Most acid stainsare a mixture of water hydrochloric acid and acid soluble metallic salts.
Acid for concrete floor.
No two acid stained floors will be the same.
Acid washing also known as acid etching prepares a concrete surface to accept a sealer.
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.
Acid etching is the process of applying hydrochloric muriatic or buffered phosphoric acid to a slab then rinsing it off with water.
Aesthetically concrete floors are a good match for homes with a modern or industrial style and are less suitable for classic vintage home styles.
Acid washing is dangerous for people plants and metal objects especially indoors where fumes can concentrate.
You roughen such a floor by etching it with muriatic acid.
Then in a bucket i mixed some soap and water and mopped the entire floor.
Your floors look great.
But everything can be done by even a beginning diyer.
Muriatic acid acts like liquid sandpaper by roughening the surface of the concrete.
Then i used a vacuum to remove all of the dust dirt and debris.
It should be handled with extreme care.
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.
It s just about the same color as yours.
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.
My husband and i did our whole downstairs of our strawbale house with acid stain on our concrete floors.
They work by penetrating the surface and reacting chemically with the hydrated lime calcium hydroxide in the concrete.
It also reduces the surface alkalinity of the concrete that can cause some paints to adhere poorly.
We scored the concrete first into 18 blocks which are now grouted so they look like tiles.
We too used quart spray bottles.
Muriatic acid is diluted hydrochloric acid.
Metallic acid salts and.
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.
I started by scraping any dried drywall mud and paint off the floor.
When acid staining concrete it s extremely important to clean the concrete very well before doing anything else.
For many years it was a standard method of concrete preparation used by nearly all industrial commercial and institutional floor coating installers depending on the floor size and system to be installed.