Anyone have experience with stained concrete?

[SonicClang]

I've decided after 6 years of going back and forth between a few different options for finishing my studio floor, that the best solution for me is to go with stained concrete. What I like about this solution is that the concrete is already there, I don't have to spend $6,000 on hardwood. Plus with hardwood I might lose up to an inch of head room when what I've got is already a little less than ideal. Also hardwood really needs to be babied. Sure, there's going to be some maintenance involved in the stained concrete with resealing it once a year, but you're not going to really damage the stained concrete. So it'll hold up a lot better and be lower maintenance than hardwood. I also tossed around the idea of ceramic tile, but that too needs to be babied. If you crack one you need to carefully remove it and replace it with one of the extra tiles you keep in storage for the next 15 years.

http://www.kemiko.com/ sells stains for exactly what I'm looking to do. They also have a video for sale to show you how to do it. After researching this topic, Kemiko is probably who I'm going to go with, but I wanted to know if anyone else out there has done this technique before.

I seem to be getting conflicting reports about the surface prep before applying the stain. I've got a regular poured basement floor that you'll find in any North American home. It was more than likely sealed after it was poured. Some sites that I've read tell you to use an acid wash to open up the poors of the crete, but a guy who did this throughout his house just told me not to use the acid becuase it will ruin the lime in the crete, which is what the stain reacts with to create the color.

Does anyone here have any experience with this?

 

[Rod Gervais]

I seem to be getting conflicting reports about the surface prep before applying the stain. I've got a regular poured basement floor that you'll find in any North American home. It was more than likely sealed after it was poured. Some sites that I've read tell you to use an acid wash to open up the poors of the crete, but a guy who did this throughout his house just told me not to use the acid becuase it will ruin the lime in the crete, which is what the stain reacts with to create the color.

Does anyone here have any experience with this?

Sonic,

What you want to do is follow the manufacturer's instructions to the letter for their product.

Kemiko lists the cleaning products approved for their stain at this location:

http://www.kemiko.com/do_it_yourself.htm#cleaning

Do not deviate form Kemiko's instructions or you might find yourself very unhappy with the finish results.

Rod