Turning a Bland Concrete Patio Into Something Special
by
Alicia W
4 Materials
$75
2 Days
Medium
We have a concrete patio off of our deck that was begging for a makeover.
Begin by sweeping all of the loose debris off of the concrete.
Using plain water, wash the concrete area.
Working in small sections, pour Fast Prep onto the wet concrete. It will foam and bubble.
Using a stiff brush, scrub Fast Prep into the concrete. You will be able to see it removing any stains.
Rinse the area with plain water.
Once the entire concrete slab is cleaned, allow to dry for 24 hours.
Measure the concrete to determine the center point. This will also help you to decide how many rows of "tile" there will be.
I used 12"x12" tile but you can use any size.
Using a chalk line, snap two lines that intersect at your center. These are your starting lines.
Using 1/2" tape, run the tape along your first lines.
Meaure off the next line from the outside edge of the tape.
Using a chalk line, snap a line and place your next line of tape.
Continue to measure, snap a line, and apply the tape.
FYI - 1/2" tape is really hard to find. I used 2" Gorilla tape. I tore the tape in half giving me 1" wide tape, then I tore it in half again giving me 1/2" wide tape.
Gorilla tape is very sticky so tear off shorter pieces of tape so they don't stick to each other.
After you've taped the entire concrete area, apply the stain using a 3/8" nap roller.
Remove the tape to reveal your grout lines.
When I pulled off the tape, this is what it looked like. The stain had bled underneath the tape so there were areas where the "grout lines" were indistinguishable.
I believe the reason was because our concrete was not a smooth surface so the tape, while very sticky, could not cover all of the texture of the concrete.
After a few choice words and feeling sorry for myself, I decided to fix it.
I mixed a small amount of the stain into white exterior paint because I didn't want bright white grout lines.
Using a small brush, I painted the grout lines onto the concrete following the outline of the tape marks.
After the paint had dried, I applied two coats of concrete sealer to the entire patio to assure that the paint wouldn't wear off.
Even though this project didn't turn out the way I had hoped, it did give the patio the affect that I wanted so the next time you have a DIY fail, cut yourself some slack. You are a DIYer, after all, so you have what it takes to fix any mistake :)
Original idea inspired by: http://www.hometalk.com/diy/outdoor/patios/st...>
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Comments
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2 of 53 comments
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You go girl!!! Looks great. Thanks for sharing!!!
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The end results look fantastic!!
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
not sure how long this paint would last with weather, traffic. is this an every year task?
amazing job!!! I wanna try this on my patio. What type of stain is this?
What kind of concrete stain did you use? My husband and I did something like this back in 1996 but did ours a little differently. After our concrete patio had cured for a few months we stained our patio a terra cotta color so it would match the color of our upper and lower wood decks that connected to the patio. Once the stain had hardened we marked and straped our chalk lines into tiles then we took his circle saw loaded with a concrete blade, laid a strait board out as a saw guide and he cut 1/8 " deep grooves down all our chalk lines. The tricky part for us was hubby wanted to have a border edge all the way around our patio and that was harder to cut but he did it. I had to admit he was right about the border edge. I will say that we did go threw several concrete blades while doing this but they were cheap back then. You really need to wear googles and dust masks because it's a very dusty process but in the end it's so worth it. Once we swept and hosed off all the dust our patio looked just like we had laid terra cotta tiles. Our patio was a little harder to do since it is in a gentle curving pattern with a tree and small flower bed cut out in one part of it. I think it would be a little less difficult doing a square concrete slab with nothing within it to have to incorporate and curve around. The stain we used was concrete stain from Home Depot and you can get it in many different colors to suit anyone's taste and décor.
Is this painted concrete slippery when wet?
Would that work for concrete that has marks from a house fire? I want to cover them up of course, I'm back in my home now and don't want to be reminded of it.
is the finished surface still porous enough to absorb water or will it pool up after a rain shower?