I stained and years later painted our cement porch that is exposed to the sun but now sections of it has either faded or peeled. I wanted to return it to the natural unfinished look. Powerwashing it did not help. I have seen a concrete product at Home Depot where you mix it with water then squeegie it in. How good are those products and does it ever peel. Thanks for any help. JoeyG

There are only a few ways to remove the paint and not the stain from the cement. Both are expensive.
Soda Blast the porch is one way. Or remove the cement and rebuild the porch.
You will not however remove any stain coloring from the cement unless you remove the cement. Its in the pores of the surface and cannot be removed.
If you want a long lasting finish you might want to consider using a expoy paint finish. After scraping and wire brushing the loose chipped finish off, you then acid wash the surface according the the directions on the apoxy paint kit. Be sure to apply a texture to the finish where you will be walking as the high gloss finish that results will become slippery when it gets wet.

Thank you for the advice. Is it muriatic acid that I should use after all the scraping?

That would work, but check with the supplier of the paint as each manufacture has their requirments on how to prep the cement for their product. Some epoxy kits come with their own chemicals for prep as part of the package.
WE use Epoxy-Coat on our projects. Good company to work with and prices are pretty good as well. Their kits come with everything you need to apply their product.
I included their web site for you to check out.
http://www.epoxy-coat.com/index.php

Thank you once again. Great suggestions. Happy Holidays to you and your family.

I would be VERY careful about applying an epoxy coating over cement that is exposed to weather. Epoxies are very hard and have low permiability ratings. That means they pass very little moisture through them. Concrete, by nature holds a high degree of moisture. Epoxy coatings will trap that moisture until the vapor pressure overcomes the bond strength of the coating, at which time it will fail in large areas. Tests have shown that under the right conditions vapor pressures under coatings can reach an unbeleivable 2000 psi. IMHO, you'd be better to etch the surface and apply a high quality breathable coating. One simple way to test for high levels of moisture in concrete is to duct tape a layer of 6 mil poly over a 3'x3' area for a few days and see how much moisture condenses on the underside. You would need to prep the surface for painting before the test. Just remember that the amount of moisture present will vary with seasonal changes and of course weather conditions.

Another advice that makes sense. The area is exposed to moisture (it actually rained here in So. Calif. yest). What kind of high quality breathable coating would you suggest? Since the project is more aesthetic, would that concrete product made by Quikcrete that is made to slurry consistency and spread thinly with a squeegie work? Anyone have ever tried this? Thanks.

I have no experience with the Quikrete product, however there are a number of exterior rated latex floor and deck coatings that should work well and have a high enough permeability rating for exterior concrete applications. Martin Senour is one that I am familiar with. The key to a refinish project like this is in the surface preparation. While you can't get the stain out of the concrete surface, you do need to get all of the old coating off of the surface before you can think about applying a new one. Then apply the new material as the manufacturer suggests. This is one of those situations where more is not necessarily better. Building the coating up thicker could lower the permeability and cause it to fail sooner. Many coatings fail not because they were ther wrong material or were defective, but because they were mis-installed and left a finished product that was not what the manufacturer intended. Dry film thickness is important here.

Thanks for the feedback. Happy Holidays.

Sometimes yu can use commercial commode cleaner on the concrete and itwill remove the paint off of it. I have used it to remove motor oil and gung from a garage floor an it did a superb job. You have to be careful and not get it on anything you do not want to take the paint off of. I would try a small spot first. Just rub it on with a brush and squeegy it off. Quick and easy.

Thank you. Another good idea which I can try. Have a Happy New Year.

check out this product

you can use muriatic acid but it's rather dangerous, there's also Napier Environmentals Removall 120 - Concrete Etch. Completely safe and not harmful to the environment.. or you... muriatic acid is what the mafia supposedly disintegrates their corpses with. -Fishfool @ The Reef Tank