Stunning Gray Concrete Stain Transformations: A Gallery of DIY Projects

Project Info:

• Project Completed In: 4 day(s)
• Estimate of Square Footage: 2500 sq. ft.
• Project Description:
  My name is Isaiah Medina I’ve never done floors in my life. I recently started to open a barbershop with my wife. We have always been in love with concrete industrial looking floors. When we first purchase the space, it was covered in adhesive carpet tiles. So after removing them, it was covered in mastic. We figured we would work top down so we painted the ceiling’s first. Of course, all of that paint fell to the floor then we painted the walls white and of course we dropped some.
  Then it was time to start the floors finally.
  We rented a duel disk grinder, ground down the whole area, cleaned it really well, and then we applied the acquatint.
  Two coats 15-20 hours apart. They’re very durable and easy to clean.
• Personal Tips:
  Spend the extra money and grind down your floors if you’re getting rid of a lot of adhesive.
  It ensures that the stain or sealer gets really deep and provides a strong bond.
  It creates a lot of dust, so make sure you use water to wet grind it to minimize that.
  And don’t rush take your time make sure the floors are clean and have fun.
• Direct Colors Products Used:
  3 x 5 Gal. Charcoal AcquaTint™
  3x 1 Gal. ProWax Polish™ Satin
• Other Products Used:
  Edco dual grinder
  Harbor freight attachment & shroud to grind the edges
  Harbor freight paper and tape to cover the edges.
  Harbor freight 2 gallon pump to spray the sealer.

Project Info:

• Project Completed In: 5 day(s)
• Estimate of Square Footage: 1500 sq. ft.
• Project Description:
  Interesting
• Personal Tips:
  Spraying along w roller application worked great for me
• Direct Colors Products Used:
  5 Gal. Charcoal AcquaTint™ & ProWax Polish™ Satin Kit
  2 x 1 Gal. Charcoal AcquaTint™

Project Info:

• Project Completed In: 5 day(s)
• Estimate of Square Footage: 600 sq. ft.
• Project Description:
  Finishing approx. 600sq ft basement area with AcquaTint water based colored sealer and satin ProWax Polish
• Personal Tips:
  Entire floor job was about 26 hours of labor, most on floor prep (cleaning and hard troweled floor pre-treatment).
  Day 1: It took 2 people 8 hours each to clean and apply hard troweled pre-treatment and rinse off using a wet vac.Rinsed floor twice after hard troweled pre-treatment to make sure no residue left behind. Let the floor dry overnight with heat on in the basement before proceeding.Day 2: Prior to applying AcquaTint, went back over the floor lightly sanding a handful of areas where sneaker prints from the hard troweled pre-treatment showed up.Tip – Don’t step in the area where hard troweled pre-treatment has sat for 20 min (which is pretty dry in most areas at that point) prior to rinsing or your sneaker prints will lightly etch themselves into the floor while rinsing. These areas will require sanding and we had a few. An hour (x 2 people) was spent lightly sanding a handful of sneaker prints and vacuuming up all the dust.The two coats of AcquaTint (one Day 2 and one Day 3) were applied with a 9″ roller letting the weight of the roller apply material.Tip – only put a small amount into your tray and always wet the roller by rolling it in the bottom of the tray to continue to mix what is in the tray. The pigment settles out pretty quick but is manageable. Apply some pressure to the roller before moving the roller from the tray to the floor so you are not dripping material from the roller. Always stir before adding more sealer to the tray. I would suggest pouring your entire amount of sealer into a pail before you start because it is easy to stir the contents in the pail. Use a coffee can or smaller container to transfer well mixed colored sealer into your tray.Work in small sections at a time (6′ x 4′). Move quickly but don’t freak out over lap marks. You will get them but rolling over them a second or third time as you work the small section helps and then the next coat rolls the opposite direction which further helps them blend in.

  Back roll the final roll before you move on to the next section. It took about 3 hours of labor (2 people 1 1/2 hours each) to apply each coat of sealer.

  Giving the floor two days to dry after the second coat of sealer brings us to Day 5 where wax was applied in the morning and again late afternoon.

  It only takes about 1 hour to apply a coat of wax over 600 sq ft. Only one person needed for wax.

• Direct Colors Products Used:
  5 Gal. Charcoal AcquaTint™ & ProWax Polish™ Satin Kit
  1 Qt. ProClean Degreaser™ Concentrate<
  9″ Rollers, 4″ Roller kit, Medium Texture Scrub Brush
• Other Products Used:
  Goof Off where there was any paint or paint over spray on the floor

Project Info:

• Project Completed In: 5 day(s)
• Estimate of Square Footage: 1720 sq. ft.
• Project Description:
  Salon had unfinished concrete floors I loved the natural state and all the blemishes so i opted to let those shine but add some details and bc the floors cant be porous I needed to seal them so I did just that and love my floors!
• Personal Tips:
  Fill gaps, holes and cracks.
  Use the darker color first then lighter colors to diffuse it per se.
• Direct Colors Products Used:
  2 x 1 Gal. Charcoal AcquaTint™
  5 Gal. Silver Gray AcquaTint™ & ProWax Polish™ Satin Kit
  1 Gal. ProWax Polish™ Satin

• Other Products Used:
  Mica Powder

Project Info:

