Vivid Acid Stain for Concrete Coffee 4OZ

Okay.....bear with me. The sales pictures of the results using this type of concrete stain are captivating, to say the least. I am no klutz, and have built and stained/finished high end furniture for over 30 years for a living. I understand materials and their application. WOW, who wouldn't want that "faux Marble" look that is shown when this stain is applied properly. For a couple hundred $$, you can have a million dollar floor, driveway, patio, or pool surround.We used it on a 25 X 30, NEW kitchen floor.....yeah, that IS a big kitchen. We process hundreds of pounds of vegetables, fruit, and butcher multiple deer, hogs, goats and chickens throughout a normal year....we milk a Guernsey and several Dexters and make 4 lbs of cheese a day. We wanted a DURABLE, WASHABLE, ATTRACTIVE floor. We chose "Coffee" because it mimicked the dirt color around here the best.I am going to try and write this to "add" to the Instructions and TDS, (Technical Data Sheets), that are available on the product. Most of the questions I ask, or information I pass on are "extra" to the actual application of the stain....THEY ARE CRITICAL FOR A QUALITY COMPLETION OF A PROJECT USING THIS STAIN.1) READ THE INSTRUCTIONS.......... MULTIPLE TIMES.2) READ THE INSTRUCTIONS AND TDS SHEETS.......MULTIPLE TIMES.3) READ THE INSTRUCTIONS, AND WHILE YOU ARE READING THEM, RUN A COUPLE OF THE VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE SO THAT YOU CAN GET "ORIENTED" AS TO VARIOUS APPLICATION METHODS.4) SO YOU DON'T FORGET ANYTHING....READ THE INSTRUCTIONS AGAIN.5) GET THE COMPANY'S TECHNICAL SUPPORT PHONE NUMBER WHERE YOU CAN HAVE IT READILY AVAILABLE.6) CONSIDER THESE QUESTIONS THAT THE MANUFACTURER DOES NOT ASK, OR ONLY TOUCHES ON VERY SUPERFICIALLYA) What is your concrete made of.....Ha,HA you laugh....it's made of gravel, sand and Portland Cement, Well, the only thing that concrete in various parts of the country have in common is Portland Cement. Sand and gravel will vary from city to city. Here in NW Arkansas, we have concrete plants on a creek or river that use washed and graded creek gravel and sand for their mix. 30 miles away, we have concrete plants that are far from a creek....but close to a lot of quarry-able limestone. They crush and grade limestone, and use it for both "gravel" and "sand". WOW, does that make some VERY strong concrete.....BUT....it is a completely different beast from smooth, washed creek gravel and sand. IT IS VERY HIGH IN REACTIVE CARBONATES....AND MAGNESIUM.... The creek mix is FAR,FAR less reactive to the stain. Can you find out the source and ask them what mix they used, or usually use when supplying a project in your area.B) How well is your concrete finished ???How "tight" is the surface. Who was the finisher, and what does he remember about the mix and the pour. There are vast differences in texture and composition between lightly troweled and heavily troweled concrete.C) CONSIDER BUYING the stain sample kit sold by the company....BUT, one caveat. When we send out color samples to furniture customers, we stress over and over again that it is nearly impossible to get an accurate vision of a completed piece's color from a small, hand held, sample. We did not get the kit. We picked a color and understood that, good-or-bad, we would be "stuck" with the color it yielded on our floor. You may have a VERY,VERY easy go of it, and everything might fall into place with what you have to work with. BUT IF IT DOESN'T....can you live with less-than-expected results ??D) How long has the concrete been in place??? Inside, or outside like a driveway/sidewalk/pool surround??? If it is outside.....and is older than 1 or 2 months, HOW ACIDIC is your rain??? Acid is the bane of this finish. It is really not a stain, but a reactive acid/chemical. The longer your concrete is in acidic rain, the less reactive the mix will be. TREATED LUMBER is treated with an acidic, metal mix. If you were to stain a slab that had been in place under an elevated, treated lumber deck that was open to the rain.....you would get the " ghosts " of the boards where the rain dripped off the deck, down onto the concrete.The reactivity of the concrete will depend on an interaction of these elements. After you have a general understanding of what you have to work with, you can begin to gauge how the stain will react, and guess how you should proceed.I did all the research I could, and read the directions and TDS sheets over and over....I watched all the YouTube videos.. I gave this stain a 5 STAR rating. It is fabulous. The company is excellent and responsive to questions. This stain is 2X better than what the Big Box, do-it-yourself stores will sell you. GO WITH VIVID....it is a great product.........HOWEVER....BE WARNED......My completed job was about a 3 STAR from what we " expected ". By the time I do my 3rd floor....I'll know all the ins-and-outs and what to look for. We followed all the directions....researched all the glitches......planned for the unexpected....but this is a totally different process, with its own set of rules. Here is a brief summary of our results.We picked coffee....."brown with a slight red hue".....I used 2.5 gallons on 700 sq ft and there is not a hint of brown, let alone red. It is "black coffee" black. In fact, it is "espresso" black, with the mottling being various shades of gray. I will cut the stain by 1/3.....or maybe 1/2 and go with 2 applications if necessary in the future. We used it full strength.Our concrete was finished by " professionals", but rural Arkansas professionals.....the surface varied in tightness, and the stain took dramatically different on each gradient of "smoothness". It "fizzed" very heavily on some sections, and not-so-much on others. Our concrete is crushed limestone.....very high in Magnesium ( the black we experienced ???).Our slab has a 3" in 30 ft slope toward the back door to facilitate washing the floor and squeegee-ing the water out the door. If a slab is not perfectly level, you will have to be prepared to even out any material that tends to "run" and pool up along the lower part of the spray line. I will have some sort of sponge mop ready to spread the excess in a more even coating.A set of treated lumber stairs ( the slab was completed a year prior to erecting the room over it) left a "ghost" impression in the floor. NO PROBLEM, we are going to brick up a set of stairs on that spot....but do take note of that.My floor was dark, far darker and blacker than we were expecting. I have an 18" industrial buffer and we prepped the floor with a lot of TSP and GREEN pad scrubbing. After staining, we actually used a less abrasive RED pad to try and bump down the color. It did help, and it evened the color out somewhat. I want the marbled effect....but we had from near jet-black to medium gray. I used one coat of SUPER SEAL 20WB. Great product. About 2 gallons sealed the floor. We will do the rest of the electric, hang the sheetrock, do the brickwork and then scrub and seal with a second coat before waxing.Don't get me wrong....the floor is attractive. More so than a slab or a painted slab. We did not achieve the spectacular results that we saw in the "pictures". And, the color was completely different from what we expected. However, notice I didn't say "were led to believe". The company makes it plain as day that there are many, many variables that affect the results. I hope this prompts some to look for more variables, and prepare to adjust the application.A GREAT PRODUCT..... DO YOUR HOMEWORK, AND PREP CAREFULLY.

