Cement Stain Concentrate - Caramel (32 Ounce)

I can’t say enough good things about this product. We hired a cement contractor to do our floors and they looked HORRIBLE, so we had to redo ourselves on a tight budget. I was so pleasantly surprised y how simple the application process was and how incredibly gorgeous and easy to maintain the floors are. We bought several colors and were able to mix to exactly the colors and shades we wanted. Our floors are now a stone-like, blue-grey, slate adjacent. I’m so proud that we did them ourselves. This was a totally manageable DIY project. I attached several photos. Some of the floor without furniture, before we finished the remodel and some afterwards with furniture and rugs in the space. It’s been nearly a year since we did this project and the floors are still good as new. The natural look does a great job of hiding dust and dog hair. We were able to complete cement dye portion in about 24 hours. We also did a room in terracotta. I will add photos of that as well. It looks great, but that room remodel is still in progress.

This stain works really well for CMU (Concrete Masonry Unit). I built a small stair for accessing the top of a retaining wall. I used 6 standard gray CMU blocks and pressure treated 2 x 6 for my treads. The Light gray CMU stuck out like a sore thumb in our yard so I decided to stain them. The stair now blends in with our retaining wall much better than before and looks like it was intended to look. I have included before and after photos. I mixed a small amount with 1 part stain and 4 parts water. The stain is about the same consistency as hot pudding; its thick and does not wash off of the measuring cup easily. So, I used the same measuirng cup to measure the water as well, then used my brush to get as much of the stain as possible. I had brushed all the dust off of the CMU, prior to mixing the stain. I then applied the stain in an inconspicuous place. My wife liked the way it looked, so I prepared more and stained the rest. It was easy to apply with a stiff, inexpensive, bristle brush. It soaks into the CMU immediately and dries quickly; especially here in the sun and low humidity of Northern Nevada. I applied one coat and it looks much better than it did! Since my surfaces are vertical and shaded for most of the day, I don't plan to put a sealer over it. I can always add it later if needed. One other important aspect of staining CMU is this, I used about 1/3 of the bottle to apply one coat to six 8" x 8" x 16" concrete blocks. It's certainly not the same as putting it on a slab. In case anybody wonders about the color samples shown above, here's the deal. We bought Mocha, it tells how it was mixed and what it was applied to, but it doesn't tell you why they show three colors. It turns out, the lightest color is one coat, the next darker is two coats and the darkest is three coats.

I had a small section of concrete that I had previously stained. The stain did not turn out as I expected. So I bought this concrete resurrection stain in brown. I had to dilute the stain 4 to 1 and apply about four coats of stain. The end result was a dark brown that covered the ugly stain nicely.

