Green Concrete Projects with EverStain Avocado

Project Info:

• Project Completed In: 3 day(s)
• Estimate of Square Footage: 312 sq. ft.
• Project Description:
  Hello! There’s a converted garage in my house that has been used as storage and laundry. I’m a massage therapist and am redoing the room to use as my home studio. The whole floor was covered in ceramic tile. I ripped up all the tile and use a grinder to smooth out the surface and patch up holes. Once the floor was ready, I used Avocado splotches as an accent color. I then blended in Malayan Bluff. I let the first coat dry for about 16 hours, before applying a second coat. I let that dry for about 20 hours and then neutralized. Once that was totally dry, I applied 2 coats of the Sealer, allowing 8 hours between applications.
  I found the videos from Direct Colors to be so informative and helpful – and the gallery was helpful for drawing inspiration. I’m so happy with how my floor turned out – and now I have friends asking me to coach them through doing their own staining! Thank you soooo much!
• Personal Tips:
  Make sure you “rough up” the surfaces, so that the colors can take in different tones.
• Direct Colors Products Used:
  1 Gal. Avocado EverStain™ & Satin™ Gloss Kit
  1 Gal. Malayan Buff EverStain™ & Satin™ Gloss Kit

Project Info:

• Project Completed In: 6 day(s)
• Estimate of Square Footage: 1400 sq. ft.
• Project Description:
  Unfinished walkout basement. It will be two beds, two baths, and a large entertainment/game room. I ordered the acid stain test kit and did the floor under where the tub will go, under the vanity and in the utility closet. While I was doing my first scrub, I noticed my curbless shower was not going to drain right. Little did I know how much extra work this would cause. I tarped off the bathroom and set fans to negative pressure the room. The air born concrete grinding dust was kept in the room, but I did track it out of the room of my feet .I then went back to scrubbing, and vacuuming and scrubbing and vacuuming, and scrubbing and vacuuming. That concrete dust is pretty stubborn to get up. I was finally satisfied with how clean the floor was, and moved on to the next step. The slab was power trowel when it was poured about a year ago. I used the hard trowel surface prep to etch the floor. This was pretty easy with the pump up sprayer. Then rinse and vacuum. Here is where the true trouble from my day of re-sloping the shower would come in. Every foot print where I tracked concrete dust from the day of grinding had been etched into my floor!! And i walked everywhere in the basement that day, the whole floor was covered in foot prints. The floor was spotless before I etched. Not a hint of anything.Tired and dejected, I thought about LVP flooring. OK, only for a little bit.I tried a few different methods of removing the footprints. It was possible to scrub them off, but the amount of effort it took, for even my 1sqft test area was not reasonable to do over the whole floor.
  I tried sanding them off. I just spend a day vacuuming up dust, so I had a spray bottle of water in one hand and a palm sander in the other. This worked pretty well, but I could use much water without risking damaging my sander. It would leave behind a thick cement slurry, which had to be diluted with water, then vacuumed up quickly. If it dried at all, I’d be back where I started with a haze instead of a footprint.I ended up renting a hard floor scrubber. It still took about 8 hrs. of scrubbing and 4 passes get the footprints and any remaining haze off the floor. WOOHOO, crisis averted, I can now do the fun part.I loaded up the sprayer with the avocado acid, and started spraying. I did one coat and waited a hour before donning my spiky shoes for a second coat. My coverage on the first coat was a little short, so I had to dilute the second coat about 2 parts acid to 1 part water to ensure I would cover the entire floor.I waited about 8 hrs. then dumped 50 gallons of baking soda water on my floor. I vacuumed this up then did one quick pass with the floor scrubber with the brushes set to their lightest contact pressure. A quick check after this showed water would not pick up any more color.I set some fans up, returned the scrubber and got lunch.Once dry I rolled on the acrylic satin sealer. I did not care for the spiky shoes, so i just planned my path carefully so I could stay off the wet sealer, not leave an edge to dry, and leave me an exit off the floor. Three coats later and I’m done! My coverage with the sealer was much greater than the 200 sq. ft. gallon, hence the three coats.
• Personal Tips:
  We order the three sample colors. Based on pictures on the website, it was really only between two colors. We picked a third, just because the kit has three. The third “throwaway” color ended up being our favorite. If you are doing more than about 400 sq. ft, consider renting some power equipment.
• Direct Colors Products Used:
  5 Gal. CitrusEtch™ Concrete Etcher
  2 x 1 Gal. Avocado EverStain™ & AcquaSeal™ Satin Kit
  5 Gal. Avocado EverStain™ & AcquaSeal™ Satin Kit
  3 x 1 Gal. ProWax Polish™ Satin

Project Info:

• Project Completed In: 3 day(s)
• Estimate of Square Footage: 625 sq. ft.
• Project Description:
  First time working with acid stain and I learned a lot through the process. My shop floor turned out awesome! I was going for a patina look with the rusted walls and nailed it!
• Personal Tips:
  First, study the preparation tips outlined in the direct colors how to guide. Make sure you are prepared and have the time to follow each step to get the desired results.
  Second, study the application and dry time in the how to guides to make sure you have the time to spray and neutralize within the timeframe recommended for the chosen colors ( I didn’t realize different colors had different dry times and ended up out in my shop neutralizing and cleaning till midnight one night.
  Lastly, Don’t be discouraged by what the floor looks like before sealing. It will gain its color with the sealer. I thought mine was going to turn out terrible until I got the sealer on it!
  DONT FORGET THE SPIKE SHOES AND USE THEM DURING ETCHING SO YOU DO NOT HAVE FOOTPRINTS TO CLEAN UP AND SAND.
• Direct Colors Products Used:
  5 Gal. CitrusEtch™ Concrete Etcher
  3 x 1 Gal. Malayan Buff EverStain™ & EasySeal™ Gloss Kit
  1 Gal. Avocado EverStain™
• Other Products Used:
  Harbor freight 1.25 gallon sprayer
  Spike shoes from amazon.

