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Decorative Concrete Maintenance
Keep your job looking beautiful to enhance both your reputation and your wallet.
by Christina Camara
is another big enemy of acrylic sealers. Sometimes customers will complain that the sun has faded half of their patio. Dirt and mildew can also damage one part of the project, while the other side looks great.
“If your sealer has yellowed, not a whole lot can be done to restore that,” Granados says. If mold and mildew have intruded, the cause of the moisture problem must be fixed. “Your sealer is only as good as your foundation.”
Balch says he would first give the patio a thorough cleaning and then try to reseal using more or less sealer on different parts of the patio. “If an even look can not be achieved, the process becomes more complicated,” he says. “It becomes necessary to remove all or a portion of the old sealer prior to application of the new sealer.”
Buscher says faded concrete can be revived by acid-staining or applying a protective treatment that enhances its appearance. “When just a portion of the surface needs work, though, it’s usually best to clean, stain or protect the entire surface to ensure uniformity of appearance,” he says. “Surfaces that are beyond redemption usually got that way because of neglect or errors in installation. In these rare cases, replacement is the answer, with an eye toward not making the same mistakes a second time.”
How many times can a sealer be applied to the surface before a complete stripping is required?
There’s no magic number, but when the buildup of sealers starts to discolor or distract from the original look, it’s time to strip, says Steven W. Hicks, president and CEO of ConcreteScience International Inc.
Some water-repellants penetrate into the pores of the concrete and form a barrier against water intrusion that may last as long as five years. A film-forming sealer on top of that is “the best of all worlds, as long as you are not trapping escaping moisture,” Hicks says.
Sealers can be applied many times to the surface if it is properly maintained, Granados says, and that means keeping it clean. He recommends frequent sweeping and cleaning of interior concrete to minimize dirt and grit. “That doesn’t sell many chemicals, but we like to recommend walk-off mats in entryways because even a high-performance sealer can be scratched.”
Keeping control joints free of water and debris will also lengthen the life of any decorative concrete project. If water seeps through the joints and into the substrate, the concrete will deteriorate. Dirt and debris in the joints can cause damage to the joint nosings as the concrete moves, Balch says.
If the job will see only foot traffic, contractors prefer a polyurethane sealant, which can flex as the concrete moves and also comes in a variety of colors. On driveways, flexible epoxy sealants are preferred because they can stand up to vehicular traffic, keeping the joint shoulders intact.
3M is offering new urethane adhesives and sealants to repair cracks and spalls in as little as 15 minutes. The company says its urethane sealants are flexible enough to compensate for expansion and contraction around a joint. The products can also be used to fix spalls, often found at concrete joints in heavy traffic areas.
Two weeks before the new Bronco Stadium opened in Denver, ConcreteScience was called in to quickly solve a problem that 15 companies hadn’t been able to fix.
Instead of concrete risers, the stadium used metal risers so fans could stomp their feet and create the pounding noise known as “Rocky Mountain Thunder.” The problem was that rain on the metal risers created rust, which ran down the concrete walls and stained them, making the stadium look like it had a giant bathtub ring.
A sample was sent out to ConcreteScience chemists in Kansas City. They created four possible solutions, and one worked. Scrubbing the walls by hand was a mammoth project, but once the solution was vacuumed up and the walls were treated with a water repellant, it looked good as new, Hicks says.
“We have stain removers for just about anything,” says Hicks, who recently partnered with Prosoco Inc., which markets ConcreteScience products. “I think almost any stain can be removed if people are willing to take the time and figure it out.”
Hicks believes contractors should pay more attention to maintaining their work. He says contractors can be even more successful if they organize their business to make maintenance a higher priority. It’s good fill-in work when times are slow, it targets existing customers and it can be high-margin work, he says.
A few easy marketing techniques could go a long way. Good business owners send out a maintenance reminder postcard one year after the job is done. Others pick up the phone and see how their work is holding up.
“If you don’t call them, they will not call you,” Hicks says.
Hallack says contractors should not be afraid to learn from each other and to network with good companies. Scofield and Miracote experts, for example, are extremely knowledgeable and love what they do, he says. Even though contractors may be competing for the same customers, the industry as a whole will benefit from more collaboration.
“I love to share what I know,” he says. “I hate to see the contractors go through the nightmares I went through. We all should be committed to sharing information.”
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