LESLIE: Wendy in Maui, Hawaii. Aloha. How can we help you?
WENDY: Four years ago we put in a Berber carpet in our new home. It’s a single dwelling on a slab. And we have two large dogs and the carpet is almost ready to be replaced. (Leslie chuckles) What we would like to do is we would like to know some treatments for the slab; other than just throwing something on top of it like a – I heard that there’s a treatment or two that you can put to make it look like marble.
LESLIE: Instead of putting a carpeting.
WENDY: Instead of a carpeting.
TOM: Yeah, you know what? You’re probably referring to like an acid stain or something of that nature.
WENDY: Yes. The people that put the carpet said it’s the nicest slab that they’ve seen. So we know that there’s a really nice slab underneath this carpet.
LESLIE: Well, there’s several different treatments you can do to concrete. There’s something called acid staining. There are kits available, if you look online. But generally, because it’s a chemical reaction, you really want to make sure that the chemicals you’re using are going to react to your concrete in the right way. So it might make more sense to hire in a pro because there are pros who come in and do acid staining. And they can create it to look as if it’s slate, marble. It can have variations in color; almost look like things are blending.
There’s also something called polishing concrete which kind of has an industrial look to it but it can be toned with different colors and it ends up being super-duper shiny or it can have a matte finish to it. But it looks almost like there’s a thick resin on top of it, which looks great. We have a friend who has a loft space in the city and their concrete floor is highly polished and it’s beautiful. And then there’s also something with concrete stamps; not pressing down stamps but it’s almost a sticker that goes over it and then a coating is sprayed on. And it can look like different tiles; like brick; any different patterns. There’s great websites.
WENDY: So it can look like a tile?
LESLIE: Oh, yeah.
TOM: Oh, it can look like lots of things. You know, I recently responded to a question on acid staining in my blog on AOL.com. And I found a website that really impressed me. It was called Modello Designs; M-o-d-e-l-l-o Designs. It’s ModelloDesign.com. And if you want to see what you can do with concrete staining and stamping, check out that website. It’s absolutely amazing the patterns that these guys have created on concrete. And there’s a lot of advice on how to do it there and how to buy the materials that you need and so on. So check that out. ModelloDesign.com.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm. Another good resource is TheStampStore.com. They’ve got a lot of different things; same thing: acid stains, concrete additives, different stencils that you can put down on top of the concrete and then apply over. There’s a lot of great options.
WENDY: Thank you so much.
TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
Leave a Reply