jkeyser14
Well-known member
8 years ago I used 2 coats of ghostshield 4500 densifier + 8510 silane/siloxane to waterproof a covered front porch with finished living space below. It was a broom finish and I only got half the coverage that they advertised, so if you have a broom finish beware.
The porch faces north and is very well protected from the elements. I have been very happy with performance until last year (year 7) where it was pretty obvious that it was degraded and absorbing any wind driven rain that got to it. I just recoated it today at year 8 (more on that below).
Meanwhile, I also used ghostshield on my sidewalk. The sidewalk water repellent performance only lasted 2-3 years since it was exposed to the elements. It has been coated 3x now over the past 8 years, and today market time #4.
So when looking to recoat the sidewalk and porch I of course re-priced ghostshield. I also priced some of the other options advertised by vendors on this forum. I compared them to other products I could source from Lowes and Home Depot locally. All of the options I looked at had technical datasheets that listed the same silane/siloxane active ingredients with either a solvent based or water based carrier. The percentage of active ingredients vs. carrier varied greatly between brands. That means other than the carrier based penetration depth and marketing fluff, the only reason to chose one product over another is based on the actual percentage of silane/siloxane that you are getting for the cost.
What I found was that when I normalized for % solids by volume vs. cost (including shipping), the clear winner was an option I never see mentioned here: Rustoleum Okon S40 (S40 = 40% solids by volume).
I put it down today and it applied very similarly to the ghostshield I used previously. I only needed a single coat on my porch to reach maximum absorption since the ghostshield was degraded but still helping, but I needed 2x coats on my sidewalk which drank it right up.
TLDR: Ghostshield performs fine, but best value is currently Rustoleum Okon S40. It's the same active ingredients at a lower price once % volume of active ingredients is factored in.
The porch faces north and is very well protected from the elements. I have been very happy with performance until last year (year 7) where it was pretty obvious that it was degraded and absorbing any wind driven rain that got to it. I just recoated it today at year 8 (more on that below).
Meanwhile, I also used ghostshield on my sidewalk. The sidewalk water repellent performance only lasted 2-3 years since it was exposed to the elements. It has been coated 3x now over the past 8 years, and today market time #4.
So when looking to recoat the sidewalk and porch I of course re-priced ghostshield. I also priced some of the other options advertised by vendors on this forum. I compared them to other products I could source from Lowes and Home Depot locally. All of the options I looked at had technical datasheets that listed the same silane/siloxane active ingredients with either a solvent based or water based carrier. The percentage of active ingredients vs. carrier varied greatly between brands. That means other than the carrier based penetration depth and marketing fluff, the only reason to chose one product over another is based on the actual percentage of silane/siloxane that you are getting for the cost.
What I found was that when I normalized for % solids by volume vs. cost (including shipping), the clear winner was an option I never see mentioned here: Rustoleum Okon S40 (S40 = 40% solids by volume).
I put it down today and it applied very similarly to the ghostshield I used previously. I only needed a single coat on my porch to reach maximum absorption since the ghostshield was degraded but still helping, but I needed 2x coats on my sidewalk which drank it right up.
TLDR: Ghostshield performs fine, but best value is currently Rustoleum Okon S40. It's the same active ingredients at a lower price once % volume of active ingredients is factored in.