Artistic Techniques to Distress Concrete

Dyes

• While existing concrete floors can be finished with a distressed look, they may require a resurfacing to ensure dyes will absorb properly. Refinishing will also take care of any cracks and crumbling. Dyes come in a range of colors, including vibrant hues like turquoise, fuchsia, yellow, lime, red, and sombre hues like walnut, slate and black. Each floor will turn out different, depending on the saturation of the dye. The dye automatically gives a distressed look to the concrete. You can experiment with different dyes depending on how distressed you want the floor to look. Work with the contractor, and ask to see large-scale samples to decide on the look you wish to achieve.

Acid Staining

• Another option for a distressed look is to skip the refinishing overlay process and sand the existing concrete. If the floor contains nail holes, cracks, gouges and other imperfections, they can be used as part of the distressed look. Patch the holes, leaving the patches visible. If the concrete was smooth, ask the contractor if he can rough it up a bit in an artistic manner. Acid stains come in a range of natural colors, such as terracotta, amber, rust, bronze, black and walnut with a few bright colors like moss and aqua.

Stenciling

• Painting a concrete floor with stencils allows you complete creative control. Concrete can be painted with floral patterns, a checker board design and even designs resembling marble and stone. For a distressed look, design a checkerboard pattern with stencils. Paint the faux tiles with a terracotta shade, and mix black in to paint a shadowed area around the border of each tile. Leave the imperfections, and create a few of your own using sponging and ragging techniques, or skip the tile pattern and create a distressed look all over with sponging and ragging.

Finishing

• To finish the distressed look, a variety of techniques will be employed. For instance, the floor can be polished to a high-gloss sheen, and epoxy may be used to create a luminous light-refracting surface. After polishing, some concrete floors are waxed. The finish will largely depend on personal taste as well as the state the floors are in, or you may want to have the floors scored along the pattern you have chosen for texture and additional visual interest.