Here you can see the cement slab which will serve as finished floor has been poured. The desired look is for tinted colors to be placed onto the slab. Most often we have applied acid stain, but in this case – we shifted to a water-based stain, seen here. We do our best to keep the floor free of scuffs and dings throughout the building process. But we also will be applying a wet sanding to the floor at point we are prepping the floor for the final stains.
As we have mentioned in prior project posts, we find that cement floors are not the most comfortable on the shins and legs, when compared to the give and look of our earthen floors. On the other hand, they do conduct in-floor radiant heat a tad bit better than our earthen floor counterparts. We do find that tinted or acid stained cement slab flooring is a more economical option than earthen floors. Needing to lay not sub floors will always save on labor costs.
When the time came to choose the floor colors, it became a fun collaboration between us and our client (and friend). She had some specific ideas in mind, so we set out to provide small samples to choose from and we took it from there. We did begin with acid stain options, but then switched over to a water based concentrated pigment. The new tinting system required Carolyn to quickly experiment and get up to speed on an application process. It was a bit nerve wracking until she got the hang of how the pigments worked. Also how they reacted to a variety of application methods she experimented with. These types of challenges are the ones she really enjoys taking on, as they not only expand her methods, but allow creative collaboration.