We have a concrete walkway that goes from our outdoor basement door to and including the concrete pad at the base of a stairway up to the deck. No-one sees it but us, but it is pretty ugly and I’d like to dress it up a little if it’s not too expensive and doesn’t require too much skill. It’s about 30" wide and about 12’ long, although the part by the doorway is also wider, maybe 48". So maybe as much as 35 sq. ft. altogether.
The concrete is generally in pretty good shape, no cracks or chip-out areas, but parts of it are rougher than others. The pad was perforce replaced so it is new (and so it looks much better than the rest which makes the older part look even worse). There is some discoloring and darkening on the older part from I don’t know what.
I’d like to end up with a color other than gray, if possible. All suggestions welcome.
Can’t go wrong with paint. Concrete paints are very good now-adays.
Follow instructions for preparing the area first.
Then plop a planter on it and plant zinnias. Good luck.
I don’t know how much effort is too much effort, but I improved my small, concrete front porch by adding red pavers on three sides. That made the porch bigger and more attractive.
A 30” walkway could be lined with 6” square pavers on both sides, to become an impressive 42” wide walkway.
Personally I like to put pavers on a concrete base, so they stay permanently level, and then glue them in place so they don’t shift. However, installing a concrete base is not everyone’s idea of fun — there’s about 8 inches of excavation, 4” of well-compacted gravel, and a wooden framework to contain the concrete. And then dealing with 60 lb. bags of Quikrete.
Or you could just dig down 2” and put the pavers along the edge of the walk.
There is a procedure where epoxy is applied and crushed stone or other material is embedded. I’ve seen driveways done this way and there seems to be no issue with durability. Not a do it yourself project I don’t believe.
I’ve run into a couple of different products that seem very similar to each other, and make similar claims about application and durability. One is called Beauti-tone FlexRock Decorative Concrete Resurfacing, and the other is called SpreadStone Decorative Concrete Resurfacing by a company called Daich. They both claim to make regular concrete look like it was made of stone, they both use the same kind of very irregular floppy roller to apply the highlights that create the stone-like simulated pattern. Wondering if anyone has tried either of these. The second product is sold through Home Depot so there are a few reviews there, mostly very positive.
My nephew, who is in the concrete business, suggested I apply a sealer to our porch. One day I came home from work and he had left a power washer, five gallons of sealer, and a roller with a five foot long handle. He also left step-by-step instructions.
I cleaned the porch floor, let it dry completely, then put on two coats, applying the second while the first was still tacky. Wow, what a difference!! It’s just a sealer, but it gives a shiny, wet look that is really nice.
Here’s an example of what a stencil, brushes and paint can achieve. The trick is laying out grid lines so the stencil is positioned correctly. Concrete stencils are available in a variety of patterns and sizes.
Well, you see, this is a walkway (I neglected to mention that it is raised maybe 3-4") and not a smooth flat garage floor, porch or patio. Also, putting a planter on it would be counter-productive to using it to walk from here to there.
It needs to be smoothed out a little at one end, the other end is going to be a new concrete pad for the deck stairs which is going to look different from the rest of it due to being new.
Perhaps kayaker’s suggestion of a sealer would be enough, preceded by some kind of smoothed-out top coat of concrete over the old part of the walkway, would work best. I’m still looking at those two overlayment products I discovered, I guess no-one here has tried those. There are also concrete stains. I’d rather stay away from paint, even the best paint will flake and look crappy. Of course, every solution will require thorough cleaning before applying whatever it turns out to be.
I did overlayment on a large patio (probably 800 sqft) and a long walkway (maybe 50 ft long). No pattern and the overlayment ended up terra cotta colored. It looked awesome.
If there’s cracks in the existing concrete before overlayment, they will eventually crack the layer above. The trick to fight this is to put expansion lines above the cracks (where esthetically reasonable) and just put up with the cracks when they appear.