Get Creative with Direct Colors Acid Stain!
The Teel family of Florida had a vision for their floors and after some hard work, they created a beautiful home and did it all themselves!
Mr. Teel began by troweling down a ¼ in. coat of DCI Smooth Gray Overlay. He applied the overlay with a 12” and 18” Magic Trowel – an excellent choice for smooth finished surfaces. DCI Concrete Overlay is specially formulated to produce a robust reaction with acid stain creating rich, vibrant colors every time.
After the overlay had cured, Mr. Teel applied Malayan Buff for the basecoat and accented the floor with Avocado and Azure Blue Acid Stains. Using the techniques of pouring the Azure Blue and Avocado directly on the floor and applying the stain with the sprayer nozzle very close to the surface, he was able to create a veined effect throughout the house. Mr. Teel also applied Azure Blue Deco Gel to fashion a circular free-hand design on the floor.
The Teel’s were looking for a glossy finish but didn’t want the strong odor of a solvent-based based sealer in their home so they selected the Krystal Kote High Gloss Water Based Sealer. Mr. Teel applied the sealer with 12” Padco Floor Coater and 10” Trim Pad for the hard to reach areas. To preserve the luster and shine of his sealed indoor surfaces, Teel waxed his floors with DCI Residential Floor Wax and Polish.
Direct Colors has taken special care in formulating products that professionals and homeowners alike can apply with equal success. We take great pride in presenting the Teel’s project to our customers and hope you too will be inspired to tackle your own decorative concrete project this year!
Adding either 
For poured-in-place countertops after pouring and floating, broadcast the desired amount of aggregate onto the surface and trowel in. After waiting for the necessary curing period, begin polishing with a 100-grit pad to expose the aggregate and continue working the surface with up to a 3000-grit pad for the smoothest possible appearance.
A manageable sized section at a time was worked, blending the next section in as the work progressed. All 4 colors were in their own sprayer and used concurrently. First the concrete was dampened with water. Then Desert Amber was used as a base color. On top of that, Cola and English Red were applied making sure to duplicate the graining pattern like that in marble and always blending with the next section to continue the look. Sea Grass was added as a highlighter to the pattern. Leaving areas with the Desert Amber exposed is important to the look. A good amount of all the colors was used, thoroughly saturating the concrete with the stain. This ensures you get enough color down, and helps the colors flow better. It’s not important to have an exact idea of how the whole project will look in the end, but you should have a general idea of how the graining pattern should flow. It’s difficult to imagine the final version anyway, because the actual color of the stain is one color going on and turns to the final color later. 
On this project, the porch was installed when the house was built and has a slight drain angle away from the foundation. This was used to help determine which way the graining stripes should go and the overall pattern. You can run water on the concrete and watch the flow pattern to decide how to use that to your advantage. If you do this immediately before staining, you may have to squeegee off the excess water. The final look is a sheer stain color as opposed to a painted look. Any imperfections or major stains on the concrete might show through. These things can be worked into the overall design, if needed.
Liquid acid stain works great for large spaces. But how do you bring that beautiful color and texture to smaller projects, like statuary?
