How Yto Make Stauned Darj Grey Cincrete White Again

I've long loved concrete floors. I like their zero-maintenance appeal, their industrial wait that gets better with time, and—though they work well with radiant underfloor heating (come across our Remodeling 101 on the topic)—I even similar the feeling of a cool flooring underfoot, especially when temperatures rise.

Only I've recently found a flaw in concrete floors—something that had never occurred to me until I attempted to remediate the situation: If your physical floors are stained, their colour is quite literally "gear up." In my apartment, that'due south an inconsistently applied, dusty red. If you want to modify information technology, you lot'll need to put in either major money or elbow grease.

To wade through the options, I talked to Anthony Zamora of C Rock Finishing in Oakland, California—hither's what I learned.

In a higher place: San Francisco interior designer Nicole Hollis had new physical floors poured in her 5,000-foursquare-foot studio. For the rest of the space, see A Noirish Studio for a San Francisco Blueprint Star. Photograph by Laure Joliet, courtesy of Nicole Hollis.

How easy is information technology to modify the colour of stained concrete floors?

Non very. "Concrete is similar a big rock sponge," Zamora says. "Before it has annihilation on information technology, it wants to soak upwardly everything." Meaning that whatsoever has already been applied to your concrete floors has fundamentally inverse the fabric and will affect coloration going forwards. This is a generalization, of class—but when floors are "stained," or more accurately, treated with a penetrating sealant, the color has been captivated to an unknown depth.

To alter the color, nosotros're roofing the ii most common solutions here: You can re-stain the floors (by applying a new penetrating sealant) or paint them (past applying an industrial coating). Other options include staining and then polishing your floors (which achieves a different effect than just re-staining) or covering them entirely with a new material, like a microtopping or concrete overlay.

To a higher place: In an early iteration of the office of SF-based manner retailer Everlane (come across their new space here), the existing concrete floors were re-covered with a new cement layer, a process called microtopping. For more, come across Office Visit: The Everlane Studio in San Francisco. Photograph past June Kim, courtesy of Everlane.

How can I re-stain my concrete floors?

To start, you'll need to have the existing surface mechanically ground down, both to prime the concrete to have a new stain and to remove every bit much of the offending color as possible. "You can't command how much stain permeated the concrete in the original process," Zamora says.Information technology could be superficial and come off fairly quickly, or information technology could take permeated as deeply as half an inch down, which means it's non going anywhere. You'll need to mechanically grind your floors to make up one's mind your adjacent step.

Above: When Seattle chef Matt Dillon remodeled a bath at his farm on Vashon Island, Washington, its concrete floor was preexisting only needed to be demoed when plumbing was added. Dillon and his contractor patched the flooring and polished it with acrid etching. Run across more in Bathroom of the Calendar week: A Vintage Bathroom on Old Attorney Subcontract on Vashon Island, Washington. Photograph by Aaron Leitz for Remodelista.

What does information technology mean to mechanically grind the concrete?

You need to use something harder than concrete in lodge to grind it downwards, explains Zamora, which usually means a substrate similar metal, ceramic, or resin that'southward been impregnated with diamonds. "Diamonds are and then strong that they tin actually cut up the surface of the concrete."

Can I mechanically grind the floor myself?

If you lot're imagining going over your floor with an electric hand sander (like I did), don't: "It's a messy process," said Zamora, "and the dust is dangerous. If someone is going to practice this themselves, they must do a ton of research first and follow all-time practices to stay prophylactic." To start, yous'll need to rent a mechanical grinder plus a big HEPA vacuum to filter the toxic particulates out of the air. These rentals will run you about $1,500 together, Zamora estimates. Yous'll also want to be sure the particulates stay away from annihilation you'll exist living with—and then all belongings and furniture must be deeply covered, or, ideally, removed earlier work begins. (Information technology's obvious, merely there's no harm in stating it: People and pets should stay far away.)

Above: When designers Rachel Gant and Andrew Deming of Yield Design bought a business firm in St. Augustine, Florida, they were on a tight budget, and then they removed the old flooring themselves and fifty-fifty restained and sealed the concrete. They did, still, hire a professional to grind the floors and apply a "skim coat" layer of concrete to even out the foundation. "I'm glad we didn't attempt those steps ourselves," said Deming. "We're all for DIY, but we were new to this procedure, and nosotros thought that part of the work would be the almost difficult." Come across more in Earlier & Later on: A Pattern Duo'southward Whole-House Overhaul for $15,000. Photograph by Kelsey Heinze, courtesy of Yield Blueprint.

The concrete has been mechanically ground. Now can I stain my floors a new colour?

Sort of. "The stains will interact the fashion they volition," said Zamora. "You cannot control information technology." Meaning, you'll always see remnants of what came before. If the flooring was unintentionally stained early on in its life—like the saucepan ring the contractor left while staining my floors ruby-red—that mark will never go away (a feature insiders telephone call "ghosting"). Colour-wise, your best bet is to stain the floor a darker colour—for instance, very dark grayness or black—and y'all'll achieve 80 to 90 percent coverage in the best-case scenario. In my case, Zamora says, the floor "will e'er have an echo of red in it," no matter how dark a stain I choose.

Above: When designing an part for a NYC startup on a tight budget, designer Brad Sherman made the existing stained concrete floors work (the floors that accept drawn my ire of late actually look something like this). For more, come across Kitchen of the Week: The Stylishly Economic Kitchen, Chipboard Edition. Photograph by James Ransom courtesy of B. Sherman Workshop.

Staining won't work for me. What if I want a uniform look?

If you desire a uniform look, consider blanket your concrete floors with an industrial solution like epoxy or polyurethane.

