We're in a DW yard home and also would love to have stained concrete. We aren't necessarily ready to move forward with a flooring project at present, but I would definitely appreciate any tips and contractor recommendations you could pass along as you learn more.

Did you end up getting stained concrete flooring? I have a Volente on Mattie Street and we are seriously wanting to rip out the carpet and linoleum and have the concrete stained. Our neighbor next door did it, but you can see patches of epoxy where the carpet used to be glued down. I'd like to have the concrete smooth and an even surface throughout. Is anybody familiar with concrete overlays or repairs? Do you have someone you could recommend for such a job? Thanks!

We attempted to do this last year. Unfortunately, our builder decided to use neon spray paint to mark stuff on the concrete, and we just couldn't get it up no matter how many gross chemicals we put on it. The chemicals did get the epoxy up, though. We attempted to do it ourselves and bought all the supplies from Stain It. http://www.yelp.com/biz/stain-it-austin

I recommend going into the store instead of calling since every time i was there it was pretty steady foot traffic and the guy working didn't have much time for phone calls. While we were in there, we saw plenty of people coming in who were getting supplies for their flooring business - we thought about stopping them in the parking lot and hiring them to finish the job for us, but ultimately decided to put in wood instead due to the neon spray paint - I didn't want to always see the words "phone plug" in the middle of the office. LOL.

I ripped up my linoleum and carpet and put in laminate flooring downstairs. I am in an affordable row house. I bought the laminate flooring at Lumber Liquidators, they are a few miles north on I-35 and I did it myself. As long as you have the right tools and time this is possible. If you send me a personal and buy me a beer I can tell you more.

The earlier post was right about the concrete having spray paint on it with building notes- maybe you could get it up with nail polish. The carpet comes right up and is fairly clean underneath- just a bit of scraping. Where the work really comes in is getting up glue under the laminate. This took the longest. I did notice a large crack in the concrete but maybe that would add some character. I had originally thought of staining the concrete as opposed to using laminate but then I heard that can hurt your back over time as concrete is pretty unforgiving.