without knowing what was involved or how it would turn out the decision was made to stain it. there were plenty of examples of this sort of thing around town and they looked alright. but the floor was a mess or at least the old slab was a mess. the new slab was, well, a new slab. and if the mess wasn't enough, where the new and the old came together the floor was jagged and uneven. all over the place was an understatement.
the process was long and involved. the surface of the old slab had to be removed; by as much as 20 to 30 mm. a straight edge between the old and new was cut using a power saw with a masonary blade and chipped out with a small jack hammer. then the floor had to be levelled using a Boncrete product. two forms of the levelling product were used depending on depth. where the depression was shallower a harder product was used. not sure how important this was ,but that was what was done. this resulted in different colour surfaces; from the light grey of the new slab to a dark grey where the hardest leveller was used.
once the old slab was levelled a rough and ready grinding back was attempted using a grinder/polisher from the local hire place in Blackwood. it was done in 4 or 5 hours over a weekend. the professionals take days and some expensive product to get a smooth, hard finish. despite the amateurish effort the end result looked ok.
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finally there was the finishing. the internet had loads of articles about acid staining, but no-where was there anytihng about how it would react with the leveller. some testing was required. by way of a serendipitous encounter with a bloke who worked with concrete, ParChem at Hindmarsh were identified as a potential supplier of acid stain. it turned out they were, but not for much longer. acid stain was being removed from their product line. fortunately they still had supplies in stock and even more fortunately it was heavily discounted.
rather than try and get a test sample or two to see how it reacted with the surface, a couple of 3.5 litre containers, one brown and one black, were purchased. a few small out of the way patches were stained and the most pleasing effect came from brown over the top of black on the new concrete and just brown on the old boncreted levelled slab. good news was that it did react with the leveller.
the test patches were small so it remained to be seen how it would look with the entire floor done. several more containers of acid stain were ordered, an acid resistant sprayer was purchased and the moment of truth arrived. the stain took differently to the different surfaces and the end result was dappled, like a salt glazed ceramic pot. at this stage the surface was matt and it looked quite dark and sombre.
the last thing to do was put several coats of a water based, two part urethene over the top. two coats weren't enough, three might have been, but in the end four coats went on - painted on using a wool paint roller. the floor now has a glossy, vibrant, burnished bronze coat that looks quite brilliant when the sun shines on it through the windows. it has come up well.
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