Concrete Stain woes

The stained concrete floors didn't come out as well as I had hoped. Instead of using an acid based stain I tried the 'Green Building' friendly soy based stain. However I had kept the floors protected with building paper and plywood up to now and when we removed these materials the floor was still wet. Steve Ramirez and his crew powerwashed and applied an etching product which is supposed to 'open up' the concrete. While the surface dried out the soy stain did not penetrate deeply into the concrete. Even a week later the stain was still sticky and after applying the sealer moisture began to build up underneath. So Steve stripped everything off waited a few days and reapplied, this time more lightly which was too bad as it didn't create as nice as an effect.

Steve Ramirez and Louis prepping the floor.




First application of stain


Applying stain


Buffing the stain into the concrete (we should have known there was going to be a problem as we went through ten or more of these polishing pads)


Five days later the darker color of the stain was still not dry. Here Steve applies caulking into the score pattern - this too was not a good idea, we ended up digging out the caulking and applying grout.

More trenches

Hot on the heels of the trenchwork being done in front of the house I began work on digging trenches for the water, sewer, gas and electric to the cottage.


Here one truck is dumping sand while in the background a cement mixer is pouring concrete to repair the sidewalk.


After much digging I was able to find the sewer pipe coming from the house to which we would connect.


Trench for sewer and water.


Trench for gas and electric


Gas and electric in. We were able to lay all four services - gas, electric, water, and sewer - in one day.


After setting the pipe, sand is thrown in and packed down


All of which had to be done by hand as there was too much dirt for the tractor or excavator to work around.


Getting back to 'normal' with trenches filled in.


A backyard is finally starting to take shape.