Temperatures should remain above 50 degrees F for 8 hours after the pour and above freezing for 24 hours after that. What Temperature Should You Pour Concrete?īefore resurfacing, strip off any paint or sealers from your concrete surface and watch the weather. If you want a different color, just add a concrete tint. One 40-pound bag coats about 35 square feet. Its natural color is dark gray, so buy enough to cover your entire walk. Today there are more practical alternatives.Īs long as your walkway isn’t cracked all the way through, you can coat the slab with a concrete resurfacer, a no-shrink blend of Portland cement, sand, and polymer additives that fills divots and makes a uniform finish. In the past, when a concrete patio or driveway started to show serious signs of aging, using a jackhammer or bringing in a bulldozer were the only repair options. Tom Silva replies: Spalling, the pits that form in concrete, happen when too much water is used in a concrete mix, weakening it. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.Our concrete walk has pits and seems to be crumbling. This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience. It’s nice and smooth to the touch (not chalky like before the top coat). Here it is, looking nice and pretty! I am really, really happy with how it turned out! There are some variations, but I think it just shows the character! I’ll show it all styled tomorrow. I waited 4 hours after the first coat and then finished up with a second coat. Then I simply rolled it on over all the concrete evenly. I mixed 4 parts of bottle A to 1 part of bottle B. For that, I wanted a satin finish so I used Aqua-Thane. step 6- top coatĬoncrete needs to be sealed to prevent it from stains. Side note, I’ll have a tutorial for the botanical backsplash tomorrow! I painted over the mirror so it looks much different now. There was dust everywhere, but isn’t it looking pretty?! After you’re happy with it, sand that countertop like crazy! I spent at least an hour sanding to get it nice and smooth. Like I said, it probably take me 6 laters because that front edge was tricky. Keep layering the concrete until you’re happy with it. Also, I always had a drop cloth on the floor since concrete fell on the floor all of the time when trying to tackle that front edge. I made sure to wear gloves when working with the concrete to save my hands from drying out. Use the trowel over the sprayed on trowel slick and you’ll get a beautiful finish. There will always be some variations and small uneven areas which should be embraced.īUT, I did find that using Trowel Slick helped make a wonderfully smooth finish! You just put it in a spray bottle and spray it on once the concrete has been troweled on. One thing about concrete is that perfection isn’t the exact look. You can see the front edge built up a little more here. You can always add layers and sand down where it isn’t exactly how you want. But I pressed on and the beauty of concrete is that it is forgiving. I’ll be honest, there were a few points where I was worried that I wouldn’t get my countertop to a point where I’d be happy. I waited 8 hours between coats so it took a few days to complete. I probably had to do 6 layers to get it nice and flat. It was really tricky to cover with concrete! What worked best for me was to mix a separate batch of concrete a little thicker than the top. I promise, you can do it!įor me, the front edge of my countertop started out as a fancy bullnose. Again, I know this might sound tricky, but it’s just like frosting a cake. Layer the base concrete with thicker layers. After the concrete has dried, give any uneven areas a good sanding. See my video for how it should look.įor covering tile, start with a thin layer to just fill the grout lines. It’s pretty easy to see when you need more water or more concrete. I know mixing concrete can sound intimidating, but it’s just adding water and stirring until it looks good. If you are doing a bigger area, you might want to use a drill mixer. The consistency should be that of pancake batter. I used an inexpensive bucket and a small trowel for mixing. Mix the concrete with the white color pack (to make the concrete as white as possible) and add water. step 3- cover the countertops with a thin layer of concrete Prime the countertops by painting them with Flexy Bo Binder. Again, this will help the concrete to stick to the tile or laminate. Start by sanding the tile or laminate (I use the Gem Sanding Pad). You want to rough them up so the concrete sticks as well as possible. White Color Pack (to make the concrete as white as possible).I’m trying to build that page up, so if you’d subscribe, I’d really appreciate that! supplies If the video doesn’t work here, you can watch it on YouTube here. P.s.
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