I had a new pool installed and the concrete contractor really really messed up. I can’t even explain how bad it was or what happened, but you can see the before photos I’ve attached(ones that look terrible) and yup that was a brand new slab 1100sq ft on a brand new house. So after negotiating some money back, <- I know I’m crazy I should have had him rip it out, but to save you the details I didn’t. I first had to strip the existing sealer(I did this with bed sheets and xylene). It’s important to make sure the concrete doesn’t have any sealer remaining. You can also etch the concrete to open the poors too but I do not. After this I wanted a specific gray so I experimented with all kinds of antique’s and stains. It was really hard to find a stain that didn’t include a sealer in it so after about a month of experimenting with different Behr gray stain from Home Depot( was alway too blue) I came across this company on amazon. I read some reviews and decided to buy a small bottle of white and charcoal. As soon as it came in I began experimenting. First try was too light, second try too dark, then after sleeping on it, i tried again and came up with a good color that I liked. ( start with a white base and add small amounts of charcoal until you get it. Then test it on a small piece of concrete. A little charcoal goes a long way. It is important to use small amounts or you will rip through your bottles quickly during your tests. So I ended up using the caps of the bottles for my measuring(micro level). Ultimately I ended up with 1 part white, 3/4 parts charcoal and 4 parts distilled water. This created an almost solid stain in a decent medium gray. I then sprayed it on with a cone tip sprayer, then applied a second coat. Unfortunately it rained right after but the stain was dry so It stuck. The next day, I applied liberally Brickform Antique-it in dark gray over top with a soft bristle brush. <- this gives it a natural aged realistic stone highlight look. I waited 2 hours then applied two light coats of diamond clear sealer by Euclid( commercial grade sealer) I ended up contacting the company directly instead of buying my bottles from amazon because they sell a 32oz bottle and if you buy 8 or more there is a discount. I needed about 8 32oz bottles for my project. It’s kind of expensive but the alternative to have a company come in and do it would have been way more. Oh yeah here’s a tip. Use a paint brush for your testing instead of sprayer. I’d recommend this product as it turned out great. It was easy to use, shipping was quick and they have some really awesome colors. The only thing is you really have to seal it in or it will probably wipe off on traffic areas. Even though it says penetrating, in my experience it did penetrate the concrete but I could still wipe some of it(top layer) off with a really hard scrub. <- I should have etched it and probably wouldn't have had this. Oh yeah another tip. Have some xylene and scrub brush handy while you are testing. It will pull it off. Anyway. Hope this helps someone. Update::So I originally stained and sealed this in October. It went through a harsh buffalo winter and pretty much still looks great. However I did notice some small areas scattered around where the stain had come off a little. Almost looks like the concrete didn’t absorb it quite right or maybe it is that it was a new slab of concrete and hadn’t settled yet. I also did a very light coat of sealer so maybe that’s why too. The spots look like small scratches or blotches no bigger than a dime(some smaller) the rest of it still looks amazing and is very durable with the sealer I used. I’m going to touch it up with a paint brush and re-reseal. Still 5 stars.

So this product is great and so easy to use. Just find your color or mix two colors together and then add 4 parts water to one part color with distilled water in the empty gallon jug, then shake well. It goes on no different than painting a surface with very watery paint. Either use a small nap soft paint roller to make nice smooth applications and a foam brush for your edges and corners, or use a pump sprayer if you've had good practice using that application. Unfortunately, I thought the color Charcoal was pre mixed black and white because I wanted a grey patio and I wanted to coat over the different ages of concrete, old, new and repair jobs. My goal was to make everything uniform and look newer and all solid grey. In reality, Charcoal is a mix of black, white, and blue. I mixed the Charcoal with white to lighten it up so I could use several coats without it getting so dark. Unfortunately, I didn't realize Charcoal has a blue base, so when I was done, the color ended up drying grey with a decent amount of blue. It looked exactly like the color of Honda's Sonic Gray Pearl, which if you look up, is a grey blue. I now ordered black so I can mix with white to get the grey I originally wanted. I'm just not sure if I'm going to be able to change the color after two coats of the charcoal turning it blue. So in short, the product is great, but be careful with the colors, or get the 8oz first and mix with 4 parts water and paint some strips of cardboard, paper, brick, etc, so you can see how the color dries. You may need to mix other colors or swap our colors until you get what you want. Also make sure you get 16 oz paint measuring cups so you can measure exactly how much of your color of combination of colors and then so you can add that up and multiple by 4 so you know how much distilled water to use. Good luck applying, but be prepared to use 3 coats to ensure you have smooth, even coverage without any uneven base shades from showing through. The second and third coats will go on significantly faster and use a lot less product, but you still want to put it on semi-thick so any areas that don't absorb as well end up with a uniform color.

So I bought this stain for our new home build. In not even a week the “stain” has already started to flake! It is more like a coat of paint than a stain. We spent over $1000 on this stain and a clear coat and the entire house floors are already ruined! I do not recommend!

I ordered the charcoal and diluted it to the maximum recommended amount. One part stain to 8 parts water. It came out extremely dark!! It was almost black. I properly prepped before I started. Power washed, degreased, etched with muriatic acid, power washed again and let dry. The photos are deceiving so just be careful. I had to scrap it and completely start over with a new color from Home Depot. I can’t report on how well the stain works because I power washed it off the best I could. I just wanted to warn others about how dark this color actually is!

Easy to use it works and looks great