Stained Concrete: The Ups & Downs

Flooring, like all other aspects of designs, has gone through different trends over the year. We have seen many trends come and go be it small-tiled floor, Turkish style flooring, carpeted and wooden flooring, and so on. Each of these trends has come and gone and while everyone has their take on what makes for a better flooring option, there is no denying the power each of these different flooring options has had over the past few decades. 

Recently, there is a new kind of flooring option that is slowly growing popular among people. While it initially started as an option for public spaces, it is slowly making its way towards residential areas, inside houses. We are referring to stained concrete floors here. If you are not familiar with stained concrete, then it is a lot like what it sounds like, concrete floor that has been stained in concrete to produce various designs and tones to your floor. The acid stain tends to pass through the pores of the concrete, creating an abstract and natural wash of different color tones that will go over your concrete floor, creating a very natural and sophisticated flooring option. 

When done correctly, stained concrete floors can add a very unique and minimalistic tone to your environment, plus adding in the fact that it is an incredibly low-maintenance flooring option just makes this an even more preferred flooring option today. Not everyone is equipped to do stained concrete floor designs correctly, so you want to make sure that you pick an expert that has both the knowledge and the experience to correctly stain your concrete floors so that you are satisfied with the outcome. For more information, you can check out the experts at https://www.proconcretecontractors.com/. 

Pros of Stained Concrete

• Acid staining concrete floors is not an entirely new phenomenon and are decades old. While acid has been the preferred choice of material to create the stains, you can find other options if you look around your home improvement store or just ask the experts about what else they can work with. Of course, it is still recommended to opt for acid since it will help give you several different tones, colors, and depth that cannot be matched. 
• Acid stains can be done in a manner to produce different designs on the concrete. This includes things like marbling, waves, and swirls, etc. This creates a great look and you do not have to pay for flooring that would have otherwise gone on top of the concrete. So, you get a beautiful result by utilizing your concrete, and you have saved money that would have gone on additional flooring. 
• Acid staining is not expensive and is going to cost you nearly the same amount of money as other flooring options, so you are not going to be spending more than you would want to. 
• Concrete happens to be an exceptionally durable material so you do not have to worry about your flooring wearing down or causing any issues for you immediately down the line. 
• Another great thing about concrete is that it is very low-maintenance, so you do not have to spend a lot of money on maintenance. You will, at most, need to get a protective sealant on top of your concrete floor, but apart from that, you do not need to do much else. Of course, you can go over this matter more extensively with the experts as well. 
• Another great thing about stained concrete floors is that even if you do end up getting tired of looking at the floor, you can then install an alternative flooring option on top of the concrete. So, you still have that as a backup plan that you can fall back on. 

Cons of Stained Concrete

• Concrete does not behave consistently. So, each concrete floor will stain differently. So, if you think you can copy exact designs, then we are here to tell you otherwise. Of course, if you have an experienced professional doing the job for you, they will still have some control over the acid and staining process and you can be assured that the result will be an attractive one. 
• You do not get color variety when it comes to stain concrete. You will only get a limited variety of colors and hues to choose from, and a lot of the times the colors are muted and earthy toned, which might not work with every house’s interior. 
• There is a little extra work required when it comes to stained concrete. Given how you are dealing with acid here, extra work like rinsing, neutralizing, and dealing with the residue left by the acid will need to be accomplished as well. This means that you will need more labor assistance during the process, meaning you will have to pay more labor costs.