OT - For those of you with an unfinished concrete patio (pix)

Dyal_SC

Just did a cheap $100 (give or take) makeover for my unfinished 16x16ft concrete patio.  It gave the BGE's a nice new floor.  It was a simple semi-transparent  concrete stain with a wet look high gloss sealer.  Had a coupla nasty oil stains from trying to transfer turkey frying oil to another container, as well as some other stains.  Here is a pic after I pressure washed the patio to the best of my ability as well as applying some oil spot removing chemicals AND an etching fast prep cleaner.

 

You should have seen it before...  It was a lot worse!  :(

And here it was after the first coat of semi transparent stain was applied:

 

And after the High Gloss Wet Look Sealer:

 

The lighting in the pix suck, but the reflection of the "wet look high gloss sealer" looks pretty cool in person.  And it hid all the imperfections in the original crappy looking unfinished concrete.  I'm gonna be really happy not to hafta pressure wash it so often!! 

 

henapple

Thanks for reminding me ...mine needs thar. What'd you use?

Dyal_SC

henapple said:

Thanks for reminding me ...mine needs thar. What'd you use?

Used the Valspar stuff.  I can't remember the process exactly, and I've already thrown away the containers.  If you go to Lowes, they have the Valspar do-it-yourself manual with step by step instructions in the concrete stain section. 

Jeremiah

That looks great dyal. I might copy that as my covered patio doesn't look to happen this year :((

shadowcaster

That looks really good, what a difference it makes

caliking

Pretty sweet. That's a great open egg space you have - plenty of play space.

hapster

Nice looking setup...

SmokeyPitt

That looks great. I did stained concrete in part of my finished basement and it has worked out well.

GQuiz

What do you have over your eggs? I'm moving into a new house in 6 weeks and would like something like that for my XL.

Eggcelsior

Nice. I need to get some beef fat drippings out of my paver steps. Now I have a plan.

Dyal_SC

Thanks guys! Had company over the weekend and we used the patio a lot since the weather was so nice. We sat outside all night last night and had a couple glasses of wine. It definitely feels like an extra space now that it's finished. Before it felt like you were sitting on mildew and dirt.

@GQuiz, it's an Eclipse brand grilling gazebo. Got it off of Amazon a few years back on mega clearance. It was originally $1,000 but I got it for $400.

henapple

Did you put any shark bite or grit in it? Sherwin Williams make a water based stain I've been thinking about.

Dyal_SC

henapple said:

Did you put any shark bite or grit in it? Sherwin Williams make a water based stain I've been thinking about.

No, but I was originally worried about the slipperiness. But my pad was really porous and gritty already, so it's not slippery even after 3 coats of sealer. I used the valspar oil stain remover, the fast prep etching degreaser, the stain and then the high gloss waterproofer.