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What Are the Best Styles of Stained Concrete?

best styles of stained concrete

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Your floors can have a significant impact on your life. Although they can be a huge investment, they’ll provide you with the durability, comfort, and look that you want and need. Since your floor makes up the largest surface in each of your daily living areas, it naturally lays the foundation for the overall appearance of the spaces around your home.

The great news is that stained concrete is not expensive at all. They set the tone for the color, texture, style, and pattern that you’ve always wanted to achieve. One of the top flooring options that can effortlessly strike a healthy balance between your needs and your style is concrete flooring.

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Top Reasons for Choosing Concrete Floors

If you think that concrete is just for sidewalks, then you’re seriously mistaken.

In case you haven’t heard, concrete floors have become synonymous with modern luxurious living. In fact, its increasing popularity amongst homeowners has caused it to earn its position as a staple in the home construction industry. Whether you’re regularly hosting a nice dinner party in your dining room, baking cookies with the kids in your kitchen, or doing yoga in your den, you can count on concrete floors to stay strong and beautiful for many years. Aside from being extremely durable, stained concrete floors have proven themselves to be easy to clean and maintain as well.

When they’re properly sealed, they have the ability to resist water and moisture. What’s more, since the concrete surface effectively absorbs heat in areas where radiant heating is present, they can also help cut energy bills.

Furthermore, when it comes to styling, you should know that concrete is one of the best choices for indoor floors. In case you’re not aware, concrete surfaces can be finished in a variety of ways. You can have concrete floors that are buffed until they’re practically glassy or floors that have a textured surface – whatever tickles your fancy. Whether you opt for colors, aggregates or stains, there’s always a style that could meet your aesthetic requirements. Among the wide range of concrete finishes that are available in the market, the most popular choice is stained concrete.

styles of stained concrete

What are the Different Styles of Concrete Stains?

No other flooring alternative can give your room that sleek contemporary look that you’re aiming for the way stained concrete does. You can easily produce a gorgeous-looking stained surface regardless if you’re working with your old concrete floor or a freshly poured concrete slab.

While other options for concrete coatings can’t reach far beyond the surface of the concrete, concrete stains have the ability to penetrate through it. This leaves a top-quality finish that won’t chip or even scratch. Most concrete stains are a lot similar to wood stains because of their semi-translucent property that doesn’t conceal the different textures and variations of the underlying concrete surface. Compared to other flooring alternatives, stains are extremely easy to install and a lot less expensive. If you’re curious to get more information about the various types of concrete stains, check this out:

Acid Stain

Out of all the other concrete staining alternatives, the acid stain is perhaps the oldest yet the most popular of them all. These stains mainly consist of muriatic acid, metallic salts, and water. When acid stains react with the concrete surfaces, they tend to change the substrate’s color.

This chemical reaction causes the metallic elements of the acid stain to bond to the concrete slab’s lime component. As acid stains penetrate through the surface of the concrete, it produces a certain color that’s highly resistant to UV light. This makes acid stains the ideal choice for sealing outdoor concrete surfaces because they don’t fade or lose their color even with constant exposure to sunlight.

Furthermore, these stains also work best for concrete surfaces that regularly experience high pedestrian traffic because you won’t have to worry about peeling or chipping. Although it’s only natural for old concrete floors to have unsightly marks and other imperfections, using dark-colored acid stains can effectively cover up these flaws. Whether you’re doing a rustic commercial remodeling project or revamping your loft-style apartment, dark-colored acid stains on concrete would give you the look that you want. In case you’re wondering, the acid stain colors that you can choose from include black, light blue, light green, and earth tones. It’s important to note that acid stains require up to about 24 hours to fully bond to the concrete.

Water-based Stains

Water-based concrete stains are relatively new compared to acid stains. Unlike acid stains that feature only a limited number of color choices, water-based stains are available in a wide range of colors. When its fine pigments are deposited into the surface of the concrete, they create a uniform-looking appearance. For this reason, they’re mostly used to produce various types of intricate designs. In fact, you may even incorporate your company logo onto a concrete surface with water-based stains. One of the best things about water-based stains is the fact that they’re quick-drying and they have no odors or VOCs.

Although they’re also known to maintain their stability despite being constantly exposed to sunlight, they’re not as durable as acid stains. If you plan to use water-based stains, be sure to coat them with a high-quality concrete sealer. Keep in mind that this type of concrete stain needs to be inspected periodically, especially if they’re being used in high traffic areas, to check reapplication if needed.

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Solvent-Based Concrete Dye

These refer to ultra-fine pigments that are suspended in solvents. Compared to other concrete stains, concrete dyes offer a more natural appearance because they produce a transparent look and they’re also not reactive to the surface of the concrete. These stains are ideal for tinting concrete overlays, as well as polished concrete. Since they have shorter dry times, it’s best to hire the pros to install them in order to avoid costly mistakes. Solvent-based concrete dyes are not recommended for outdoor spaces because they’re not UV stable.

Stained concrete can be anything but boring. Whether you prefer the textured wood-grain look, the brightly-colored tile pattern or the smooth and shiny polished marble, you can make it look pretty much like anything you want.

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