"Stamp Away" - Stamped concrete deck
February 2010 Job of the Month - We got a call about this Arlington, Tx retirement home that had a pretty bland looking entryway. It was just bare, gray concrete. They wanted to jazz it up a little and after looking at a couple of other decorative concrete options they all agreed that a stamped concrete deck would really look good. |
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The first step was to power wash the entire area to get it ready for the overlay process. Some areas also had to be patched to fix some holes and pits. Once everything was ready, we started applying the overlay to create the stamped concrete deck, working our way from the front door outwards. It was the middle of February, which means it's still cold here in Arlington, Tx. We knew that the cold was going to slow down the drying process so instead of trying to do it all in one pass we broke the job down into three sections, each one starting and finishing along an expansion joint already in the concrete floor. It was a good plan as the first section took almost the entire day to dry!
The second and third stamped concrete deck sections went down smoothly. We were using a Verona Stone stamp pattern which gives it a large, individual stone look as you can see in the pictures. We wrapped up the last section late in the afternoon. It was still very cool but we were feeling good. We taped everything off and put signs warning people not to walk on it and left just as it was getting too dark to see.
Surprise! The next morning we arrived to find that someone had stepped right in the overlay material and had left a footprint in it. Thank goodness it had been almost completely dry before it happened so we were able to blend the footprint into the area. Not the best start for the day and it just got a little worse after that. We got everything cleaned up and ready for sealing, the last step in the stamped concrete deck overlay process, when our Arlington weather struck again.
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We had just applied a nice coat of sealer on the stamped concrete deck when it just started to rain, not heavy, more like a cold drizzle. However, if a solvent based sealer gets wet before it has time to cure, which is usually in less than an hour, it will turn white. Sure enough, we got a white haze everywhere. We picked up our stuff and left, there is nothing you can do until the weather clears which it did the next day. Luckily, it didn't stop the job. The sealer was stripped and reapplied and we were able to wrap it all up as you can see in the pictures. They absolutely loved it and it's sure a step up from the bare concrete they used to have.
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