We have about 1500 sqf of carpet that needs to be replaced. I really like the look of stained concrete floors, but I’ve only seen it on new floors. That is, it was done as part of the initial construction of the building. But I’m wondering how feasable it is to do to an existing slab.
Has anyone replaced their carpet with stained floors? Anything I should look out for or special considerations?
Those do look awesome and they’re super easy to clean too. Is your carpet and pad set on top of a solid concrete slab or do you have a wooden sub floor? If you’re just sitting on a solid slab you might have to do a great deal of prep work to get the surface ready, like those flecked garage floors, but I can’t see that these would be impossible to do.
I think the newer concrete floors have a radiant heat system installed. If you don’t, that’s going to be some super cold flooring, espcially if you live somewhere that experiences a winter. I have stone on top of concrete in my foyer and with the heat set at 68 in the winter, the foyer floor definately feels much cooler.
I think you should spend the extra money and get new concrete. Floors last an awful long time, and while you may think it’s a good idea now, how are you going to feel in a few years when you have a rock hard floor you can’t even clean? Maybe you made a typo and meant to ask about replacing your stained carpet with concrete? That sounds a little drastic, but I could get behind it. I suggest you try going down to the supermarket and renting one of those steam cleaner things. They’re only like $20 for a whole day an they do a pretty good job. There are these aerosol can things that have a foamy stuff inside that does a pretty good job on carpets, too, but not if the stain has been there too long.
Get the to a paint store. They make special prep solutions for old concrete. Test out cleaning a corner, then sprits a bit of stain on it with a spray bottle
I did my new laundry room and just love, love, love it. It does have a heated floor though, and is new concrete.
I did a 10 x 20 room with just a spritz bottle, like a windex bottle.
Thanks for the comments everyone. Our carpet is 15+ years old and needs to be replaced. It’s sitting on foam pad on a plain concrete slab which is the foundation of the house.
And FYI, stained concrete is a flooring treatment where stain is decoratively applied to a concrete floor giving a good looking, durable finish. Like this.. It’s not that I spilled something on my floor and caused a stain.
We need to replace the carpet with something. One option, of course, is new carpet, but that will need to get replaced eventually too. I really like the durability of stained concrete, so that’s why I’m looking into that.
If we rip up the carpet, it’s just the slab they poured when they made the house. I’m concerned that it will take a lot of prep work and I’m not sure what the results will look like. If it’s done with new construction, they can prep the slab properly. I was hoping to hear from someone who has gone through this process to see how it turned out.
We did this in our house, for about sixteen cents a square foot. If you have a pair of house slippers, there’s no need for heated floors. I absolutely love them - super easy to clean, and just shine them up with a little wax once a year. Pics (this is before the yearly polishing):
Pic1
Pic2
ETA: this concrete slab was about 20 years old, when we did it.
That’s one hell of a stereo in that second picture.
Heh. You shoulda seen the monster headphones which came with it! 'Twas a hand-me-down.
Awesome. I love older stereo stuff, it’s so big and cool looking.
This is really neat, thanks! I have a slab floor house with yucky linoleum and yucky carpet that I would really love to get rid of. I’ve been thinking laminate flooring or slate/travertine tiles but stained concrete would be a whole bunch cheaper, assuming I didn’t need to put down another layer of concrete on top of the existing slab (well, still might be cheaper even so!) This might be necessary since my house is a converted garage and who knows what the original concrete might already be stained with… :eek:
SmartAleq, is there an inconspicuous place where you could pull up a piece and look at the condition of the concrete?
First of all, when a house is going to be carpeted, the folks who put up the wallboard and do the painting often aren’t very careful with their mess. So, your original slab might have drips and stains of paint and stuff on it; be prepared for that.
Paint can be removed with an electric grinder with a wire brush. My husband and I used these to remove old paint from our floor (it had been painted over). Note: if doing this yourself, take care to keep the tool away from your pants. Especially the inner leg. Trust me on that. 
If you have carpeting, there will be a “tack strip” of wood all the way around the room. This is nailed into the floor with concrete nails. When you take this up, sometimes the nails will pop and create a little small crater in the concrete floor. You can try to fill this with concrete patch, but be aware that sometimes the patch won’t stay. You might end up with these pock marks in the floor. They don’t bother me, but they might bother you. Apologies for the dusty base-board in the photo!
The only prep we did, besides a good vaccuming and mopping of the floor, was to apply some muriatic acid to help the concrete “take” the stain. Old concrete won’t soak up the color like new concrete did; that’s one reason why we used a dark color (black) which is close to the concrete’s natural color. You won’t get a good deep color with a light stain (on old concrete).
The finish I use is a sealer for tile. I think this is the one we use.
I recommend it if you don’t mind the floor being a bit “unique”. Anyone is welcome to PM me for further details in how we did ours.
My husbands old boss did the stained concrete thing when he ripped out the carpet of his 1979 ranch style house here in Vegas.
He did do it himself and the final result was fantastic. So much so, if we get the house we are currently in negotiations for, we will be doing stained concrete on the 1st floor of the house.
I digress…
This is what he did
he did however state that doing all of this while living in the house, really sucked, as he did all the floors, including the bathrooms.
