Care and Maintenance of Decorative Stamped Concrete
Your Decorative Stamped Concrete needs special Care and Maintenance
Having a new concrete patio is exciting and you want it to maintain that new look for as long as possible. Here are some tips to make it look great for years to come.
- That colored powder on your concrete is very dirty. Don't let your kids or pets play around the freshly powder stamped concrete. We will be back in a day or two to wash the powder off and seal in the color. Please don't walk on the powdered concrete. Fresh footprints can be preserved forever.
- Stay off the concrete on the first day after it has been sealed. The first day is critical for the concrete.
- For the first few weeks, tread lightly. The concrete is especially vulnerable to scratching in the first week. Concrete reaches 75% strength in about one week and 95% after one month.
- Reseal your concrete every two years. This will give it a new look again and more importantly, it will keep the color from wearing off. We generally use solvent based acrylic sealers. Xylene is the solvent to remove acrylic sealers. You may wish to remove the sealer if it has built up too thick or to repair an area. If you develop scratches or chips, you can stain the scratches and apply sealer. Alternatively, use a tinted sealer to hide scratches or worn areas.
- Call us and we will come back and re-color or re-seal your concrete for you.
- Do not use salt or deicer products on concrete. De-icing products rapidly melt ice and saturate the concrete with water. When the saturated water freezes again, it can cause permanent damage to concrete, such as spalling and other surface deterioration. Use sand instead.
- Clear away snow from concrete to avoid both ice-formation and moisture saturation when the ice melts.
- Do not park on new concrete if you have salt on your vehicle from the city streets.
- Concrete sealer is recommended to help prevent spalling and preserve the color.
- Remove spills from concrete as soon as possible using a concrete-safe cleaner. Spills can lead to difficult-to-remove stains, so we advise they be cleaned immediately.
- You can walk on feshly sealed concrete after two hours, drive carefully after 6 hours, light traffic after 24 hours and fully cured after 4 days.