Project Info:

• Project Completed In: 15 day(s)
• Estimate of Square Footage: 700 sq. ft.
• Project Description:
  I built the house 20 years ago with no intention of using the basement are as living space. Fast forward 20 years and I changed my mind. I investigated having contractors come in and apply epoxy coating. I also purchased several gallons (different colors) of “concrete stain” from the local big-box hardware store. I applied sample areas on my floor to get a visual feel to see if that was what I wanted. I was not happy with it as it just appeared to be paint. I also did not like the “garage floor” look of the epoxy coatings offered by the contractors. While I had seen Direct Colors concrete stain pictures during my research, I knew it would be more work on my part, and I was hoping for something easy. This once-in-a-lifetime project had to be done right the first time, as there was not going to be a second. I bit the bullet (mentally) and decided to do the concrete stain so I would like the outcome.
  The floor had not been damaged but there are two small settling cracks. I chose to not patch repair the cracks as they were tight and after reading that different mortars can have different colors, I preferred having the sight of a tight crack than color changes due to mortar. I’m glad I did; I like the look and it is hardly noticeable.
  When I built the house 20 years ago, I used this basement area to stain my woodwork. In the process I spilled wood stain many places on the concrete. Therefore, I knew I would have to sand the concrete to get past the existing wood stain. I was unsure if I would do it as a wet-sand job, or a dry sanding, so I prepped the area by putting plastic up around the perimeter. I rented a floor sander with the concrete sanding disc at the local big-box hardware store and started sanding. At first I tried an area using water, knowing this would keep the dust down. But with the water I could not see the condition of the sanded area due to the slurry, then I tried sanding an area dry. I was much more comfortable seeing the floor when dry sanding. I had the basement window open with a fan in it pulling the air out of the house, a full face respirator, and I had a vacuum connected to the sander. About half-way through the sanding I noticed it was taking a lot of work to make any progress. I deduced the sanding disc was worn out and I removed it and returned to the hardware store for an exchange. As I only rented the machine for one day, I was worried about losing time to make the one-hour round trip for the new disc. After returning with the new disc and using it I was glad to have it! The sanding went so much better with the new disc and did a great job. At the completion of sanding, I swept and vacuumed the entire area, including the walls. This included removing the perimeter plastic (put up for wet sanding), as it had collected a lot of dust. I had the doorway from the basement to the upstairs plastic and taped off, but after going upstairs, I found that the plastic/tape job was not adequate, as the concrete dust managed to work its way upstairs into the living areas. So I went into action cleaning that up before it got ground-in.
  With the floor swept and vacuumed (several times), I prepped the area for staining. This included new perimeter plastic. I chose three different color stains, Malayan Buff, Avocado, and Seagrass. I used three spray bottles, so I could work my way across the floor using all three, applying colors per my design. Again, with a fan in the window and a respirator, and now spiked sandals, I put the stain down. Having previously purchased the stain sample kit, I knew I wanted to wait the full time for as much color to burn into the concrete. The following day I rinsed and scrubbed the concrete and wet-dry vacuumed it up. I had a garden hose into the area to make it convenient, this worked well. While the floor was still wet I decided I wanted more color. After the floor dried, I went back and applied more stain in certain areas. And the next day rinsed and scrubbed the floor, then gave the floor a full day to dry. I checked for any residue and noticed the floor still had a significant amount of residue, so I rinsed and scrubbed again. After the third rinse and scrub the residue was no longer noticeable.
  The following day I swept and vacuumed, then applied the first coat of sealant using a hardware store damp-type mop. As recommended, I applied the sealant in a north-south direction initially. Then on the second day I applied east-west. I had a considerable amount of sealant remaining, although I had purchased the recommended amount for my square footage. I believe I was just applying coats lighter than expected. After the second coat dried, I applied another north-south coat.
  Two coats of wax on top of it finished it, and it is so much better than I could have dreamed. I am very glad I chose to do the concrete stain, and not paint or epoxy. The job did take some work on my part, but it was entirely worth it.
• Personal Tips:
  More/bigger fans when dry sanding.
  Don’t sand unless you have to.
  Drywall mud must be removed down to bare concrete.
  Rinse and scrub the acid residue until the floor passes the white-glove test.
  I was able to do a few hours a day or every other day. There was no rush to “get it done”.
  The quantities recommended are fairly accurate.
  Have a spare acid sprayer available. You don’t want to be in the middle of spraying and have an issue. Cheap insurance.

• Direct Colors Products Used:
  5 Gal. CitrusEtch™ Concrete Etcher
  3 x 1 Gal. Malayan Buff EverStain™ & AcquaSeal™ Gloss Kit
  2 x 1 Gal. Avocado EverStain™ & AcquaSeal™ Gloss Kit
  1 Gal. Seagrass DIY EverStain™ & AcquaSeal™ Gloss Kit
  1 Gal. ProWax Polish™ Satin