Photo courtesy of Kemiko Concrete Products

Concrete Stains, Vertical Concrete Stains
Acid-staining and water-based reactive staining are becoming more common on vertical concrete surfaces. Experts share tips for surface prep, application, sealing and cleanup and offer tips for warding off problems while applying reactive stains.
by John Strieder

Reactive staining on vertical concrete surfaces is not that common — yet. But according to Steve Schmid, president of Stone Touch Inc. in Salt Lake City, it's starting to catch on.

Schmid is a vertical stain veteran. He has stained a 22-foot-high, 38,000-square-foot concrete retaining wall for a ritzy residential development in Jackson Hole, Wyo.; an 80,000-square-foot concrete tilt-up office building, also in Jackson Hole; three bridges in Salt Lake City; and a library in St. George, Utah. "In an area like Jackson, painting looks so artificial in such a beautiful setting," he says. "There are quite a few stained vertical surfaces up there."

The more walls he stains, the more requests he gets. "They see a job we've done and they want the same thing," he says. "As people see how it's a viable option and that they don't have to repaint it, it kind of catches on."

Spraying stain onto vertical surfaces can yield remarkable results. Just ask Kemiko Concrete Products president Barbara Sargent. One of the company's signature jobs was completed in 1953 on the walls of Jackson Lake Lodge in Grand Teton National Park. Even today, the building shimmers with "the colors of the Grand Canyon," Sargent says.

Applying reactive stain to a vertical concrete surface is not all that different from staining a floor — concrete is still concrete and stain is still stain. But prior knowledge of a few common problems that crop up when the process is tilted up can help save some anguish later on.