Quick question: Following advice of our fellow experts here, I stained our concrete slab for 1400 feet of the floor in our new house. It turned out absolutely amazing. HOWEVER, I used therecommended acrylic sealer provided by Kemiko - 2 coats, rolled on with fine roller. When first completed, it was amazing. THEN, the painters came in, finishing carpetners, etc etc. Even with paper down, sawdust migrated under onto the floor. Long story short, now 7 months later, the floor is flat and dull. It looks like the acrylic sealer is mostly rubbed off or lost its sheen. And, it scratches so easily it's infuriating. My 2 year old son drags a plastic car across teh floor and it leaves abrasions on the finish. The Roomba turns in a little cirle and it makes circular abrasions. I was considering getting an epoxy self-leveling finish to put over it, but our Sherwin Williams guy says not to, becuase it "cooks" the acid stain underneath and can ruin its appearance. He recommends waxing instead. (He also said not to bother doing anything to the existing acrylic - either remove or recoat - before waxing. He said the acrylic has soaked in, and the waxing over the top as-is would be fine.) Bottom line - I want to put a sealer on the stained floor that will hold up to 3 little kids and heavy home use, with a minimum of maintenance. I dont want to have it dull again in 6 months, or be clearing out the entire downstairs to reapply every year, either. What do you recommend?

A touchy situation. ANYTHING you put on that ceiling now will still have the mildew, eventually, unless you can remove all of what is there. Spar urethane or varnish would be my vote, but that mildew is tenacious stuff. Good luck.

Figured to give an update, if anyone cares to see these. They got started early cleaning up the floors. They tried to show me (not the builder, the contractor) what they look like now. So, they are not near as bad as they were, but the light makes them look all green when a picture is taken, but to ME.. when I am in the house, they are a dark dark purple/redish color and very flat. Now, maybe they would be somewhat nice after all is said and done, but, as I told the floor guy, every time I look at them, if we left them this way now, I would grow to hate and resent them as if we settled for these...hence we are sticking with our choice to put in the tile. But, here are the pictures. They should be done with the "cleanup" by today and start putting in the insulation today and then sheetrock. The bottom line is, while they may turn out fine, they are not what we asked for AND not what we like. What we picked out a year ago is different and to settle would be to allow them to choose what goes in the house and that would not be right. The builder has done an excellent job on the rest of the house and we do not need a "weak link". R

I have concrete floors w/radiant heat in the kitchen/dining room, not stained, just a sealer applied. I also have dark acid stained floors in the living room with radiant heat, a passive solar house- in the winter sun light comes in 23'. The acid stain has held up 15 yrs, but now showing some effects of the UV rays, color is definitely lighter where the sun left it's mark. The unstained kitchen has held consistent color (same sun exposure) and just now requires resealing. My wish is we had not acid stained the LR. Best guess is it will hold color another 3+years before an intervention..... & no clue how/what that will entail. My kitchen, however, is good to go, the gray patina improves with age, (& a lot of imperfections ) ,still looks good from kids, dogs, NY winters & a ton of traffic. Paint is not a good choice for longevity. Acid staining is the only way to go (it penetrates the surface) but it is a mess to deal with- prep work to protect walls/trim, wash down (with lots of water), foot booties, safety glasses, gloves, face masks & the result is a 'live with what you got' situation. Good luck.