Has anyone ever done this? Pros? Cons? I was thinking about doing this in my condo in order to save some $$$. Im not to crazy about laminate, and I cant really afford real hardwood flooring. Ive seen the way stained concrete looks and I like it, but I worry about the maintenence, and re-sale potential.
Done it and loved ti. My wife and I did it ourself. There is a distributor here in Houston that sells the patina stain and the guys there were very helpful in telling us how to do it. It was a pain in the ass setting up and cleaning but the staining and clean up were a piece of cake.
We looked into it but it just wasn't the look we were going for. I know you said you don't like laminate, but man we are loving it. We've had 3 different people think it was real hardwood since we got it a few weeks ago.
Yeah, you might like it, but people dont usually want that inside the home. They usually reserve it for garages. I would recommend you get Ceramic tile done. Its going to be about the same as laminate, but there is no worry about the maintenance. Also nobody is going to compalain about it when you go to sell your house as in the case of stained concrete. Plus ceramics are there for life unless your foundation moves.
The stained concrete look is definitely unique, in that, if you plan to turn around and sell your condo in the next few years, you might want to consider hardwood or laminate. Check out http://www.lumberliquidators.com/. They have super deals on hardwood. As little as 99 cents a square foot for real oak.
a friend of mine had it done in his kitchen at his new house. The guys that did it also, etched lines in making it appear to be large tile. Which looks badass..only drawback he said is..dust and dirt builds up between the cracks...i guess you could always silicone or grout the lines...if you wanted to.
Actually, do the stain and see ifyou like it. It's cheap. It's durable. It does not change anything so if you want to put carpet or laminate when its time to sell or if you do not want it then just do it. We did it in our dining room and LOVED it! We scored the concrete and it looked like giant colored marble tiles. It was awesome. I will do it in my new house once I get better moved in.
How do you people do home repair yourself? Seriously? I am too scared to seriously mess up my house to even think about it. I'm all about hiring contractors. I even want to lift the carpet to run my rear speaker wires to my audio receiver, but I'm too scared to screw up the carpet. right now they're all exposed and running in the middle of the living room and annoying the hell outta me! By the way, does anyone know a contractor that will do this for me? I searched the yellow pages, but found nothing. (actually, didn't even know what to look up!) (sorry to derail your thread Drewdog)
Mean to tell you that I hired Joe the other day to do my plumbing work for the house. Wanted to thank you for that referral, as he was the ony plumber that was willing to work with me on pricing and letting me do some of the top out and finish work.
Oh man. Do it yourself. Just pull up the carpet. Normally, its just a spike strip holding it in place. Youll get little resistance pulling it up. When you lay it back down, just use a rubber mallet to pound the edges down.
I'd really rather not. I'm just too chicken to take the chance of messing it up. Now... give me a computer to fix? I'll rip it open without a question. But I'm too scared to mess up anything in the new house. I even hired a contractor to unscrew the old curtain rods that came with my house and paint over the holes before I installed my plantation shutters!
Is this something you do to an existing concrete floor? Does anyone have links to what and how to do it. (not that i really need another home project...).
http://www.fabcrete.com/Default.htm This is a good website for stained concrete. Im still debating on the look and costs..... I called one guy and he said he would do it for $2.35/sf if there was no glue and BS under the carpet. I called another guy and he said it would be around $7.00/sf which seems ridiculously expensive. If I was going to pay that much I might as well get the real hardwoods!! Im with drapg in that Im too scared to do this **** by myself in fear that I will f things up. Maybe I just need to do it to prove it to myself. The main worry with wood laminate is that it will look like plastic when the sun from my window hits it. I dont know for sure though.
Do you think the people that do that stuff for a living are brain surgeons? Trimwork,spackle and paint will fix about anything you can screw up.
Dude. Just do it. rip up the carpet. Scrape the floor and clean it..don't worry about being obsessive about getting every bit up...the imperfections absolutely add character. Tape off the wall and spray the stuff on there. It honestly could not be easier.
Joe is a great guy. There are not a lot of people that I trust to be honest in all dealings but he is one of them.
Yes- do the repair yourself- have no fear. Home repair is like eating barbecue or really good hot sex- the messier the better-have fun...
guess i'll be ripping up my carpet this weekend and giving it a go. I guess if i can laydown wood flooring by my damn self i can stain concrete.
I am thinking about doing this to my living room. Where are you getting your stain from, and do you need an air compressor to spray it onto the floor?
