Your Basic Guide to Concrete Sealing Avenues

Many a times, there is always a debate about the fact whether one should apply a sealer to the concrete surfaces and concrete avenues. Most of the times it is due to the incessant amount of marketing by the companies that makes the people believe that a sealer is needed to increase the longevity of the concrete avenues, decks, sidewalk, driveways etc.  It is true that concrete sealing does improve the working of the concrete and prolongs its life. This is particularly accurate in places where the concrete is exposed to salts which can eat it away.

Use Concrete Sealing Products to Increase the Longevity of Concrete Depending on where you live, it might be necessary that you would have to apply concrete sealers to the slabs on concrete lest it gets eroded from the salt. There are different kinds of concrete sealers that you can easily buy from the stores and apply on to the concrete in order to get the best results.

1. Polyurethane or Epoxy Sealers - These concrete sealers provide a thick amount of layer when coated on to the concrete walkways or patios. This is the reason why it might get slippery after application. This also does not allow the concrete to breathe the moisture out, which can cause a white layer to form between the concrete sealer and the layer of the concrete.

2. Acrylic-Resin Sealer - Any concrete sealer which is able to provide a layer of acrylic-resin helps in increasing the performance of concrete at a much lesser cost than other concrete sealing products. These concrete sealers can either be blended with silicon, polyurethane or epoxy in order to increase the longevity of the products besides enhancing its durability. There are many kinds of acrylics and each one of them has different features. The virgin acrylic resin does not turn yellow and will last longer under direct sunlight as compared to styrene acrylic.

3. Penetrating Sealers - These are specialty resins which perforate into concrete resulting in the formation of a chemical barrier to oil, water and other kind of contaminants. These kind of products are rightly labelled as “penetrating” sealers. These concrete sealing products are perfect for those places where you do not want any kind of stains to form such as patios or concrete avenues.

Different Levels of Glossiness for The Concrete Sealers Similar to paints, concrete sealing products too have their own gloss levels. You can either choose a matte, semi-matte, satin, gloss or high gloss finish. It is up to your aesthetic taste which one you would choose to apply. Any products that have gloss level of 800 to 100 are known as solvent based sealers. The products with the gloss level of 50 to 80 have either a semi-gloss or a matte finish to them. Products with matte finish have a gloss level of 0. When you are working towards concrete sealing your driveway, there are certain preparations that you would need to make. First, of course is to make sure that the pavement or the driveway you are  sealing must be clean and dry. If it is not clean then you would not get the desired results. The desired area can be cleaned with soap, if need be. The concrete slab should also be dry or else the concrete sealing product will not stick to the concrete. The concrete sealers can be applied easily either by a sprayer or a roller. Read the instructions that have been provided to you by the manufacturer and you will get the desired results.