We Got Green: Angela Ward stains her concrete floor with Ecoprocote

Blogger and Real Estate Broker Angela Ward in Maui, tells her story about staining her concrete floor with Ecoprocote.   Here is the article from Angela’s blog:

In an effort to go Green on my remodeling project, I stumbled across an environmentally-friendly concrete stain which is made out of soy:  Ecoprocote.

The conventional method of coloring concrete is acid-staining, a very harsh and most times costly undertaking.  Not only does it involve sanding the concrete first which produces undesireable dust everywhere, the fumes can be so intense that this is usually not a DIY project.  I received estimates for acid-staining at $10/sf.  This computes out to $6,000 for a 600sf condo.

I did a Google search on concrete stains and found Soycrete, made by Ecoprocote.  The results looked the same as acid-stained concrete, but with much less impact on the environment, your wallet, and your lungs.  I purchased all the materials from Ecoprocote for about $300.  Shipping is via UPS and is another $250.  It is still a deal to have a fabulous floor for under $700.

Helping the environment, saving money…well it comes with one caveat.  Preparing the slab for staining can be labor-intensive.  But what the heck, sweat equity right?  If your slab was previously covered with flooring such as linoleum, vinyl, and carpet, you must remove all traces of the glue used to secure that flooring down.  Basically, you must remove everything from the slab including paint.  Assess your slab to see how much glue or paint is on the slab to determine if it is a good candidate for staining.

My particular project was laborious because there were layers of linoleum and vinyl flooring.  We rented a floor buffer and used Ecoprocote’s Polystrippper and got great results.  It was quite messy at times, but comforting to know all the products we were using were non-toxic.  You don’t even need to wear gloves.  Using the floor buffer, a mop and a shop vac, we were able to prepare the slab for the next step: etching.  Even the Eco-Etch product, which acts like an acid, was not very fumey or harsh.  It opened up the pores to accept the stain even better.

Staining the slab is pretty fun.  I chose Leather Brown which really looks like dark brown leather and gives the whole floor an artistic flair that is really cool.  Next step comes the sealer.  It’s been raining on Maui for a week or so, perfect time to finish the flooring before the kitchen cabinets go in.

We spent about 3 days prepping and 2 days staining.  Sealing and waxing should take a few more days.  So far I am really happy with the outcome and it isn’t even finished yet.

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