DIY indoor concrete staining

I looked into this for my laundry room renovation. While i don't have first hand experience actually doing it, i did alot of research/watch videos and watched the girl actually do the job. I ended up hiring someone to do the job which was difficult because it was a small job. No one wanted the job. I really wanted to do it myself but was unsure about how well it would come out and just didn't have the time to dedicate to it. We went with an overlay as opposed to stain.

While i'm not expert, you'll need to know what your end goal is. A stain, as it obviously implies, is literally staining the concrete. Acid based seems to be more reliable but can be more work that water based because of the material. An overlay is more or less using a color to "overlay" over the cement. With overlay, you can hide some imperfections in the cement whereas stain will show the cement exactly as it is.

My experience with this whole process is that whatever you choose as your process and whether you decide to do it yourself, this is what you need to know:
- time commitment due to cleaning,drying, staining, drying. Several days of work to do it right
- PREP IS KEY!! If you have stains, glue, etc, on the cement right now, you'll have to grind the cement down until its all gone. If you don't prep it properly, it will pull through the stain and overlay. I had this happen to my floor from old stain on the cement i didnt know existed.
- Slab moisture is the death of overlay. If you have any issues with moisture on the floor because a moisture barrier wasn't installed under the slab, it will push through and bubble the overlay. I also learned this the hard way.

All that said, it's not overly complicated but does require patience, time commitment, and an attention to detail without cutting corners. The time commitment was my biggest limiting factor so i decided to hire out.