concrete driveway

[weekendwarrior]

Hi all. Looking for some advice, thoughts, on slate impression concrete driveways. i have about 120square meters of driveway to concrete and was pretty keen on the slate impression colored type concrete untill i had a concreter out to quote and he said that the slate looks fantastic for a couple of years but then starts to show the wear and tear pretty bad especially where you drive on it all the time. Has anyone seen, heard of this problem? Am now considering the stencil type pattern colored concrete, apparently wears better. Any thoughts?

[adrian]

A friend of mine has one of the slate look driveways and patios and he has to paint it with a rather expensive clear sealer about every 2 years to keep it in good nick. When you turn into his driveway the tyres sound like reeboks on a polished floor and it doesn't look natural at all. Personally, I've never been a great fan of concrete driveways in any form. They are like wallpaper, in that if you ever want to redocorate you are in for one hell of a job. There are too many pavers around these days and so many different patterns to lay them in to ever contemplate something as permanent as concrete. And besides, if you ever want to relandscape you can take up the pavers and sell them.
Also, if you lay pavers yourself it's a lot cheaper than concrete.

"Look at all the money I saved by doing it myself, dear. Now I can afford to get that jointer and we can take a weeks holiday on Lord Howe."

[bitingmidge]

Concrete is good!

Patterned concrete comes in a few forms:

Stencil (thick paint) which goes over the top of a natural concrete slab (or anything else) and depending on the quality of the product and workmanship does a pretty fair old impersonation for some years.

It does wear eventually, and will need re-doing, but no maintenance in between. Cheap nasty job on the house next door has been there 10 years, looks a bit tired but still acceptable. Expensive job on the house the other side is 5 years old and looks like new.

Patterned concrete: Usually done by dropping a pattern into wet concrete after sprinkling an oxide on the top of the wet brew, then sealed to protect the oxide surface. Clear sealant will need mainenance, probably every year if you want to keep it schmick (whatever schmick is?). It will wear, and eventually you'll need to paint it.

I did a 200 metre long drive on acreage once, by using a cobble pattern, and left the concrete natural grey. Once the tree gunge had got into it, the joints went dark and dirty and the whole thing developed a bit of a patina that was quite acceptable or even interesting.

The benefit of the latter approach is that you won't see any cracks in the slab!

Pavers Unless you want to restore the '70's look to your house, don't bother with traditional brick pavers! :D Large (expensive) pavers manufactured by companies like Urban Stone, can look pretty attractive, but are better laid over a concrete screed and will need very deep pockets!

Coloured Concrete/exposed aggregate Current fashion is heading in the direction of larger patterns, and changing textures...sounds garish and it's not cheap. My current driveway (I'm a dedicated follower of fashion! :rolleyes: ) is about the same area as yours and an "s" because the garage is at right angles to the street. It is in three tones (Black, grey and "NOUGAT!!" laid in a bit of a swirl with sleepers fixed level in a couple of places to break up the area a bit.

Two different textures too: a very light washed exposed aggregate (terrazzo effect) and a sponged finish with sealer applied. Because the colours are in the mix it won't wear out if (when) I am too slack to reapply the sealer. When it all goes too far out of fashion, and gets really tatty, I can always stencil it or use pavers or tiles over the top.

I'm a bit prejudiced, but I'd stay away from the stencil stuff if you intend to be in the house for more than five years or so! It will last longer than that, but it'd be better to leave before it shows signs of needing repair!

Cheers,

P

[ozwinner]

schmick

Isnt there a thread about Dieter Schmick on this BB?

Al :confused:

[bitingmidge]

Are you taking the schmick???


:D

[ozwinner]

Here it is.

http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=9356

Al :D