How To Carve And Stain Old Concrete

Old concrete can look neglected and cracked. Even new gray concrete can be boring.

I hate old looking concrete, so I set out to restore and make concrete look like art. Learn how to carve, sculpture and color concrete.
If you are trying to make an old slab look fun and colorful, try these steps for a unique look.

Step 1: Prepping Your Concrete Surface

Be on the look-out for boring or old cracked concrete. It may be that old walkway to your new fabulous front door.

This abused concrete patio saw better days seventy years ago. Now it's my turn to make something of it. I don't want the expense of replacing it or even trying to cover it would be costly.

I cleaned it thoroughly, using TSP in a gallon of hot water. This takes most of the old oil and dirt off. Clean as many times a necessary to get a lighter, brighter concrete. You want to make sure that it is grease-free.

Comments

[Jungoica]

I'm considering this for the house I'm buying both indoors and outdoors. Since the toxic nature of this stuff is a bit concerning I went looking for some not so nasty materials and found this:

http://www.healthyhome.com/SearchResults.aspx?s=concrete

[daveHND]

Looks great! Any chance you will reveal who you buy your stain from?

Thx.

[porcupinemamma]

did you use a crack in the concrete as a pattern for the stem of the flower?  it looks very very pretty!!

[sksartell]

Yes I tries to use all the cracks, making them look as if I wanted them there in the first place,

Thanks for you compliments.

[lemonie]

You didn't include all of the images from the original - can you fix?
Still I think Instructables is a better place to publish than ehow.

L

[rimar2000]

Very nice, cool, creative. I need to do anything similar about my backyard, it is a little decayed.