This is my 2nd time acid staining my concrete with Concrete Coatings and I highly recommend their products.I used Mahogany and sealed it with their Super Seal 2000 in Matt finish. I also used their ez prep to clean before applying the acid stain.There is no more economical way to finish concrete than this stuff and it is easy to work with but is labor intensive. The masking and preparation is the worst part. Just follow all the instructions to a T. Is you had someone to help with the application of the acid it is a big benefit. I have done both by myself and succeeded.I applied the ez prep cleaner with a sprayer, brushed it in with a deck brush then washed it off with a pressure washer.Then masked surfaces. You need to mask good, especially any adjacent concrete or mortar. I had bricks and masomitebsiding so masked a lot. Also the washoff when you remove it can stain too. I used plastic sheeting to allow it to run off and not down the bricks.You spray the acid on and use an acid brush on a from handle to brush it it. This is where two people would be a big benefit, one spraying and one brushing it in. Make sure to get a sorayerbthat does not have any metal parts, made for this stuff or chemicals. Honestly I bought a chemical sprayer off Amazon for this and it was OK, not great. By contrast I used a small Chapman sprayer to apply the neutralizer and I wish I had used it for the acid. It had a much netter pattern.Depending on how much you apply there may be some runs. You could even brush it in but come back 10-30 minutes later and see runs. I have actually left runs on at times and it adds some unique look to the colors and finish depending on how it runs. It depends on your tastes. You can re brush it in but the most key point I have found with this stuff is VIRTUALLY ALL BRUSH MARKS SHOW UP. It is important to keep this in mind as you are applying and brushing and again where a second person helps. Also due to variances in the concrete you will Find different shades and patterns that are uncontrollable. This is what makes it neat really, just don't expect everything to be uniform like paint.Once applied wait several hours before nutralizing and washing off. I did mine at night and neutralized it the next morning so it was on about 8 hours.I neutralized with ammonia diluted 10:1 in water. Sprayed it on, again brushed it in with a deck brush then hosed it off. Then I used a pressure washer with some Keys Cutter for contrete to wash it clean to prep for sealant. Be careful if you use a pressure washer. It is possible to get it too close and actually take some of the acid stain surface off. I do think it is important to wash this thoroughly, if not with a pressure washer then with a deck brush and hose, after neutralizing. This will still be some residue after neutralizing so important to remove what's not needed before sealing.Then after its clean I sealed it with 2 coats applied with a roller. The sealant dries very quickly and really sets the color off. Frankly it looks very bad before the sealant is applied because it is lighter and has a chalky appearance. The sealant gives it a deeper, richer color. Good luck!

We bought this to add some variation to a terra-cotta colored concrete walkway. It goes on easy with a hand sprayer but is a little tricky to figure out the colors, since it changes, especially after you neutralize it. The nice thing, since we wanted it darker, was that repeated applications did the trick. Be sure to TAPE and mask everything adjoining.... try a test patch if you can. It looked good in the end, but there were some OMG minutes in between too.