Patio staining?
Yup. Essentially, our friends did it and it looked cool. Homey's Depot started selling a concrete staining product, so Audra decided that we needed to flagrantly copy from our friends.
Only difference is that we used some contrasting colors. So after two half-day's work, a new 6hp power washer (nice...), 6 gallons of stain and some lessons learned, here's what we ended up with.
Here's a 'before' shot. Sorta boring...
And here is a coupla after shots. Note the contrasting colors in the dividers? Dunno why I didn't take if from the same angle...
Lessons learned (learnt?)
- Don't bother with the concrete cleaner unless you have rust spots. Just buy/borrow a good power washer. That should blow off any dirt, paint, light rust, mortar, etc. Even with rust spots, you can probably use the etcher to get those off
- Do the etching at least as long as the label says. The more you etch the concrete, the easier the stain is to apply since it'll soak in. We didn't put it on in a strong enuff solution and didn't leave it on long enuff. So we have some spots where the stain didn't really soak in very well and just sorta wiped off.
- Don't listen to the idiot Behr rep and think you're gonna use a pump sprayer to apply it. We eventually just used a roller and flat pad applicator. The pump sprayer doesn't put it in an even pattern and it just makes a mess
