Hey Brian, I’d say your experimenting with the pressure washer and applying as much pressure as possible without damaging the concrete is what I would do. — The metallic salts in the acid stain are what will react with the limestone in the concrete ( which is in the cement portion of the concrete mix ) — etching the concrete with muriatic acid or an etcher will eat away a little of the cream ( cement ) – and so the stain will not react as well. I have not used bleach and so I don’t know what that would do. If the stains are not oily, the concrete should still absorb the acid stain. Best of luck!

Hi Doug, thanks for checking the project out. I listed two stains from different brands that were similar in color because not every brand is available everywhere. I just wanted to give some options of different stains and brands. The spray bottle had some of the stain mixture in it just that that I could get smaller areas without having to use the sprayer which would have sprayed too much stain. You don’t want the stain to puddle so if there is a light spot or a small area, the sprayer could be overkill. Hope this helps. Cheers!

You can, make sure that you have cleaned and polished out anything that you can from the surface of the pad. I would also do a small test area in your situation just to see if the stain is going to give you the results that you are looking for. Hope everything goes well. Cheers!

Hey Justin! That turned out beautiful. I love it! Great work!

Hey Trish! You’ll be able to tell where the cracks are after grinding as stain is transparent and won’t cover up the differences. But it might not be that big of a deal. As for a sealer, one thing I like to do is add something like shark grip to it if I’m worried about it being slippery. You basically mix in small clear sand particles into the sealer. I’ve done this on interior floors and garages before. Usually broom finished concrete or skip troweled will have plenty of texture. You definitely want to seal concrete if it is stained – otherwise the color would wear away – and it doesn’t look that great. Best of luck!