Several customers have asked about staining/dyeing concrete this week. They wanted to know the basics without searching half a dozen posts on the internet. Here it is, the very basics...


Staining Concrete Floors (adding color)
Pre-Pour
If you are planning a concrete slab project, indoors or outdoors, and you want to add colors consider adding dry dye to your mix. This is the easiest method.

• Add your powder dye to your bag mix
• Have your redi-mix truck driver add powder dye
• Remember to seal when done, it will protect your color from fading
  

Post-Pour
If you have an existing slab and want to make it fabulous...

• Apply an acid concrete stain (using a plastic sprayer)
• Apply an acetone dye (using an acetone sprayer)

Lastly, quick usage summary for these stains,

Acid Concrete Stain:
Order over internet, arrives at your house/business ready to be sprayed onto your slab(gallon form). Fill a plastic sprayer and begin spraying the slab, if hot moisten surface with water, add a mist of water if it is drying too fast (staining process stops if stain dries out). It will etch your slab sightly which will benefit you when you spray the stained concrete with acrylic sealer. Neutralize with baking soda once complete, allow to fully dry and seal. Be careful using this around people and metals, this is an acid, use appropriate PPD. CLICK HERE for complete instructions.

Acetone Dye:
Order over internet, arrives at your house/business in dry powder form. Go to hardware store, purchase acetone. Mix acetone with dry powder, place in special acetone sprayer. Apply to slab. Be careful not to bring acetone around ignition source, spark or flame, VOLATILE STUFF!!!
Seal once complete.

Polishing your concrete garage floor

The "Man Cave" is getting a new look these days. Customers are reaching for the concrete densifier instead of the epoxy coating. The days of multi-colored flake, colored quartz and battleship gray are fading fast.

Homeowners want a smart looking garage floor that is low maintenance. They want a polished concrete floor.



Why?

• no re-coating
• will not peel or flake
• impervious to hydrostatic pressures
• resistant to gas and oil
• relatively new technology (for homeowners)

Get on the path to the future, get your garage floor polished.

Rating lithium based concrete densifiers

CLICK ON TABLE TO VIEW DATA MORE CLEARLY
Summary:
Data was collected from various sources.
Pricing varied from source to source, this was a cumulative average.
Viewers are encouraged to make their own judgements.

The truth about polyaspartic coatings

Polyaspartic coatings are new to the concrete floor scene. We have seen much misinformation about them and I wanted to set the record straight.

Pros:

• Fast Cure, One day turnaround for a (2) coat system
  
• Good chemical and abrasion resistance
• Capable of accepting paint chips or quartz sands
• Able to use in cool temperatures
• Good UV resistance
  

Cons:

• Not for beginners
• Cure can be too fast for some climates (hot)
  
• Subject to hydrostatic pressures, like epoxies

If you make your living applying floor coatings, you should be all over the polyaspartic movement. It is opening doors to flooring applications that were closed before.
You can find more info at www.legacyindustrial.net

Fall is around the corner, seal those floors!!

Hints of fall have started to hit our area of the country (Northeast US).
It won't be long before the days will be short, nights long and cold on the way.

I mention this because it's too often we have customers wait too long to coat floors in non-heated structures IE: Garages. Epoxy coatings cure best at 68- 70 degrees and most were designed for this range. When the temperature begins to dip below 45 degrees, coatings remain open or uncured too long, causing issues with adhesion and top-coating. Remember, concrete slabs take a long time to heat up, it can take a few days to raise 10 degrees!! Coatings immediately take the temperature of the substrate, not the air.

Don't leave your project to chance. Take advantage of this terrific coating weather and get the job done, you'll be glad you did.