DIY Stained Concrete Floors

When we decided to build our barndominium, we wanted to try and save as much money as possible by doing as much of the work we could ourselves. One of the projects we were excited about doing ourselves was staining the concrete floors. We learned so much during this process and found that it is easier to stain concrete than you might think.

I am going to go over these topics in this post:

How we learned to stain concrete floors

The product we purchased/stain color

Step by step process on how to DIY staining the floors

total cost of this project

How we learned to stain the concrete floors:

YouTube! We watched DIY staining concrete floor videos and copied what they did step by step. There are so many resources that you can find to feel confident on taking on this project. We educated ourselves on exactly how to go about doing this before we committed to this project. I am going to go through the step by step on how we did this ourselves later in this post.

The product we purchased/stain color;

Kemiko Neutra Clean Neutralizer and Degreaser

Kemiko Stone Stain color Malay Tan

Kemiko Stone Tone Sealer

How to stain the concrete:

Step 1: CLEAN THE CONCRETE

Use the kemiko Neutra Clean Neutralizer to clean off the concrete. The bottle has step by step instructions on how to use the product. This product will remove paint, wax, grease, and dirt built up on the concrete surface. I bought a hard bristled scrub brush with a long handle to scrub and clean the floors. I also used a long industrial floor squeegee to make it easy to remove the water off the floor. Then I used a wet vacuum to remove as much access water as I could. We let the floor dry completely before we moved onto step two.

Step 2: STAIN THE CONCRETE

Use the kemiko Stone stain for this step. We used a plastic pump up sprayer to apply the stain to the concrete. The kemiko bottle has specific instructions on how to mix the stain. In a circular motion we applied the stain to the concrete. We kept the spray nozzle about a foot from the concrete surface. When staining the floors we moved throughout the rooms to make sure we finished by an exterior door. This way we would not walk on the stain before it dried. After it dried we applied a second coat of stain to the floors. Let it dry and then complete step 3

Step 3: CLEAN THE CONCRETE

Use the kemiko Neutra clean as in step one to clean the floors. I did the same process as I did in step 1

Step 4: WAX AND SEAL

This step you will apply the Kemiko Stone tone sealer. We used a stiff bristled brush to apply this product. We followed the instructions on listed on the product. In a circular motion we applied this product throughout the entire house. We did one coat of this product and after applying this product by hand we rented a buffer and shined the floors to give the seal a smooth/shiny look.

Total Cost:

$1,500.00

We purchased the stain from a local business in our area and ordered the product based off the square footage we were staining. This price includes the stain product and the material purchased to complete this project.

This project was one of the more stressful projects for us. Because we wanted to do it correctly and make sure it looked ok. For one thing, we were staining a $15,000.00 piece of concrete that we did not want to mess up. After it was finished I was so proud that we committed to this project. It saved us money and we learned so much during this process. I hope this post encourages someone that wants to take on this project that you can do it yourself.

Follow along on our building journey on our Instagram page: HuntFarmhouse