Featured Contractor: Cary Grant
Floor Seasons
2216 Opponents Ridge Street
N. Las Vegas, NV 89032
1.702.348.8971
Project Name: Private Residence
Concrete Stain and quality sealer create a durable, unique residential floor.
The really cool thing thing about this project is that it was done for a paraplegic, who actually designed the geometric floor patterns himself on the computer. He has used his wheelchair on this floor for the past three years, and there are no marks at all.
We laid out the floor, and we cut the whole thing 1/4" deep so we could lay painter's boards on top of it. The reason we did that is because it allows you to go faster if you're spraying the whole thing instead of trying to use chip brushes. The sawcut lines go right through the walls so that if you walk around a corner into the next room, the lines continue as if they passed under the wall. But they don't: we cut the lines after the walls were in place.
We put L. M. Scofield Company's LITHOCHROME® Chemstain™ Classic down in varying strengths on top of a skimcoat so we could get the best color variations out of the stain. The floor is about one-half Antique Amber, and a quarter each of Dark Walnut and Padre Brown.
We did the Dark Walnut first, since it was the least coverage: that allowed us to walk around without worrying too much about stepping on the stained areas. Then we came back at the end and sprayed Antique Amber over everything.
One important tip is that we pump our sprayers up really well. The higher pressure allows us to use less product and gives a more mottled, airbrush effect. It's more of a mist, as opposed to the globs you can get when your sprayer isn't pumped up that much.
One common mistake I see people doing on a floor like this is they wipe overspray off, which just makes a smear and a bigger problem area. We don't do that. We wait until it dries, and then go back and scrape it off with a razor blade or a hand sander. If you are gonna wipe, use a damp rag so the wetness will help dilute or spread the stain out better.
We used two coats of SCOFIELD® Selectseal-W™, and then we grouted the joints, and then sealed again. Remember, don't grout until you have plenty of sealer on the floor!
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