Concrete

The Top Reasons You Should Be Sealing & Finishing Your Concrete

When it comes to concrete surfaces, many people choose to skip sealing and finishing to cut down on price and installation time. It’s true that concrete sealing is not absolutely essential to the installation process, but it pays off in the long run, because it: Protects concrete from environmental damage Increases the lifespan of concrete…

The post The Top Reasons You Should Be Sealing & Finishing Your Concrete appeared first on GWC Decorative Concrete.

Published

2 years ago

January 29, 2019

Republished by Plato

Protects concrete from environmental damage
Increases the lifespan of concrete surfaces
Keeps color-treated concrete looking vibrant
Makes regular maintenance a breeze

Here’s how sealing and finishing works and why it’s truly a worthwhile investment:

Protect Your Concrete from Damage

Concrete is a porous material, which means spilled oil and grease can penetrate the surface and turn into unsightly stains. This is especially common with concrete driveways where cars sometimes leak small amounts of oil, but it happens with interior concrete floors too.

Concrete gets damaged over time by other things as well, including:

Rain and moisture
Moss and fungi
Heavy items like cars, boats, or large furniture
Sunlight
Temperature changes

Make Your Concrete Last Longer

As you can imagine, protecting your concrete from the elements increases its longevity. Even though concrete is porous, the finishing process covers up those pores, creating a solid protective seal. This way, you avoid having to replace and repair concrete surfaces sooner than necessary.

Actually, we recommend periodically resealing any concrete surfaces that are regularly exposed to potentially damaging elements — surfaces like driveways and carports.

Maintain Concrete’s Color

Many people choose to add beautiful colors to their decorative concrete, especially on interior concrete floors. We use stains, dyes, paints, and more to create a huge variety of color options, from vibrant shades to subtle, classy hues.

Sealing and finishing preserves these colors and keeps them looking sharp. It also makes concrete look cleaner and more polished in general. A little shine makes concrete surfaces look new even when they’re not.

Easier Maintenance

One of the main reasons why people are drawn to decorative concrete is that it’s low maintenance and easy to clean. But without proper sealing and finishing, concrete is susceptible to stains and damage just like any other material. A well used driveway will inevitably be exposed to the elements, and interior floors will almost certainly take the brunt of a few spilled beverages or food items.

Sealed concrete surfaces are extremely easy to clean, though. Instead of sinking into the concrete, dirt, dust, and spills will stay on the surface so you can easily wipe, wash, or sweep them away next time you tidy up.

Thinking about Sealing Your Concrete Surfaces?

With more than 75 years of combined experience working with decorative concrete, our team can make your concrete strong and beautiful for years to come.

Give us a call today at (503) 849-0901 or contact us online to get a free estimate.

About the author

Gordon Carr

Gordon Carr, owner and operator, has been providing his expertise in Decorative Concrete Design and Construction for over 15 years. Steady in his opinion that quality wins out over quantity; Gordon has built his company to the highest level of industry esteem.

Source: https://gwcdecorativeconcrete.com/blog/reasons-to-seal-finish-concrete/

Related Topics:concrete industry manufacturing material quality

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Nov 24, How To Pour And Finish A Concrete Patio Slab (My Pro Tips)

I’ll show you how to pour and finish a concrete patio slab just like the pro’s do it. From leveling and screeding the concrete to broom finishing.

Published

3 days ago

November 24, 2020

Republished by Plato

The steps it takes to build, pour, and finish a concrete patio slab are:

Prepare the sub-grade
Install the forms and reinforcement
Pour and level the concrete
Finish the concrete
Seal the concrete

prepare the sub-grade for concrete

The sub-base under your concrete patio wants to be either gravel, road base, sand, or crushed rock.

You’ll want to remove any sod, grass, clay, or dirt. How much you remove and replace with gravel will depend on where you live and how many freeze/thaw days you get during the winter months.

If you live where you get some to many freezing days, then more gravel is recommended under your concrete patio. A good base would have 12″ to 24″ of compacted gravel under the concrete.

If you live where you don’t get many temperatures below freezing then 4″ to 12″ of sub-base gravel would suffice.

If you have wet conditions, then more gravel and adding drainage would be recommended in that case.

