My DIL is a designer, and knew I liked the sort of neo-modern-industrial look, so she suggested that when I filled in my vintage '70s sunken living room, I consider stain. Looking at the DIY sites, and liking the sort of raw look, I bought into it. Problem is, it's "one and done". No fixing, no do-overs. Because of that, I decided to use my good sprayer that I've had for years that's always served well, and is rated for a wide range of PH making it suitable for spraying the acid. Inspected before starting, cleaning valve, adjusting pattern, practicing more spray paint style (as opposed to weed/cleaner/sealant spray), all seemed good. Tried to get it in one coat, but wasn't upset to see areas I wanted to "bring out more" after it had time to go-off. But the first pull of the trigger on the touch-up coat was disaster! The nozzle cap split and squirted a wet stripe across the center of the floor and 6'+ diagonally up a new raw textured sheet rock wall... that only had ~3' of plastic... They tell you not to mess with puddles, you'll only make it worse, but what was I to do with this? My answer was to use an alternate technique applying with sponges to get a more consistent darker (slightly swirly) result with sponges (happened to have suitable on hand). Repair of the wall is not relevant to the discussion, or my temper, so I'll skip that. But in then end my "light sienna" stained floor came out more dog poo brown. But it had some coppery highlights, and though it caused a general rethink of pending paint colors and such, all in all it was deemed a success.
That was about 10 months ago now, and it's no longer considered a success by anyone. First off, the darker unbroken color is, as one might expect, horrible about showing dust and dog hair etc. But that's just an unfortunate side effect of the unfortunate color. I expected that right away and could deal with it. What I can't deal with is the poor durability. I went with the smelly solvent based sealer, which was recommended as by far the most durable. It also gave the floor a more sealed satin finish for easier mop cleaning (which as said would have to be frequent). Not much to get wrong applying it, but I found over time furniture foot pads (coffee table, sofa, recliner, etc) would sort of sink in and stick to it, requiring determination to get loose and leaving obvious permanent marks. We also questioned the manufacturer of the sealer about durability as we have 2 youngish German Sheppards in the house (aka German Shedders) and I didn't want their claws making marks. I was assured the solvent chosen was the right answer and it wouldn't be a problem. I'll give that a 2 out of 10 at best. To be fair, it's handled typical foot traffic (even dirty work soles) and even sliding stuff (and claws) have left very little signs of damage, which could easily be handled with a touch up spot seal and buff. But the furniture scaring is significant and a deal breaker for me. Probably not that bad if it were the original much more mottled range of color (which can partly hide stuff like that), but not when combined with the more uniform dark chocolate/copper we wound up with.
So, current plan is to tile sometime this spring. Luckily, when the concrete was poured, I caught the contractor before pouring it level with the bottom of the existing floor, and had him lower the top to match the original slab (minus tile minus thin set layer). I had never had a stained floor and didn't know how it worked, so I built in an escape hatch, even though it required a rather wide and thick transition strip to handle the 1/2" step. I'm SO glad I caught him on that. And at the time, i thought I couldn't believe that wasn't the plan to start with.
In any case, that's been my experience.
