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Acid Staining in Alaska- One Man's

Saga Part 2

Alaska and Florida are about 4,000 miles apart, which I traveled in one day. When I arrived in Alaska Jim was waiting for me at the airport. This was our first time meeting face to face. He told me I was hard to miss as I walked by him with a Tampa Bay Buccaneers hat on. After a brief introduction we began talking about the project. Even though it was late, Jim and I agreed that we should take a quick trip to the house. As we approached the house I could see that it had a tent covering the entire front. Jim commented that they were trying to complete the exterior finish before winter hit. As we entered the garage, Jim began to hit a number of breakers that lit up the house. We went downstairs and I saw the floor for the first time.

The next day I found my way back to the house where Jim and I started going over the plan. I started to layout the floor in the bar area, which has a three sided end that I planned on putting bands around. I first found the center point and checked that the room was square with 3-4-5 triangles. I then snapped lines with blue chalk; this created a starburst shape. It was time to layout the ships wheel so Jim brought me to the boat. The boat is a 900-passenger paddle wheel, which Jim's family had built. The wheel is an antique that Jim's dad had acquired from the old Yukon paddle wheel boat. I took a few pictures of the old oak wheel that many men had used for years to steer their way through Alaska.

After studying the pictures I made a template of one of the spindles and its handle. I drew the wheel on the floor with red pencil. I then reviewed the design with Jim and made some changes. The ships wheel will be a lighter color than the floor. This meant I needed to grind out a depression in the floor and fill it with a white overlay to make it flush. Using a diamond blade on a variable speed grinder I cut the circle and the strait lines free hand. I then removed about 1/8" of concrete from the floor using a diamond cup wheel.

I next moved to the recreation area. We had to decide on what to do around the columns in this room. The basement floor plan had changed a couple of times during construction. When the floor plan was finished the columns that supported the second floor had to be moved. This left behind an indentation of the footing which had to be concealed. We first looked at a paddle wheel and then decided on triangles. I needed to patch this area and try to get the patch color close to the floor color. The angles needed to be a dark color because darker stain will hide the color inconsistancy. I also layed out the tile pattern for the rest of the room and with the grinder cut in the lines.

With the columns done I moved on to the compass and the anchor. Jim had done some research on the type of compass that he wanted. He decided on a mariners compass that he had found in a hardwood flooring brochure. I scaled the drawing and made a template of it. Jim wanted the compass to point to true north. To find true north this required a trip back to the airport where we borrowed a couple of compasses. We devised a way to get magnetic north and subtracted for true north. With true north found, I layed out the compass by bisecting the outer circle. When I drew my lines I was carefull to erase anything that did not need to be ground. I then used a diamond blade on my angle grinder and ground the compass into the floor. To give me better control I used the slowest speed and a ¾" hardwood strip as a guide.

The anchor was next to be ground. Jim chose a fowled anchor, which gets its name from the rope wrapped around it. He then sketched the anchor and I cut it in.

I moved on to the motor sports room where I needed to grind a pair of checkered flags in the center. Jim has plans to put some antique motorcycles and snowmobiles in this room. The only problem is that the drain in the room was not in the center. We decided to fill it in and create a rectangle around it where Jim can someday put the logos of five of his favorite cars, motorcycles and snowmobiles hiding the drain. I first made a cardboard template of a flag and used it to layout the flags on the floor. I needed to grind the whole flag 1/8" into the floor. I used the diamond blade to cut in the outline and used a diamond cup wheel to lower the area.

With all of the grinding done it was time to start staining. The product had been lost in shipping for more than a week. With a sample area ready to go in the utility room and the product arriving late my fun had just begun. Picking the colors for this job was only 25% done. I was still unsure of the reaction that the acid stain and concrete would have. Stay tuned to hear about choosing the color and the problems that were hidden in the floor.

Jeff Potvin, a Civil Engineer and the owner of Architectural Concrete Consultants, has nearly fifteen years of experience in the architecturalconcrete industry. His experienceincludes stamped concrete, overlays, form-liners, acid stains, counter tops and coatings.

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