FloorsFinished

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&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; After a week of obsessive work and lots of help, the floors are stained and sealed, and the house now feels "dressed."&nbsp; The colors turned out to be rich and beautiful.&nbsp; <br>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;I used Kemiko stain and sealer, and used the book by Bob Harris, GUIDE TO STAINED CONCRETE INTERIOR FLOORS as a reference.&nbsp; I found the book at www.concreteNetwork.com. <br>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; My friend Jeanette and I diluted the stain with varying amounts of water.&nbsp; We had 2 different colors: a dark reddish brown called Cola, and a golden blond, called Golden Wheat.&nbsp; They are both subtle and rock-colored.&nbsp; I was originally thinking of mixing the 2 colors, but it turns out the colors don't really combine.&nbsp; When we made a test strip, the strip turned out to be kind of striped, with each color maintaining its own integrity.<br>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Jeanette became the official sprayer of stain, turning into quite an expert by the time she was done.&nbsp; We put the Golden Wheat on the bathroom and bedroom floors, and the Cola everywhere else.&nbsp; For the Golden Wheat, we diluted it much less for the 2nd coat, and the color was much richer.&nbsp; For the Cola, I think we diluted it less for the utility room, which turned out a little darker than the rest of the house.&nbsp; We used a garden-variety pump sprayer, which worked great.<br>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;The hardest part of the project, in terms of physical labor, was cleaning up the acid residue, before applying the sealer.&nbsp; We created a formula of water, ammonia and baking soda to neutralize the acid.&nbsp; We sprayed it on the floor and brushed and brushed, and then vacuumed it all up with a wet vac.&nbsp; Then we went back and flooded the floor with clear water, mopped and mopped and mopped, and then vacuumed that up, and then flooded and vacuumed again.&nbsp; It was a long, hard day.<br>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;The sealer is a water-based acrylic, matte finish.&nbsp; I applied the first coat yesterday morning, using a roller.&nbsp; The concrete just sucked it up, especially in the darker-colored parts of the floor.&nbsp; In the afternoon, when the light in the house was very bright and the temperature was in the 100 degree range, I applied the 2nd coat.&nbsp; That was not wise.&nbsp; I could not see what I was doing, and the sealer, which was already very thin, became thinner in the heat.&nbsp; This morning, in the more subdued light, I can see that the floor could really use a third coat, but I think I will wait to apply it until after the house is more in a finished state, and the temperature is lower.<br>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; Below is a picture of the bathroom floor, which is the Golden Wheat color. Unfortunately, the camera turns the color more red/orange than it really is.&nbsp; The color is really more like a blond hardwood with golden highlights.&nbsp; What is really exciting about the floors is seeing how much the concrete is really alive:&nbsp; it has so many different reactions to the acid stain.&nbsp; You can see the trowel marks, the areas where the concrete cured faster or slower -- and in these colors, it has an almost animalistic feel.<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Here's the bathroom floor.<br><br><img src="Cola"><img src="Cola"><img src="BathFloor"><br><br><img src="members/marym/blog/cola"><img src="members.livemodern.com/Members/marym/blog/officeFloor/image_view"><img src="members.livemodern.com/Members/marym/blog/officeFloor"><img src="Office%20Floor"><br><img src="cola"><img src="Cola"><img src="Cola.jpg"><br><img src="Cola"><br>

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