joasis

The ICF home we are building caught a twist when the HO's decided to have acid stained floors throughout....and of course, we have drywall mud, dirt, etc that has been well trodden into the concrete.

Had this been in the plan from day 1, we would have protected the concrete....but it wasn't, and I have recieved differing advice on the mosr practical way to get it clean and ready...so what do our resident experts think? Tips?

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Tmrrptr

We just did one... and our circumstances just popped up the way yours did.. I wanted to do acid stain. NOT enough time. Couldn't get proper supplies locally, fast enough. So, went with what was available... @ HD ! Behr cleaner and scrubby brush on long handle. We diluted quite a bit, maybe a bit much, and scrubbed a lot. Flushed very well w mucho water and out the doorway w 24" floor squeegee. Fans and rags/broom, etched w behr stuff after a few hours, then flushed a LOT, same squeegee process and let dry for a day. Then we used the Behr acrylic semi-transparent floor stain. Coverage was 200ft per gallon. Applied w hudson type sprayer and rolled all over multi direction w course spongy texture roller. sprinkled a little more all over w sprayer for randomness effect. edges had been cut in w brush. Water cleanup was excellent.... no fumes, ez washup of tools. 5 days later, now. client very happy w finish and effect. we only applied 1 coat, and no sealer. behr etcher is phosphoric acid... not real strong. muiatic would have been stronger/more robust. pretty safe stuff to use, on the scale of things. We did use the same scrubby brush to agitate it on the floor. We used 12" paper masker w green laquer paper around walls. worked fine. ...back to the phosphoric etcher... we didn't apply it straight, maybe not even 50/50... and it left some blackness on the slab from the rough construction work... yet, that ended up as part of the overall effect, when completed. I think, I like it! One thing about Behr... it's available NOW, and they have dandy brochures you can show the client. ...Client has asked that additional room be done, same way. r