Best Water Based Concrete Stain Reviews with Buying Guide

A home is not a place enclosed by only four concrete made walls. There’re driveways, patios, and other surfaces too. And it’s on you to maintain them so that your home always looks rich and posh.

And the first thing that you need to do is to stain them. But which stain should you pick? Which one is going to work better? These questions often leave you in bewilderment.

No worries, we’re going to help you to select the best water based concrete stain. That way, you'll be able to increase the smoothness of your concrete surface along with protecting it. So, let’s embark on the quest.

What Is the Best Concrete Stain?

There are several factors that make a concrete stain the best. Your outdoor walls are always facing extreme UV rays and heat from the sun. As a result, the color gradually fades away over time. The best concrete stain must have the capacity to withstand these harmful elements to protect the walls.

Besides, moisture is another harmful element that damages the walls. That’s why a concrete stain has to repel water by penetrating deep into the surface to increase the lifespan of the surfaces.

Not only do the concrete stains protect the surfaces, but they should also provide an elegant look. Otherwise, what's the point of applying them, right? There're other factors like ease of application, coverage, dry out time that also plays a role in making a concrete stain the best.

If You Want To Take A Quick Decision Just Follow This Table

Benefits of Using Water Based Concrete Stain

Since you’re going to use water based concrete stain, you must be acknowledged with the benefits of using it. We’re going to mention some of them below.

Durable

You have concrete floors in various locations of your residence, both indoor and outdoor. Some of those places get a lot of foot, and even vehicle traffics.

As a result, they start to peel and crack. The water based concrete stain will keep your floor durable and stylish no matter how heavy traffic your surfaces face.

Appealing Appearance

Who doesn’t love beauty, right? And when it comes to your floor surface, you want to provide a dazzling look. Well, it'll enhance the beauty without the need to use an extra mat or anything else. The reason behind that is that water-based stain goes deep into your surface, providing a fresh and outstanding look.

Versatile

Have you ever noticed the floor of a car showroom or hall-room? They look so polished and elegant, don’t they? Well, the magic behind that look is the use of concrete stain. You can also use a stain on the floor of your bathrooms and even the kitchen.

Our Top 5 Best Water Based Concrete Stain 2023

We did extensive research on various products on how effectively they stay on the surface, ease of application as well as safety. In the end, we got our hands on the top 5 products on which you can rely confidently.

1. Black Diamond Stoneworks Natural Stone Sealer

If you want a clear concrete surface that shows off a stunning wet look, you’re going to need the good water based concrete stain. Well, that’s why you should consider the Wet Look Stone Sealer from Black Diamond Stoneworks.

Yes, we understand that adding beauty to the surface is your main concern, but you must think of protecting it too. Well, you can use this stone sealer as it's well-known for resisting UV ray damage, water, wear, and tear. So, beauty with protection is a sure thing from it.

What concrete surface do you have? Long garage floor, driveway, slate? With this 1-gallon natural stone sealer from Black Diamond Stoneworks, you can stain almost 600 square feet of an area. That’s well enough, right?

However, staining a long area can be exhausting. No worries, you can apply this water-based stain pretty easily with a roller or brush. Thus, you’ll be able to spread it equally with ease.

Most importantly, it’ll dry out around 20 to 30 minutes giving a shiny and lustrous surface. Besides, your surface won’t get yellowish because of its glossy finish. As a result, you won’t need to apply extra color ingredients to keep your surface color perfect.

After using this type of chemicals, most of the surface gets darken. But here’s a piece of delightful news for you, and that is your surface won't darken after this stain dries out completely.

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2. KILZ L377611 Epoxy Concrete Floor Paint

Maintaining heavy traffic surfaces like garages or the driveway is a tough row to hoe. They tend to blister, crack for heavy activities! But you don't need to break out in cold sweats; try out the L377611 concrete floor paint from KILZ.

Whether you’ve got a coated or uncoated concrete surface, stone, masonry, and brick, you can use this durable floor paint. It’s going to protect the surfaces of your floors, garage, driveways, and basements from cracking and fading from hot tires.

If you’ve horizontal surfaces, then you can apply this L377611 from KILZ pretty smoothly and evenly. You’ll be delighted to see its satin finish that’ll add up more aesthetic to your surface. One thing to remember is that you can’t use it on a vertical surface.

You see, there are places in our garages and basements where it's difficult to clean every while. As a result, those places get damaged over time.

That being said, this water-based paint has been formulated to resist any sort of damage from oil, chemicals, and gasoline. So, you don't need to worry about those hard-to-clean surfaces.

