“Rubber Ducky” - A stamped decorative concrete overlay in Denton, TX
This one started with a phone call from a homeowner in Denton, TX whose patio had just gotten pummeled by the hailstorms that passed through a few months ago.
Heck, I could relate, my wife and I stood in our garage and watched the hail do $1,800 in damage to her car that we were selling.
Thank goodness the new (to us) cars were inside. Of course, we had just dropped the insurance to “liability only” a month before-our loss. However, in our homeowner’s case, the insurance adjuster trotted out and agreed that the damage was covered by their policy and we got the call.
Our Denton homeowner wanted a stamped decorative concrete look for his patio and pool deck so we got right to work. With any concrete resurfacing project, the most critical step is surface preparation.
This patio had a coating on it that was just peeling off and if we just tried to slap on the new stamped decorative concrete overlay material on it, well, it would have just come right up.
We got down to business using a combination of grinders, scrapers, and chipper hammers to remove all of the old material so that our overlay could really “bite” into the original patio concrete.
Next step was mixing the stamped decorative concrete material up in a large mortar mixer. We put down a lot of it for a project this size, and it takes a big mixer to keep up with the crew. The hard part is leveling it out so that it will take a nice stamp impression.
Normally we are putting down a coat about ¼” thick, just enough to be stampable but not so thick that it will form a lip around the pool coping or other areas.
Once it sets up a little we spread a powdered “release” that makes the surface less sticky and then put down a textured rubber matt and literally “stamp” on it, transferring the stone pattern into the soft overlay material. After that, it’s repeat as needed until it all gets stamped.
Our Denton homeowner wanted to give his stamped decorative concrete flooring some more personality, so we went with a multi stone stain job. Basically, we hand stained almost every stone a different color from its neighbors. We used four colors and just repeated them down the line.
It’s labor intensive but I have to admit it does give it quite a bit of “pop”. The last step was to apply a protective sealer over the entire floor and then step back to admire it.
The rubber ducky he threw in the pool was just icing on the cake. We hope you can agree with us that it was well worth the effort!
