To be absolutely safe, contractors should wear an OSHA-approved
respirator, gloves, long-sleeved shirts, long pants and goggles,
Sargent recommends. If the acid splashes on you, it will
eat holes in your clothing and burn your skin. Wash it off
at once, she says. If you get it in your eyes, flush with
water immediately and go to a doctor. Also, the acid spray
can kill unprotected plants.
Prepping takes time
Before you begin any staining project, Sargent says, make
sure the floor is clean, the concrete isn't sealed or that
something hasn't been added to the mix to keep the stain
from reacting. "There are products out there to take
off anything," she says. "It's worth every hour
you spend prepping for a stain job, because when you're finished,
it's permanent."
You also need to remove the weak cement paste at the surface
before and after you stain, says Thome. Otherwise, the weak
layer will be stained and the color will wash off during
the residue removal process.
"(After staining,) you need to aggressively break away
the cement paste that was weakened by the acid so the sealer
has a durable surface to bond to:' he says. "I've seen
it too many times when a sealer has peeled from the surface
bringing the color with it. This is not a sealer issue. It's
a residue removal issue."
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