Anyone have significant experience with it?
Been planning a walkway and small patio at the stairs of my deck.
Was thinking pavers, but to be honest, all of the ones in my neighborhood don’t seem to have survived the winters very well.
How well does the staining stand up to foot traffic? Does it or the stamping effect the stability of the concrete?
Apprenticeship programs can be a valuable tool for residential builders to recruit, train, and retain skilled employees, offering a structured pathway for career advancement and equity in the trades.
"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
Dig into cutting-edge approaches and decades of proven solutions with total access to our experts and tradespeople.
Start Free Trial NowGet instant access to the latest developments in green building, research, and reports from the field.
Start Free Trial Now
Replies
My mother-in-law (in Alabama) had her front porch, steps, and walkway done a year ago. It looks like stone and seems to be holding up very well. It's just a 1/2-inch layer of new concrete over the old surface and stamped with the desired pattern. There was a lot of surface prep. The guy told us it was a latex cement compound with a high-adhesion additive in it. Sounds sort of like tile grout to me :-)
the stamping process must be done correctly.. one poorly done example near here was torn up a little over a year later as the spalling and busting up happened in the spring from a poorly done job..
Durability is a matter of location. In southern Calfornia and Florida where it is extremely common it holds up very well.. not so well here in the frozen tundra called Minnesota..
What you can do is get granite pavers.. they hold up beautifully if laid down properly. Those concrete "bricks" are frequently affected by salt and other winter issues here.
Granite pavers are not all that expensive if you shop around.. if city streets are being torn up nearby you might even get them for free (as I did) Plan on your pickup sagging on the way home from such treasure hunting.. <grin>
Good, and properly installed, stamped ceement OR pavers will hold up to the weather. I've used both and have had no problems.
Research what materials the pros use to do their work. You'll note that this stuff isn't found at the Home Desperate/Blowes/etc. It's found in hidden supply shops tucked away in industrial areas.
Cheep materials, and/or pizzazzedly installed, will have short lives.
A guy who lives down the street from me is a maintenance guy at Dow Corning and has access to RTV (Room Temp. Vulcanizing)--an adhesive/caulk. He made a bed of sand and laid pavers and glued the edges together with RTV. I was surprized that it has held up--been about 4 years since he did it.
We had a stamped driveway and walkways poured at our last house (back in '02).
After 2 years, even with resealing, the driveway portion showed significant wearing. The pattern was okay, but the contrasting color layer was wearing away. I wouldn't use a top stain for a driveway again. They can add the coloring agent to the entire pour (so that the slab is uniformly colored) although it'll cost a bit more. The advantage there is that even if the top layer gets worn away, you'll have the same color underneath.
There's definitely a bit of art to getting a good result. Our job was done in 4 pours. The second pour was on an ~80deg F day, and the stamps started sticking to the slab about halfway through the job. You could see it was going to spall something awful - cracks near all of the stamp lines, loose fragment near the form edges.
I showed up on the scene (atually just taking a lunch break from work, hoping to learn a bit about the process) and was shooting the bull with the hired hands off to the side when the concrete supplier sales rep showed up. The concrete lead were complaining about a "bad mix" and the concrete supplier was arguing that "the customer won't be able to tell the difference." I walked up and asked the guy if he could tell the difference between the first and second pours. "Sure" he said. My concrete guy was trying not to grin, but he was definitely smirking when he said, "Meet Ted. He's the customer."
They came back two days later to spray off the powder coat and it was clear that the top layer was spalling. The concrete supplier paid to have the slab (about 800sf) jackhammered up and replaced. My concrete guy was working for a big outfit that had a supply arrangement with the concrete outfit (Glacier) and he told that was the worst problem he had, but that he had never had a problem with the Cadman stamp mix. Live and learn.
The top (color) coat is actually a much harder concrete (10,000 psi comes to mind) but it's obviously laid in a pretty thin coat. Like laminating particle board, it supposedly adds significant strength to the overall slab.