To help keep frost from getting under the patio, you can install 2″ styrofoam under the slab. This will insulate the sub-base and keep it from freezing.

install the forms and reinforcemenet

The thickness of your patio slab will determine what you use for forming material. Most likely your patio slab will be 4″ thick. That’s quite common for a patio slab.

IF that’s the case, you can use either 2×4’s or 2×6’s to form your concrete patio. The size and shape of your patio will be determined by you and your space or area you have to install the patio.

Setting up forms is fairly simple. Here is more information about forming that will help you.

For reinforcement, you can use wire mesh or rebar. Both are good and will help reinforce the concrete if it does end up cracking.

how to pour and level the concrete

Pouring the concrete for your patio slab and getting it leveled out is something you might want to hire a professional for.

If your patio slab isn’t very big, then maybe it’s something you can do on your own.

Watch us pour this 50′ x 10′ concrete patio and see if it’s something you want to try or not.

[embedded content]

To learn how to pour and finish concrete like we do in the video above, check out my training academy The Concrete Underground.

In The Concrete Underground I have many of my best training videos to teach you how to pour and finish concrete just like we do it.

how to broom finish and seal the concrete

Knowing how and when to start the finishing process is one of the hardest things to learn about concrete finishing.

In the video below, I will show you how we start the finishing process and apply a broom finish to the concrete.

The finishing is always determined by how fast of slow the concrete sets up. I’ll show you the best time to start finishing in the video below for best results.

[embedded content]

I used a penetrating sealer to seal the concrete with in the video. This type of sealer will not leave a slippery film on the surface but will seal and protect your concrete.

It’s best applied with some type of sprayer. We’re using a power sprayer in the video but you can use a simple garden pump up style sprayer if you like.

tools you’ll need to build a concrete patio slab

I’ve made a list of all the tools you’ll need to build your concrete patio slab.

Most of these you can get at your local hardware store or even easier, you can order them right from Amazon.

Concrete tools list for building a patio slab.

IN CONCLUSION:

I built this page to help you decide if you want to pour your own concrete patio or not.

If you kind of handy and like building and doing things on your own, then maybe it’s something you can tackle by yourself after watching my videos.

If the size of your patio slab isn’t too large, maybe you can do it yourself with the information I’ve given you on this page.

If you have any doubts or questions, then look to hire a pro like me. We do this kind of work every day.

Go to Home Page

Go to Concrete Patios

If you liked this, please share. Thanks!

Source: https://www.everything-about-concrete.com/how-to-pour-a-concrete-patio-slab.html

Concrete

Nov 24, How To Pour And Finish A Concrete Patio Slab (My Pro Tips)

I’ll show you how to pour and finish a concrete patio slab just like the pro’s do it. From leveling and screeding the concrete to broom finishing.

Published

3 days ago

November 24, 2020

Republished by Plato

The steps it takes to build, pour, and finish a concrete patio slab are:

Prepare the sub-grade
Install the forms and reinforcement
Pour and level the concrete
Finish the concrete
Seal the concrete

prepare the sub-grade for concrete

The sub-base under your concrete patio wants to be either gravel, road base, sand, or crushed rock.

You’ll want to remove any sod, grass, clay, or dirt. How much you remove and replace with gravel will depend on where you live and how many freeze/thaw days you get during the winter months.

If you live where you get some to many freezing days, then more gravel is recommended under your concrete patio. A good base would have 12″ to 24″ of compacted gravel under the concrete.

If you live where you don’t get many temperatures below freezing then 4″ to 12″ of sub-base gravel would suffice.

If you have wet conditions, then more gravel and adding drainage would be recommended in that case.

To help keep frost from getting under the patio, you can install 2″ styrofoam under the slab. This will insulate the sub-base and keep it from freezing.

install the forms and reinforcemenet

The thickness of your patio slab will determine what you use for forming material. Most likely your patio slab will be 4″ thick. That’s quite common for a patio slab.

Setting up forms is fairly simple. Here is more information about forming that will help you.

For reinforcement, you can use wire mesh or rebar. Both are good and will help reinforce the concrete if it does end up cracking.

how to pour and level the concrete

Pouring the concrete for your patio slab and getting it leveled out is something you might want to hire a professional for.

If your patio slab isn’t very big, then maybe it’s something you can do on your own.

Watch us pour this 50′ x 10′ concrete patio and see if it’s something you want to try or not.

