My concrete guy is MIA. He poured concrete, and stamped half of it. I need
to clean up the job with a power washer, as he got a little fresh on old.
Nothing major, and I've got a MONDO power washer.

My question is: Is staining about 1000 sf of concrete something a diy
newbie can do? We did our family room, with concrete paint, mixing in gold
highlights, then sealed it. It was work, but no big deal. I also want to
seal it, and still have some sealer left, although I'll check with the
concrete supplier before using THAT on THIS job. I can buy from the local
supplier in five gallon buckets.

We want an acceptable job. He was very good, and could have given us a
multicolored job, and it would probably have looked good, but he can't do
dick if he don't call or show up. Damn. People screaming for jobs, and no
one wants to work. What's up with that?

I suspect we'll have to go buy some big rollers, and maybe a few specialty
items, but I don't see it being that big a deal.

What say ye?

Steve

SteveB wrote:

My concrete guy is MIA. He poured concrete, and stamped half of it. I need
to clean up the job with a power washer, as he got a little fresh on old.
Nothing major, and I've got a MONDO power washer.

My question is: Is staining about 1000 sf of concrete something a diy
newbie can do? We did our family room, with concrete paint, mixing in gold
highlights, then sealed it. It was work, but no big deal. I also want to
seal it, and still have some sealer left, although I'll check with the
concrete supplier before using THAT on THIS job. I can buy from the local
supplier in five gallon buckets.

We want an acceptable job. He was very good, and could have given us a
multicolored job, and it would probably have looked good, but he can't do
dick if he don't call or show up. Damn. People screaming for jobs, and no
one wants to work. What's up with that?

I suspect we'll have to go buy some big rollers, and maybe a few specialty
items, but I don't see it being that big a deal.

What say ye?

Steve

Couldn't tell you about the concrete work, but don't automatically get
mad at the MIA guy. I was once working on a project (remote) with a guy
a couple states away and I couldn't get in touch with him to continue
the project for a couple weeks. I finally got someone else in the area
and promptly found out that the guy I had been working with was dead

**** happens after all...

In article ,
"SteveB" wrote:

he can't do
dick if he don't call or show up. Damn. People screaming for jobs, and no
one wants to work. What's up with that?

Alcoholism. Seems prevalent in the trades, particularly the one-man
operations. These guys had to start their own business because they
couldn't hold a job. Seen it with electricians, plumbers, flooring guys,
painters, ...

Last flooring guy I had asked for an advance after the second day on the
job. Disappeared for three days and when he came back the front end of
his car was caved in. After I gave him the final check, he disappeared
for two weeks, then called me to ask when he could pick up his fans,
which he had borrowed from someone else.

On Wed, 8 Jul 2009 08:59:02 -0600, "SteveB"
wrote:

My question is: Is staining about 1000 sf of concrete something a diy
newbie can do?

I say yes, but I've not stained concrete on a large area.

I do HAVE wood stain I spilled on the garage floor! Its been several
years now and the color remains :-))

On 7/8/2009 8:47 AM spake thus:

On Wed, 8 Jul 2009 08:59:02 -0600, "SteveB"
wrote:

My question is: Is staining about 1000 sf of concrete something a
diy newbie can do?

Steve, I stained my driveway and it was no big deal. The stain is
usually acid based and you spray it on.

So you're saying you can spray color onto existing concrete with a
fighting chance of it being permanent? I'm wondering because I have a
client who wants to have some newly-poured concrete in front of their
house painted, and I told them that I thought that painting concrete was
not a good idea.

More details? Color range?


--
Found--the gene that causes belief in genetic determinism

"David Nebenzahl" wrote in message
.com...
On 7/8/2009 8:47 AM spake thus:

On Wed, 8 Jul 2009 08:59:02 -0600, "SteveB"
wrote:

My question is: Is staining about 1000 sf of concrete something a
diy newbie can do?

Steve, I stained my driveway and it was no big deal. The stain is
usually acid based and you spray it on.

So you're saying you can spray color onto existing concrete with a
fighting chance of it being permanent? I'm wondering because I have a
client who wants to have some newly-poured concrete in front of their
house painted, and I told them that I thought that painting concrete was
not a good idea.

More details? Color range?

there's a bazillion ways to do this.

the color acid actually causes a chemical reaction to occur. different
chemicals are used for the different colors, as it's not a dye. it sinks in,
so is permanent, but does wear some as the surface of the concrete gets worn
down so can change colors (and can fade in sunlight).

it doesn't work well, if at all, if the concrete is acid prepped (like one
does for epoxy coating) because the acid from that has already been
counteracted by the alkaline concrete so there's not much left for the
reaction.

here's a site that explains a lot of it: http://www.fabcrete.com/index.htm.
there's a lot of sites for this.

regards,
charlie
cave creek, az

On Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:59:35 -0700, David Nebenzahl
wrote:

On 7/8/2009 8:47 AM spake thus:

On Wed, 8 Jul 2009 08:59:02 -0600, "SteveB"
wrote:

My question is: Is staining about 1000 sf of concrete something a
diy newbie can do?

Steve, I stained my driveway and it was no big deal. The stain is
usually acid based and you spray it on.

So you're saying you can spray color onto existing concrete with a
fighting chance of it being permanent? I'm wondering because I have a
client who wants to have some newly-poured concrete in front of their
house painted, and I told them that I thought that painting concrete was
not a good idea.

More details? Color range?

A number of youtube videos. Click the top one on this link.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_lis...a in+concrete

We used this stuff on a 1000 sf house floor, and were/are very pleased
with it:

http://www.kemiko.com/


-- Andy Barss