Part of the "art" is getting the stamping uniform near the form edges. Sometimes they can only get close, and then they have to tool the remaining lines in by hand.
For my front steps, they just went with a texture pad rather than an actual cobblestone pattern, which gave kind of a marbled look. It came out really nice.
All of the stamped work held up great to foot traffic, for at least 4 years that I know of.
I'll dig up some photos later.
-t
It's all about the sealer. Use a nice toxic
professional sealer.
If salt and freeze are eating pavers in the vicinity you might want to avoid concrete all together.
Here's three pix. Unfortunately, I can't find a very good one of the front steps, which are the ones which were textured only.
-t
Thanks for the photos. That's what I'm looking for.
Bomanite is slippery when icy ... if that applies to your climate - unless you use a slip-resistant additive.
Jeff
bump
http://www.quittintime.com/ View Image
The driveway and entry walk to the house next door was done 5-6 years ago and it's held up very well, but nobody will ever mistake it for real stone. The colors aren't "natural", and they're entirely too uniform.
many here seem to think you are asking about an overlay product that does on top of already placed concrete... yes that stuf will flake & lose it's bond if everything is not prepped well.. and sometimes it will fail anyway...
what I believe you are asking is about placed concrete that is stamped as part of the finish process...
this type stamped concrete will last as long as any other well placed concrete... several ways to add color... you can order the mix already colored... limited choice.. but for dark grey/black and a few browns /tans it works... you can add color at the time of stamping with dry pigments... or you acid stain after placement.. or a mixture of any or all of the above.....
all will wear well and stand up....
or you could just use wood from the mill and shellac it
p
To be clear, the job I showed pix of and discussed was a "standard" stamped concrete job, using dry pigments followed by a pigmented release agent. Not an overlay product.Comments and results still hold.-t
Inevitably, there will be cracks and/or chips affecting the surface treatment. That's why an earlier post emphasized the sealer.
Ponyt makes a good point with the integral pigment included with the original batch. Chips and cracks have less of an effect there instead of dry and spreadon pigments - although in some design schemes, they are important.
You'll also notice Ponyt uses the term, "well placed..." It don't matter what the material is, this is assumed in order to get the results.
i have better results and far lower costs using mineral spirits as a release agent... alot less clean up... and you can mix the dry pigment color into the mineral spirits..
you can bull float color/pigment into the surface... then when it's time to stamp... with a garden sprayer mist the surface with mineral spirits... and stamp away... zero dust... perfectly clean stamps everytime...
good luck
p
You are correct.
I am talking about all new work. Looks like I'm gonna do some research into actually coloring the concrete as opposed to staining it.
My yard can get damp in the winter, not wet. But damp enough that I worry about mild heaving with pavers.
In a previous life I worked for an architectural precast concrete outfit. We used aniline dyes for color. http://www.dyes.com/ProductLine/Cement+and+Concrete/Keysurf+NI.html On large products like wall panels the pours were done on large tilt tables in two lifts. First pour was the face mix (color) - 2" to 3" and the balance was regular undyed concrete. Saved money- less dye and also the dye weakens the concrete....... some colors more than others. Color is tricky ......... lots of variables, amount of dye, gray or white concrete etc etc. ........glad it wan't my responsibility when I worked there. If you decide to do it yourself I'd build a mockup to check out the stamps and color. Document every detail of your design mix right down to the last drop of water so you can repeat it.
"It is hardly too strong to say that there are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters." -- Noah Webster
ck the response above this...
A friend of mine started adding stamping to his concrete finishing business about ten years ago. Since then I've grown tired of listening to him complain about owners not maintaining their slabs. I've gone with him to see old jobs that look great and recent ones that had gone to hell. My conclusion is that it is for obsessives. If your early '90s pick up looks like it just came from showroom then it's probably a good choice. For the rest of us, it's just one more thing to feel guilty about when you would prefer to spend your weekend sitting on the deck.
I stamped my driveway with the cobblestone pattern. I got screwed on a set of used half wore out stamps. I need to jackhammer the drive way