[embedded content]

To learn how to pour and finish concrete like we do in the video above, check out my training academy The Concrete Underground.

In The Concrete Underground I have many of my best training videos to teach you how to pour and finish concrete just like we do it.

how to broom finish and seal the concrete

Knowing how and when to start the finishing process is one of the hardest things to learn about concrete finishing.

In the video below, I will show you how we start the finishing process and apply a broom finish to the concrete.

The finishing is always determined by how fast of slow the concrete sets up. I’ll show you the best time to start finishing in the video below for best results.

[embedded content]

I used a penetrating sealer to seal the concrete with in the video. This type of sealer will not leave a slippery film on the surface but will seal and protect your concrete.

It’s best applied with some type of sprayer. We’re using a power sprayer in the video but you can use a simple garden pump up style sprayer if you like.

tools you’ll need to build a concrete patio slab

I’ve made a list of all the tools you’ll need to build your concrete patio slab.

Most of these you can get at your local hardware store or even easier, you can order them right from Amazon.

Concrete tools list for building a patio slab.

IN CONCLUSION:

I built this page to help you decide if you want to pour your own concrete patio or not.

If you kind of handy and like building and doing things on your own, then maybe it’s something you can tackle by yourself after watching my videos.

If the size of your patio slab isn’t too large, maybe you can do it yourself with the information I’ve given you on this page.

If you have any doubts or questions, then look to hire a pro like me. We do this kind of work every day.

Go to Home Page

Go to Concrete Patios

If you liked this, please share. Thanks!

Source: https://www.everything-about-concrete.com/how-to-pour-a-concrete-patio-slab.html

Concrete

Nov 24, How To Pour And Finish A Concrete Patio Slab (My Pro Tips)

I’ll show you how to pour and finish a concrete patio slab just like the pro’s do it. From leveling and screeding the concrete to broom finishing.

Published

3 days ago

November 24, 2020

Republished by Plato

The steps it takes to build, pour, and finish a concrete patio slab are:

Prepare the sub-grade
Install the forms and reinforcement
Pour and level the concrete
Finish the concrete
Seal the concrete

prepare the sub-grade for concrete

The sub-base under your concrete patio wants to be either gravel, road base, sand, or crushed rock.

You’ll want to remove any sod, grass, clay, or dirt. How much you remove and replace with gravel will depend on where you live and how many freeze/thaw days you get during the winter months.

If you live where you get some to many freezing days, then more gravel is recommended under your concrete patio. A good base would have 12″ to 24″ of compacted gravel under the concrete.

If you live where you don’t get many temperatures below freezing then 4″ to 12″ of sub-base gravel would suffice.

If you have wet conditions, then more gravel and adding drainage would be recommended in that case.

To help keep frost from getting under the patio, you can install 2″ styrofoam under the slab. This will insulate the sub-base and keep it from freezing.

install the forms and reinforcemenet

The thickness of your patio slab will determine what you use for forming material. Most likely your patio slab will be 4″ thick. That’s quite common for a patio slab.

Setting up forms is fairly simple. Here is more information about forming that will help you.

For reinforcement, you can use wire mesh or rebar. Both are good and will help reinforce the concrete if it does end up cracking.

how to pour and level the concrete

Pouring the concrete for your patio slab and getting it leveled out is something you might want to hire a professional for.

If your patio slab isn’t very big, then maybe it’s something you can do on your own.

Watch us pour this 50′ x 10′ concrete patio and see if it’s something you want to try or not.

[embedded content]

To learn how to pour and finish concrete like we do in the video above, check out my training academy The Concrete Underground.

In The Concrete Underground I have many of my best training videos to teach you how to pour and finish concrete just like we do it.

how to broom finish and seal the concrete

Knowing how and when to start the finishing process is one of the hardest things to learn about concrete finishing.

In the video below, I will show you how we start the finishing process and apply a broom finish to the concrete.

The finishing is always determined by how fast of slow the concrete sets up. I’ll show you the best time to start finishing in the video below for best results.

[embedded content]

I used a penetrating sealer to seal the concrete with in the video. This type of sealer will not leave a slippery film on the surface but will seal and protect your concrete.

It’s best applied with some type of sprayer. We’re using a power sprayer in the video but you can use a simple garden pump up style sprayer if you like.