• Project Completed In: 6 day(s)
• Estimate of Square Footage: 1800 sq. ft.
• Project Description:
  I have an unfinished 1800sf basement. I wanted to keep the integrity and durability of the concrete floors.
  The floors had been grinded before any work had started.
  First was cleaning up drywall dust, mud and paint off floors. Some was scraped off and then washed with diluted pine sol and water and finally just with plain water. This took about 6 hours everytime, constantly dumping the dirtied water.
  I am a professional artist but this was my first time with concrete stain and such a huge scale.
  The sprayer I used spit and dripped out the paint so I had to change my original plan to random graffiti-like splashes of the charcoal color. Spraying the initial design took 4-5 hours and 2/3 of the 5 gal charcoal. I let that dry 24 hours before starting 2nd coat of lighter gray.
  I used a 3/8″ 9″ roller to apply lighter gray over splashed charcoal. Because I was creating a mottled, random look, it was impossible to roll on in one direction as is suggested. It created lines I didn’t like. Rather, I went heavy in some areas and left the lightness of one coat in other areas, always careful to cover bare concrete. The lighter gray helped to soften the contrast of the lighter areas and the charcoal. This effect took about 2 of the 5 gal. container. Because of the sheer size of the floor, it took 6-7 hours.
  After waiting 24 hours, I began 1st coat of wax with a 9″ Shurcoat paint pad. It was very had to tell where I covered because of the mottled nature of the colors. After 4-5 hrs. I applied a 2nd coat of wax, noticing some areas had a higher sheen to them. I wasn’t sure why this was happening but it helped create depth on the floor.
  The next morning, I applied a 3rd coat of wax, a bit heavier to achieve the desired high gloss look. That was left to cure a full 24 hrs. I used 4 of the 5 gals. to do all 3 coats of wax. Each coat took about 4-5 hours to complete.
• Personal Tips:
  Aquatint settles very quickly and must be constantly stirred.
  Enjoy the way the stain works when using more than one color.
  Make sure you have very good lighting to apply both stain and wax.
• Direct Colors Products Used:
  5 Gal. Charcoal AcquaTint™
  5 Gal. Gray AcquaTint™
  5 Gal. ProWax Polish™ Gloss
• Other Products Used:
  3/8″- 9″ roller
  9″ Shurcoat paint pad -3, one for each coat of wax
  2 gal Chapin premier sprayer

Project Info:

• Project Completed In: 5 day(s)
• Estimate of Square Footage: 2000 sq. ft.
• Project Description:
  We completely refinished our basement over the course of several weeks during our home’s remodel. We started with BRIGHT RED floors, trash left from the previous owner, and zero knowledge of concrete grinders, staining, or sealing. Direct Colors was the perfect finish for our floors and we can’t wait to start setting our our basement speakeasy!
• Personal Tips:
  When we were staining the floors, we started with paint rollers on long sticks x2 coats, and to add a marbling look plus hide the occasional roller mark, we came back over with a spray bottle and sprayed lines and splotches to give the floor a more natural look.
• Direct Colors Products Used:
  5 Gal. Charcoal AcquaTint™
  1 Gal. ProWax Polish™ Satin

Project Info:

• Project Completed In: 5 day(s)
• Estimate of Square Footage: 200 sq. ft.
• Project Description:
  Extremely poor paint dripped and stained floor section of basement. House age 40 years.
• Personal Tips:
  Patience to get desired shade. Product will cover.
• Direct Colors Products Used:
  1 Gal. Charcoal AcquaTint™ & ProWax Polish™ Satin Kit

Project Info:

• Project Completed In: 6 day(s)
• Estimate of Square Footage: 2500 sq. ft.
• Project Description:
  We used Aquatint sealer throughout the house and followed up with a wax coating.
• Personal Tips:
  The citrus etching did not work on our concrete. We had to use a buffing machine. We suggest using a new sprayer when applying sealer. We thought the sprayer would be fine to leave over night, but on the second day while applying the second coat our sprayer became clogged and caused some issues. Knowing what we know now, we would have ran warm water through the sprayer after the first day to clean out the tip or we would have used a brand new one.
• Direct Colors Products Used:
  2 x 5 Gal. Charcoal AcquaTint™ & ProWax Polish™ Satin Kit
  4 x 1 Gal. Charcoal AcquaTint™
  1 Qt. ProClean Degreaser™
• Other Products Used:
  Industrial buffer with diamond pad

Project Info:

• Project Completed In: 3 day(s)
• Estimate of Square Footage: 2300 sq. ft.
• Project Description:
  We decided to make our unfinished basement a more livable space instead of wasting 2,300 square feet. We wanted to do it on a budget and after some research we decided to beautify the concrete that was already there. Starting the project, our concrete was 3 years old and never been sealed. After using a “dry fall” paint on the ceiling (that didn’t dry fall) the floor was essentially covered in areas of black paint. This led to the most daunting part of the project. We pressure washed the floor, stripped it with a chemical product, rented a commercial grade floor sander and sanded the entire floor, and pressure washer it again. After all of that, there was still some stubborn areas we couldn’t get up. We went with the light charcoal AquaTint which did a decent job of hiding our less than perfect areas. It was incredibly easy to apply! Each coat (we did 2 plus 2 of the top wax) took us only an hour to apply. I cannot speak highly enough about the fact that the smell was not overwhelming at all! My husband, who has asthma, had no issues with it. We also were able to keep our two small children in our home while we did the project (they we’re upstairs during the work). Having our floors finished is going to be perfect for allowing the kids to go downstairs and play in their new play area and will make for an easy clean up! We are already planning our next floor project – the garage!
   
• Personal Tips:
  Depending on your floor’s condition the prep work is a beast, give yourself plenty of time for that! But actually applying the product is so easy! When I say 3 days, that was only about 4 hours worth of work – most of it was dry time.
• Direct Colors Products Used:
  5 Gal. Light Charcoal AcquaTint™ & ProWax Polish™ Gloss Kit