In addition, applying this floor paint is a piece of cake. You can either use a roll, brush, or spray-on to apply it. Further, it becomes dry to touch within 2 hours. And you’re advised to recoat after almost 4 hours.

Now, if you're using this top rated concrete stain on a smooth surface, 1 gallon of it can cover 400 to 500 square feet of the surface. On the other hand, if the surface is rough, then you’ll be able to paint 300 to 400 square feet.

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3. Rust-Oleum 247162 RockSolid Concrete Stain Spray

Do you desire to recreate the look of acid wash concrete colors on your surfaces? The 247162 RockSolid stain spray from Rust-Oleum can fulfill your wish with ease. Let’s check what else it can do.

You may have noticed that the color on your outdoor surface fades away pretty easily, drop by drop. But with this stain spray on your concrete surface, that won’t be happening anymore as it can resist weather and UV rays.

Are you thinking about where to use this 247161 from Rust-Oleum? Since it’s a 15 oz spray can having 12 to 16 square feet coverage, you can use it on smaller items such as accent pieces, specifically masonry.

Every house owner wants to give their concrete surface a unique look, and that's cool. Now, if you're one of them who wants to make a beautiful variation by combining this paint with others, it gladly welcomes you.

Plus, it boasts a wider finger pad with a comfort tip so that you can continue spraying without having finger fatigue. Not only that, but it also integrates an any-angle spray mechanism allowing you to spray even upside down.

But, what if, after spraying, you don't like the look on your concrete surface and want to try something new? No problem, you can clean it up by using some soapy water just like that and start over again.

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4. Concrete Resurrection Concrete Stain Concentrate

What if your concrete surface strikes dumb all your jealous neighbors? Want to do that? Then, grab this stain concentrate from Concrete Resurrection. You, too, will be blown away by its brilliant features.

With this stain, you’ll be able to cover no matter what type of concrete floors you have. Whether the floor is on your driveway, patio, pool deck, or home, it’s going to take care of all of them.

As it stands, it’s a multi color concrete stain that is available in 31 different colors. And you know the best part? You can mix two or more colors to create a whole new unique tone that your envious neighbors won’t find anywhere else.

The uniqueness doesn’t stop with mixing the colors. Rather you can give multiple coats of your preferred color to give your concrete surface darker shades. That way, you can control the look of your surface with ease.

In addition to providing darker tones and unique color patterns, this stain from Concrete Resurrection will give a glossy and wet look to your floor. Most importantly, that look is going to stay for many years on your surface.

Another important thing to mention about this water-based stain is that it doesn’t do any sort of chemical reaction. You, therefore, can use it with peace of mind knowing that it's environmentally friendly.

Above all that, whenever you feel to remove it, you’ll be able to do that easily. Thanks to this stain, as it doesn’t penetrate concrete or cement made surface.

Moreover, it’s a 32 oz bottle that will provide you with ready to use 5 to 10 quarts of stain. With 1 quart of concentrate, you’ll be able to cover around 100 to 500 square feet surface without trouble.

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5. MasonryDefender All Purpose Sealer

It’s possible that you have different surfaces around the house, such as concrete, stone, granite, limestone, and brick. And you can’t afford to buy a separate sealer for each one.

With that thought in mind, we hand over the all-purpose sealer from MasonryDefender.

You may have noticed that the color of the surface changes after applying a sealer, which is disappointing. But this one is free of that curse, as it’s a clear water repellent that’ll give your surface a non-glossy coat without changing its appearance.

It's invisible, but it's not weak. Rather this siloxane sealer has the power to penetrate ¼-inches into your surface. Thus, you can have peace of mind that your masonry or concrete is going to stay protected from the damages of water for a long time.

Besides, de-icing salts are a major threat to the surface for getting cracked. No worries, this all-purpose sealer from MasonryDefender integrates de-icing salt protection so that your surfaces don’t pit or crack.

Moreover, it’s a 1-gallon sealer that you can use pretty easily by using a low-pressure garden pump-up sprayer. It’ll allow you to cover a surface of 90 to 150 square feet with ease.

Depending on the temperatures as well as humidity, you can expect it to dry within 2 to 6 hours.

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Comparison Chart of  Best Water Based Concrete Stain

Water Based Concrete Stain Buying Guide

Whatever you want to buy, you must know most of the important factors that need to exist in your product. Otherwise, you’ll end up purchasing the wrong one for you.

With that thought in mind, we suggest you carefully check our below mentioned factors in your preferred water based concrete stain. That way, you'll be able to get the right stain for you.

Penetration

The more a concrete stain can penetrate into pores on your surface, the stronger the bonding will be. This bonding will keep your surface stable in the long run.

