just did. Ive got sprayer patterns, circles, zig zags. I have a really tight concrete surface and used a different sprayer.I'm sure it has to do with spraying too close . It hasn't been scrubbed yet. Any suggestions? I'm thinking if it's still an issue, I'll have to screen or light sand and recoat. Any input is much appreciated. Thx

Underwater Sealer

feeds@yuku.com (fauxstainer) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:26:24 PST

Hello All!

Sealers tend to whiten or get cloudy when exposed to moisture. I know there are some underwater sealers out there but I can't find any underwater sealers. I saw one used at the World of Concrete 2012 but can't find the literature I brought home.

Any suggestions?

Help deciding best overlay for my Radiant Heat grout mix

feeds@yuku.com (btuck22) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 22:55:41 PST

Hi,

I may have put myself in a pickle here. I put down radiant heat (hydro) and put down furring strips every 12". I then packed it with grout (1 part cement, 3 parts sand). I eventually want to put down a Reflector Enhancer floor. I'm trying to decide the best product to bridge the gap between what I have and the epoxy. Does anyone have any ideas? I've thought of Texture pave over Lath, Ardex, or epoxy saturated with sand to build on.

Thanks for any help!

Brian

How to do these floor?

feeds@yuku.com (olyarca) — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 12:25:41 PST

Hi I will like to know how did this exterior project and what technique and what products they use?

http://www.elitecrete.com/Master%20Photos%20-%20unsized/Exterior%20-%20014.jpg

We are distributor in Colombia South America

Thank you for all your help

Where can I find a Chem Stone Color Chart?

feeds@yuku.com (medinajim) — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 18:32:29 PST

I can't seem to find one on the site. I found the Hydro Stone and PCC and RE charts, but no Chem Stone.

Color Combination?

feeds@yuku.com (AaronRouse) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:42:48 PST

Does anyone know what color combination this pic is?

Thanks!!!

Scratches & scuffs - stained concrete

feeds@yuku.com (tevssn) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:48:30 PST

Hi, my husband and I are thinking about staining our concrete floor. I have read quite a bit of conflicting information. On one hand, I've read that it's good flooring for pets but on the other hand, I have read about many people who have problems with dull spots, scratches, scuffs. We have two 80 pound indoor dogs. The bottom line question is, if we decide to do this, how easily do the floors get scratched and scuffed up? I am leaning towards porcelain tile because I know we won't have these problems with porcelain but we both love the look of stained concrete. Also, has anyone used the Elite Crete system and if so, were you happy with it? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Novolac Epoxy

feeds@yuku.com (KennethArtioli) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 09:37:18 PST

Has anyone used Novolac Epoxy, if so what can you tell me about it? I am currently waiting for information from my distributor.

Pleas Advise.. From Gorgeous to Milky!!??

feeds@yuku.com (VDR928) — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 19:46:46 PST

We had a contractor acid stain the floors in our new house. The floors were sealed with CSS Emulsion. Then the contractor finished with Carefree wax manufactured by Johnson. The finish shows scratches and footprints from our dog. The contractor came back several times and removed the wax and tried about 8 different types of wax, all with the same results. It looks great to begin with but footprints show up when it is walked on and is dull in about 4 days. Mopping doesn't restore the finish.

I am looking for a product with a glossy durable finish to use on their floors. My thought is removing the wax then adding some kind of sealer.

Can you provide...

pcc in ultrastone and rain

feeds@yuku.com (ECBahamas) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 07:40:09 PST

can someone tell me if pcc in ultrastone washes out a bit if it rains heavily before the sealer is applied? Also are all the pcc colors water based?

HYDROSTONE

feeds@yuku.com (weldman) — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 20:36:12 PST

Can thin finish be applied over hydrostone??

coloring trouble

feeds@yuku.com (not so cal) — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 14:32:49 PST

did a sample board TF 1oz chocolate trowel on 1oz desert beige looked ok then sprayed light mist of charcoal and this is what I ended up with where did I go wrong? any help is greatly appreciated

Anyone have a great recipe for Aged Brick?

feeds@yuku.com (Custom Concrete Design) — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:54:42 PST

I need to get a few Idea's for doing a Aged Brick, does anyone have some good input on their Process for Aged Brick??

Thanks

Concrete color

feeds@yuku.com (Wilmer) — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 16:08:18 PST

I have a customer that has several cracks on three section of her new driveway that was pour only 3 weeks ago.
She's looking to repair/resurface does three section only, so I'll be using TF with integral pcc. Does anyone knows which pcc color should I use to match the existing new concrete color?.

Thanks for your help.

Acid Stain "Coffee Drop" Effect Question

feeds@yuku.com (esraustin) — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 12:37:06 PST

Hello!

We do a lot of micro finish installations that we acid stain. Every now and then we have a problem with the acid stain not taking well leaving a "coffee drop" type of effect in the color, best described as little dotted areas that seem to not take the acid stain.

Dilute the stain 1:1 with water
We use an SP Acid Sprayer making sure to keep the sprayer pumped up with air pressure while spraying
I have used a soft bristle brush to work in the stain as we spray it, but ended up with some brush marks in the color.
I have also mixed the stain with a small amount of muriatic acid and it seemed to help
I have also mixed the stain I was spraying with a few ounces of black acid stain, seemed to help but I dont do this when a customer wants a light color.
I cant say that every time we had this problem it was with a new bottle of stain from our dealer, but the last job we just finished was a new bottle from the dealer. But I make sure not to leave our stains...

coloring individual stones

feeds@yuku.com (jr) — Sun, 29 May 2011 10:30:09 PST

I put down a skim coat of desert beige, a splatter texture of desert beige and then cut in my flagstone. I would like to highlight a few stones with some darker tones. I know spraying down the ultra stone and color would have been the easiest before cutting in the flagstone, but this driveway has a brick border that I need to install and I didn't want any color bleeding onto the brick border. The customer also wanted just a few highlighted stones randomly here and there so spraying the whole driveway wasn't going to work. What would be the best way to color these stones so I don't get any streaking or brush strokes, but still get the variegated look and not get bleed into my grout lines. Or is the variegated look out because spraying would be next to impossible? What type of dilutions would you recommend? Sorry about all of the questions. Thanks.