What if I actually WANTED rust?
 

So my wife and I deliberate over projects for far too long.

One that we have been mulling over is staining the back patio concrete slab.

It's something we definitely want to do its just what style.

It gets an ungodly amount of TX sun so a dark color is not my choice. I think it would retain too much heat.

However, there are a couple of spots that have rust stains from things like the decorative water hose container thingy.

I actually like the look of rust stained concrete.

What do we think would be the easiest way to rust stain roughly 500-600 sq ft of slab?

An even consistent coverage like something painted is not the desired look.

Something with random natural variety is preferred as long as I get 100% coverage as in no bare concrete spots.

Am I nuts?

Doable?

Shut up and let your wife hire someone to do what she wants and resign your role to writing a check?

Go to your local garden supply and get an iron fertilizer and sprinkle on your slab and mist with water. How do I know? Forgot to sweep the iron pellets off my patio before the sprinklers went off and voila... Rust stains

iron fillings spread evenly everywhere. Or as rsrfan suggests, iron-rich fertilizer. Then speed the process up with an oxidizer. Sodium hypochlorite is one such strong oxidizer. It is the active ingredient in household bleach. Spray bottle bleach over iron, leave out overnight.... you have iron oxide, aka rust.

Maybe even pre-rust the iron filings or whatever source you are going to use, then scatter/sweep randomly, hose down, and sweep away after a few days more of soaking/spraying.

No and yes.

She does not hire someone unless it is a place like Sundek or equivalent. You ride herd on the bids.

You figure out the color with the pro. Obtain boss' blessing and then write the check.

If you are going to stay there, no other acceptable option. Thank me in ten years.

We'll be gone in as little as one but no more than two years.

Then no on my thoughts. You know the routine. "It will only make the house sell faster"

If you want uneven, I would suggest a light coat of salt water poured on the pad early in the morning before it's gotten hot enough to evaporate, then randomly sprinkle iron filings around the patio on the wet cement. The salt water and the sun should have turned those iron filings to nothing but rust by the end of the day.

I agree, with the others, a better option might be just to get it stained. Isn't lemon juice or raw potato supposed to get rust stains out? Or CLR?

Discolor from Iron is brown....Manganese is black.

If it was a good quality fertilizer....you should have both!

The Manganese stains are harder to get rid of, BTW....

I dated a girl once who liked rusty things...for home decoration.

She was pretty cool though....owned a 993 and a long hood she drove at the track.

I'm no expert but this seems like the easiest option.

I was going to post that dipping iron/steel in vinegar will make it rust quickly... but that is not what you are looking for.

Also don't want to be captain obvious but I presume there is no vegetation around this slab? It seems like some of the described treatments would kill off anything green when rinsed off.

Just what they call grass here in TX which is only possible to kill with fire and even then it comes back the next year anyway.

If it murders the 4 or so red ant colonies that popped up last week I'm ok with that.

Bas - U know the routine: Pictures or it didn't happen........

Have Max do a few 'projects' on it and you will have all sorts of rust stains...my garage floor can testify.

That looks to be about as much effort as I'd want to expend.

Price is right as well.

In the driveway paver thread, javabrewer posted a picture of his deck with an outdoor kitchen and stained concrete countertops that look as you describe. I fear these other methods will produce a deck with a lot of rusty spots (or chlorine gas if you foolishly mix some of the products mentioned!).

Showed my wife the acid wash stain posted earlier.

THere's a how to video on the page.

Had her watch it.

She said "that looks simple, we can do that"

So next weekends project will be staining the 300 or so sq ft of patios.

Typically with the Ms. getting her on board is mostly educating her on the process and over coming some of her preconceived notions on what's involved / level of difficulty.