However, if your stain penetrates too much, then your cost of the application will increase. That’s why you’ve to make sure that the penetration is well enough to give you the desired colors.

Ingredients of the Stain

This is one of the most important factors that you should bear in mind. As water-based concrete stain is made of low VOC materials, it’s quite safe to use. Yet, you must check whether the manufacturer has used anything that can potentially harm you while staining or afterward.

UV Rays Protection

The surfaces of your outdoor walls get exposed to harmful UV rays for years. Thus, the color and look of your wall start to fade away pretty soon. That’s why, before you make the purchase ensure that your preferred concrete stain can proficiently fight against UV rays to protect the surface.

Drying Duration

Well, it's actually unfair if you've to wait for days to use your newly stained concrete surface. There are some water-stains that take about 30 minutes to dry up, whereas there're others that take up to 6 hours.

But there's a reason for taking so long time as they require to penetrate into the surface for staying on it. So, check out whether your concrete stain takes a longer or shorter time to dry.

Color Density

It's another important thing to consider when buying water-based stains. Look, you're applying stain on your surface to achieve a stunning appearance. Now, if the color density is not good, then your concrete surface will have a very poor appearance, which you surely won't like.

Coverage

What’s the value of the stain that you’re going to buy if it can’t cover your surface? So, at first, measure the concrete surface you want to stain. Now, if the surface ranges from 400 to 500 square feet, a 1 gallon of stain will do the work. And if your surface is about 50 square feet, get a 10 to 15 oz bottle to cover it.

How to Apply Water Based Concrete Stain?

Suppose you have managed to get a perfect concrete stain. But how will you use it if you don’t know the techniques? Guess what? We're going to elaborate the process step by step so that you can apply it with ease.

Preparing Surface

You’ve to first and foremost prepare the surface impressively by removing any type of foreign elements. The stains work by chemically reacting with the materials of the surface.

And if there're any unwanted objects on your concrete, they won't be able to work perfectly, leaving inconsistent color.

You can scrub the surface by using a scrubber with detergent. But the best way to clean up is if you can manage a pressure washer.

Precautions

Concrete stains are made of chemicals. As a result, you must take precautions to keep yourself safe. Though water-based stains contain low VOC, they may still have harmful ingredients.

That’s why you must wear a respirator mask, safety goggles, or face shield along with boots and gloves for ensuring safe application.

Concrete Stain Application

From here, the actual work begins. Start applying the stain by following the instruction written on your product label. Carefully read the procedure and follow it to get the utmost result.

Though you can use a roller or brush to apply concrete stains, a sprayer will be convenient to use because there'll be less chance of applying more stains in one place.

Finishing Up

And when you’ve completed applying the stain, wait for the time mentioned by the manufacturer to let it dry out completely. After it’s dried, you should use a neutralizer and a cleaner to magnificently clean the surface for removing harmful residue.

Leave your surface to cure for two or more days so that the fumes of the chemical can go away.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Can I Restain The Concrete Surface?

Absolutely, you can restain your concrete surface, which has been stained earlier. However, you'll notice a minor to major color difference after the second coat on your already stained concrete. That's because more coats of color create deeper shade.

2. How Much Stain Am I Going To Need?

It mainly depends on two factors; one is the coverage, and another is the type of color shade you want. 1 gallon of stain can help you to cover almost 150 to 500 square feet of the surface. But it's better if you check the label of the product to know the exact coverage.

Another thing is, if you want a darker stain, you’ll need to apply double or even triple coats. As a result, you’ll need more than usual. On the other hand, if your choice is lighter colors, you can just dilute the stain to get your preferred color. In that case, your coverage area will also increase.

3. How Long Will My Concrete Stain Last?

Concrete stains penetrate into the surface to keep their color for a long time. If you can apply the stains properly and maintain your surface, then they’ll last for a lifetime.

4. Do I Need To Seal My Concrete Surface After Staining?

If your concrete surface faces heavy traffic, then you had better seal it after staining. It's like adding up extra protection. Though you may not feel the effectiveness instantly, it’ll enhance the lifespan of the concrete.

5. Should I Stain Or Paint My Concrete Walls?

If you paint without staining, then there’ll be a great risk of chipping and pilling. But when painted after putting the stain, you’ll see that colors will look more vibrant and will stay on the surface strongly.

Final Words

We don’t want you to burn the midnight oil. And that’s is the reason for presenting this write-up on the best water based concrete stain to you. We discussed other important sections too that’ll help you to make the decision wisely.

So, don’t leave those concrete surfaces of your home unprotected anymore.