[Greenbuilding] [BULK] Concrete - Acid Stain Continued

Mon Dec 25 19:10:51 CST 2006

Floor Stains Continued:

As I was saying, I will use colored sealers for part of the floor, obtained from Green Buildign Supply, relabeled from Envirosafe Mfg Co. 

http://www.envirosafemfg.com/trojan_color_sealer.htm
http://www.greenbuildingsupply.com/utility/showArticle/?objectID=413

I am also using a clear sealer from the same source over the Ferrous Sulphate.  

You might ask why I didn't just use colored sealers all around?  I am asking myself that as well, and not finding a good answer except that I became fascinated with the ferros sulphate idea and wanted to try it.  The colored sealers really solve two problems at once - they stain the concrete without dangerous acids, and they seal the concrete, which you have to do anyway with any of these systems.  

I am sure AFM Safecoat makes similar good quality concrete sealers, I am using the Envirosafe ones because they were recommended.  

There are many concrete sealer products, I have been warned that some of the conventional ones are not too successful - and can peel off.  

You can also go completely natural and use floor wax over a concrete stain.  Floor wax plus ferrous sulphate could make an exceedingly cheap floor system.   A $10 bag of Ferrous Sulphate would stain several houses worth of floors, and floor wax isn't expensive either. This would be great except for one thing - there are a few things that you might spill on a floor that can stain it through the floor wax.  You can always wax over the sealer, but I am told it is difficult to put sealer over wax.  

So far my conclusions about the Ferrous Sulphate are that you can get a nice, Southwest feeling rust red color out of it, the recipes I found on the Net make too strong a batch (Cathy Moore watered hers down, I am wanting to water mine down even more)  and there are several other things you can add or experiment with (Coffee, Copper Sulphate) that also make interesting concrete stains.  

The whole experience will be up on my blog soon, stay tuned.  

Lawrence Lile
http://members.socket.net/~llile/buildgreen/buildgreen.htm

________________________________

From: Lawrence Lile
Sent: Mon 12/25/2006 6:56 PM
To: Scott Larsen; greenbuilding at listserv.repp.org
Subject: RE: [BULK] [Greenbuilding] Concrete - Acid Stain

Timely post, I just started staining my floors today.  

I am using a variety of stains, partly because I like to experiment, partly because I have some different color schemes working in the house.  

In the main area of the house I am using a rust coloered floor, working off a formula described by Cathy Moore at her website here:

 http://www.cathy-moore.com/house/stain.html

The area I stained today was about 272 square feet.  I used a formula with this recipe:

1 quart water
4 oz by weight Ferrous Sulphate (aka Copperas, a garden chemical)
4 oz by volume strong coffee (organic, because that was what was laying about the house)

This works out to 1 Lb per gallon ratio of Iron Sulphate to water.  The coffee tones down the orange in the iron sulphate, lending a little more brown to the mix.  

All of the mix was passed through a few layers of cheesecloth before going into the garden sprayer.  The sprayer is new, never been used to spray chemicals.  

Previously I experimented on some brick pavers.  

I poured water on the area, then squeegeed it until it there was no standing water, then sprayed the solution on, finally scrubbing it into a pattern with a longhandled nylon brush.  

I'm not totally happy with the color yet, I find it a bit too strong in areas, but coverage was spotty.  The next coat I will try a very light mix, perhaps 4 oz by weight Ferrous Sulphate per gallon of water, and try to spread it more evenly.  

In other areas, I will use a colored sealer from Green Building Supply, which is relabeled from Envirosafe Manufacturing Co.  

________________________________

From: greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org on behalf of Scott Larsen
Sent: Fri 12/22/2006 2:19 PM
To: greenbuilding at listserv.repp.org
Subject: [BULK] [Greenbuilding] Concrete - Acid Stain

Greenbuilders,
        I'm trying to find information about acid staining concrete slab
floors.  In the past, several "home brew" options have been discussed, most
involving conventional fertilizer.  In particular, I remember being directed
to a website of a woman who had done a beautiful job staining an exterior
patio.  Long story short, I've attempted searching the archives via Google
but the  archives only seem to go back to June of this year.  I'm guessing
that the discussion occurred before then, but then again, perhaps I'm just
not searching properly.  Thanks to anyone who can help.

Thanks,
Scott

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