Issues with stamped concrete

[jpcjguy]

Hi all,

So I had some stamped concrete done last fall and it looked great with a coat of Super Diamond Clear. Now I am getting some flaking and trying to figure out what is going on. Concrete guy came out yesterday and saw it and will get back to me with what can be done. There were 2 different pours done. One is under the screen porch and that still looks fine. This area was done on a different day and was exposed to all the ice/snow that Richmond received. It is in a shady area for the most part so the the ice was on for a long time...
Thoughts by the forum?

 

[Old tool guy]

Classic spalling. Rock salt will cause that, but in a year? Other cause could be it was overworked, brought all the cream to the top. I bet the contractor says that’s normal and only choice is remove & replace. Thin topping is not going to bond well, you will be back here in a year asking about that.

 

[signcrafter]

It can be caused by a few things. One is overworking or if it was getting away from him and he put water on top instead of a finishing aid. But in the last couple years there has been a ton of this from when the batch plants switched to type 1L concrete. There was a big learning curve when they were forced to switch to that and I've seen a lot of this in the last year or two.

When you say the first pour is fine but the second one has issues I would lean towards a problem with how the second pour was done.

There really is no good permanent fix for this besides tearing out and starting over. If that isn't an option you can patch with a quality material after cleaning and priming. It won't match and even if done correctly it still may come off in the future. Also chances are this will continue happening to the rest of the slab.

 

[ConCretin]

There could be a number of causes including those mentioned as well as inadequate air entrainment. I'm sorry to say that it will be virtually impossible to repair. I wouldn't even try. I'd live with it or rip it out. Hopefully your contractor will stand behind his work. All of the reasons I can think of come down to workmanship or materials.

 

[BurtEggley]

can that be sand blasted and stained?

 

[Shiftless]

If the contractor won’t redo the job, I suggest installing concrete pavers over the top. Maybe that will cause you major headaches dealing with the edges and maybe it won’t. What is the cost for removal and pouring a new stamped concrete slab and hoping that the same problem will not reoccur? Seems like the original contractor lacked the know how to do it properly.

 

[OzarkMan]

We bought a house with stamped concrete. The top coat was faded and peeling over the years. I painted over the whole thing with a single coat granite floor paint. Turned out well and so far after almost a year and weather, still looks decent. It is my solution to gather my nickels (pennies seem to be gone these days) until I can lay down a think porcelain tile in a gray color/stone tone. Personally, I don't think man can compete against nature and the elements from deteriorating stamped concrete. Being the OCD ******* I am, knows I will be tiling over this soon. If I had height, I would consider paving as mentioned.

 

[C-S-H]

That is scaling from freeze-thaw. I would say that your concrete lasted exactly one freeze-thaw cycle. I see that in all new concrete residential replacement driveways around here. Likely the concrete has too much water at the surface, and that destroyed the air void system. But you had no plastic shrinkage cracking! No excuses for this result in this day and age. We cast concrete that will last 100 years in a marine waterline environment that costs just tens of dollars per cubic yard more than the residential stuff.

 

[red]

"inadequate air entrainment" (ConCretin) and I would go with porcelain tile rated for outside with a DCOF (the dynamic coefficient of friction) installed over the concrete. Also for cold weather most concrete is broom finished.

Watched (mostly heard) my neighbors pool concrete apron/patio being jackhammered for the better part of a week, for the contractor to install pavers. Done lots of pavers, they move and look like **** after a decade, of course they look better after powerwashing them.