Just a few days ago we launched our facebook page, Church House Home, where I posted live as we stained our concrete floors. If you missed that, here's what happened:
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| Our floors are finally prepped and ready for stain! I know what you're thinking. I also thought this day might never come. But preparation is 99% of completion! |
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| Nate mixing the stain with water. Notice the label: "For professional use only." |
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| About 1 gallon of stain down... |
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| About 1 gallon of stain down... |
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| It's dark outside and Nate has almost finished the living room. Two gallons of stain down. |
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| Making our way through the front entry! |
That was December 8, which was 35 days after we first started the prep process. That is almost 10% of 2015. Except for work-- as in, our actual jobs-- and Thanksgiving-- when we hosted Nate's sister for the weekend in our back, makeshift studio apartment, bless her heart-- we have been working on these floors non-stop.
I am going to be honest, I really didn't think it would take so much to do the concrete floors. In fact, my thought process went something like this in the beginning:
-We have concrete floors under this carpet and linoleum!
-We could stain the concrete and have finished floors!
-It will be beautiful and basically free!
After testing a couple small, inconspicuous areas in the house, I started to believe my husband when he insisted it would be more difficult than that (Nate wants me to mention here that I just made a major understatement). But I never, not in my wildest imagination, would have thought it would be
so hard. After all, we're not starting from scratch, we are just re-doing something that is already there. Right?
You might think that all of this is leading to pictures of the finished product. Sorry, not today. It would be unrealistic to lead you to believe that anything happens that fast in a DIY project. We are still cleaning and tweaking and we'll need multiple coats of sealer and wax to bring out the true color. Our floors actually look like this today:
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| Stained floors without sealer and wax, 12/12/15 |
What I will do is show you pictures of our inspiration. We did Google image searches using keywords that expressed the idea we were going for, which was wood tones to compliment the walnut stained beams throughout the space. These were our favorites:
Through our research we learned about acid stain, which actually contains phosphoric acid or mild hydrochloric acid and an inorganic metal salt. The acid opens the pores of the concrete and the salts react with the chemicals in the concrete to produce color. The result is not one solid or predictable color but a range of pigments that create depth and movement. This can be so beautiful but you really don't know what you are going to get until you let it do what it's going to do (kind of like life, huh?). And since our slab is over 50 years-old, we'll likely see some old stains and scars, which I won't mind. Those can be the most beautiful parts, to me, though this finish may not be ideal for the perfectionists or control-freaks out there.
As a spoiler, we really are happy with the results. After a few more days and about 5 more layers of product on top, we be ready for the grand reveal. More importantly, we will be ready to move back into our living room!
