I started by scraping any dried drywall mud and paint off the floor.
Acid for concrete floor.
My husband and i did our whole downstairs of our strawbale house with acid stain on our concrete floors.
No two acid stained floors will be the same.
We too used quart spray bottles.
Most acid stainsare a mixture of water hydrochloric acid and acid soluble metallic salts.
They work by penetrating the surface and reacting chemically with the hydrated lime calcium hydroxide in the concrete.
Muriatic acid available in a variety of colors penetrates concrete and reacts to the lime deposits coloring the surface and giving a unique mottled swirly finish.
These sorts of products give the concrete a professional looking sheen and also resist water grease oil and other common spills making the floor easy to maintain.
If this steely neutral isn t your style you can update your patio basement floor or concrete countertop in a range of eye catching colors using acid stain technology.
It s just about the same color as yours.
Acid washing also known as acid etching prepares a concrete surface to accept a sealer.
It also reduces the surface alkalinity of the concrete that can cause some paints to adhere poorly.
Many acid etching projects are carried out to prepare a concrete floor for the application of a synthetic epoxy or sealant.
Acid etching is the process of applying hydrochloric muriatic or buffered phosphoric acid to a slab then rinsing it off with water.
It should be handled with extreme care.
Then in a bucket i mixed some soap and water and mopped the entire floor.
Then i used a vacuum to remove all of the dust dirt and debris.
Acid washing is dangerous for people plants and metal objects especially indoors where fumes can concentrate.
Metallic acid salts and.
Muriatic acid acts like liquid sandpaper by roughening the surface of the concrete.
But everything can be done by even a beginning diyer.
The acid in the stain lightly etches the surface allowing the metallic salts to penetrate more easily.
Your floors look great.
You can also use acid in weaker concentrations to remove white mineral deposits efflorescence and heavy grime.
A polished and acid stained concrete floor will likely look out of place in a classic colonial style home for example but fit quite nicely into a contemporary style home.
We scored the concrete first into 18 blocks which are now grouted so they look like tiles.
When acid staining concrete it s extremely important to clean the concrete very well before doing anything else.
You roughen such a floor by etching it with muriatic acid.