Tin can't I merely paint over it myself?

Zamora points to the garage and physical floor coatings sold at home improvement stores and says they can be applied at home with mixed results, merely emphasizes that these are not the same solutions that a concrete professional would use. "If you have a small closet or laundry room to cover, these should piece of work fine," he said. "If y'all're talking nearly your living room, where you want a dainty finish and one that volition hold upwards over time, avoid the DIY painting road."

Joan Barton of Dirty Girl Construction in LA gave us the following advice: "Refinishing concrete to a perfect, polished showroom type of flooring is very time-consuming, just less expensive than epoxy and something that a DIY-er who has the fourth dimension and energy tin achieve if they follow the right steps," she said. She's had artist friends paint their floors with good results; she reports that some other perfectionist friend said, "'Oh my god, never again!'—and that's from a designer who likes to DIY as much equally possible."

Note: Nosotros've heard of folks painting over their physical floors with standard wall paints, simply this is not recommended. "You'll be peeling paint chips off your shoes and chair legs and you'll be constantly touching upwardly the paint," Barton says. "If you're going for something rustic, that could be OK—except the paint chips on shoes part."

Above: Barton used white marine paint for a glossy floor finish in this Culver Metropolis exhibit. She had some parts ground down and left others equally she plant them, because "nosotros wanted a few of the original characteristics to telegraph through," she said. "If y'all want a smoother, more consistent end, then you grind the entire slab." For more advice from Barton, read Expert Advice: iv Affordable Flooring Finishes from Dingy Girl Construction.

How much would it cost to take my floors redone professionally?

Zamora laid out a few rules to proceed in mind when considering the pricing of concrete floor refinishing.

Get-go, "everything we exercise is based on economies of scale," he said. "The larger the projection, the lower the price per square pes." Zamora estimates that for a 2,500-square-human foot infinite or larger, concrete refinishing is nigh equal in toll to having tile or rug installed. But for a infinite any smaller, the price per square pes might exist between l and 200 percent more expensive.

Second, pricing is dependent on the infinite. One large rectangle will be much more affordable to refinish than five rooms that add up to the same square footage. The more edges, corners, closets, etc., the higher the cost.

Above: When bloggers Nora Eisermann and Laura Muthesius moved into an 1880s flat in a farm village outside of Berlin, they loved its concrete flooring, "but information technology was red—then nosotros decided to paint it gray," they told us. See more in Kitchen of the Week: A DIY Ikea Country Kitchen for Ii Berlin Creatives. Photograph past Laura Muthesius, courtesy of Our Food Stories.

How much would it cost to have a penetrating sealant re-practical?

It depends on the await y'all're later on, but a basic, high-quality finish on a 1,000-square-foot infinite would toll betwixt $half-dozen,500 and $12,000 in the San Francisco Bay Area, Zamora estimates. "Los Angeles would exist a little bit cheaper," he says, as would most other locales in the US. (You'll need to solicit quotes in your own surface area, but if you lot don't live in San Francisco, at least now you'll avert sticker shock.)

Retrieve, Zamora says: In both cases, a 200-square-foot room is not going to be eighty percent cheaper but because it's 80 percent smaller. Minimums do apply for concrete refinishing.

How much would it cost to have an industrial blanket professionally applied?

A basic terminate on a i,000-square-foot space would cost between $8,000 and $15,000 in the Bay Area, Zamora says.

Ane note: If yous're only looking to refinish a garage floor, there are cheaper options than what's outlined here. Zamora estimates that a refinishing business organization in the Bay Expanse might accuse equally little equally $1,800 to cover a 400-square-pes garage with an industrial coating (the kind meant for garages, with small flakes within for traction—not something you'd want in your living room).

Above: At Kin Kao restaurant in Vancouver, architects Scott & Scott installed a new concrete floor tinted with bright blue commercial paint. See the rest in Paint It Blueish: A New Moving ridge Thai Eating house in Vancouver. Photograph past Scott & Scott.

Can I hire a pro to grind the floors and I'll do the staining or blanket myself?

"This is a great question," said Zamora, "because people often misunderstand the pricing." The surface prep, including grinding, is the bulk of the cost with physical refinishing. "Say I quoted $six,000 to restain a floor," he said. "If y'all only want me to do the prep work, it would still cost you lot $five,000."

To a higher place: At NYC bistro Mimi, the owners covered a concrete slab in red boat paint, which "alerts visitors to the step up" and creates the feeling of a separate infinite. Encounter more in French Glam on a Budget: 15 Ideas to Steal from Mimi, New York'southward Sexiest Bistro. Photograph by Alison Engstrom for Remodelista.

Summary

"If you have the budget, rent skilled installers," Zamora says; your stain or coating tin can concluding between 15 and xx years with proper maintenance. "If y'all don't have the budget, and you lot're going to DIY, practise everything you lot can to follow best practices from start to end, so you don't have to relive the process over again after."

Subsequently all I've learned, I'd have an epoxy blanket professionally applied if I had the budget. Simply I'chiliad dealing with the spotty blood-red floors for now, and researching hardwood.

Above: Later merely two years of use at Toki Cafe in Amsterdam, the dark blue floor pigment shows signs of wear. See more in Toki: An Effortlessly Cool Cafe in Amsterdam, Terrazzo Included. Photograph courtesy of Toki.

For more solutions with pigment, see:

• Remodeling 101: 6 Kitchen Cabinets Transformed with Paint
• DIY: Painted House Numbers
• Paints & Palettes: Bound Color Scheme

How Yto Make Stauned Darj Grey Cincrete White Again

Source: https://www.remodelista.com/posts/remodeling-101-how-to-change-the-color-of-stained-concrete-floors/

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