how do I make my old concrete driveway look look like it was poured yesterday, like new concrete?

Question

Dan's of Central Florida, Inc. · Answer

Hi Gary,

You can patch up the cracks and such, but it will pretty much never look like a freshly poured driveway without acyually redoing it.

Gary · Answer

I found the answer!  Go to mylooknew.com.  I am in Atlanta, you can register and offer this solution to ugly concrete in FL.  It was only $.99SF and the men doing it still made about $80 an hour, by my calculation, because they, two men, completed my 2100SF driveway in about 5 hours.

Higgins const. · Answer

cti coating co inalpharetta

Amazing Improvements and Garages · Answer

Gary, please send the address so we can swing by and have a look at this Atlanta driveway!!!

Gary · Answer

I am currently in Costa Rica but you are welcome to drive by
923 club station drive, Atl, ga, in Brookhaven near Lenox Mall in Buckhead.

Amazing Improvements and Garages · Answer

Thanks!  I'll swing by and have a look.  It may be a viscous penetrating acrylic which colors without sealing.  A sealer gives concrete driveways a slick surface when wet.  Mylooknew says the driveways remain un-slick.  There are many clients we could not serve who have ugly concrete with signigicant grades to or from their homes.  Unless the concrete is deeply colored, it will begin to show wear marks quickly if the colorant does not penetrate beyond the initial 1/64 inch.  I noted mylooknew discuss's followup coatings as part of an annual maintenance policy.  I'd like to see how it holds up over time.  We have seen similar solutions, yet all require a sealer to hold up to traffic.  Scofield and other concrete pigment firms have similar solutions available to the pros, yet nobody, to date, has come out with a colorant which wears well without sealing. Thanks for sharing Gary....

Itsreally C · Answer

i'm not impressed just from reading their w/site but will stop by, too,,, after 39yrs, have found there aren't any silver bullets, gary

Steve · Answer

dig it up and repour it. Pressure washers does well.

Itsreally C · Answer

stopped by to look at it today after leaving another buckhead hi-rise floor application/installation,,, looks acceptable & decent but its still new,,, evidently the driveway throat has been damaged AFTER the coating was applied - noted broken unsealed pieces,,, didn't notice any indication of sealer gloss so it appears to be an unsealed coating w/no tire/traffic marks yet |

Amazing Improvements and Garages · Answer

John, Post some pics of those highrise floors!  I took some pics of this driveway and looked closely at the surface.  Its super thin and really did not penetrate the concrete as well as a solvent based H&C can, but as you say, it had no gloss.  I really want to see what a years traffic will do, especially where tires turn on the surface and grind against the coating.   Perhaps a black dye would do the same.

Jon B · Answer

Hi Gary, I presurre wash mine once a year. Don't get a super high PSI , about 2,500-3,000 with a fan tip will take care of it. Word or warning, keep the tip movingly over your area, work in small sections.  Don't let it dig in , you will displace the top scim coat & the aggregate beneath will show.
If you like the wet look, sealer it is quite the color enhancer. Don't get it at Lowes of HD. Go to a contractors concrete supply house & get a product called Diamond. I've used the home owner stuff & it doesn't do nearly as good a job.  You never said what type of concrete you had... Broom finish, Agg, stamped? I've only sealed agg & stamped,  makes all the diff
Before & after

Itsreally C · Answer

diamond hard is 1 of euclid chemical's products,,,for the $ however, none beat eliteCrete's 'CSS' which is a solvent-based methyl-metharcylate reinforced product,,, $165 for 5gal, its cut w/xylene 1:1.5 then 2 coats are applied,,, another tip - use 18' rollers & pro roller buckets,,, can't imagine going back to 9' frames/covers,,, you probably already know this but others may not - NEVER apply sealer in the heat of the day OR when the conc's hot.

Itsreally C · Answer

this is 1, gary

Amazing Improvements and Garages · Answer

Cool. Did you use Polymax PM-200 Bright White?  Its good stuff.  What overlay did you use? Mapi? What kind of interval between the overlay and epoxy?  Good pic.

Itsreally C · Answer

thanks for the kind comment,,, all eliteCrete except for the wax ( One ),,, 1st day was existing tile removal, floor prep, & overlay, 2nd was both epoxy coats, 3rd day was surface prep & aliphatic urethane top coat,,, believe the 4th day was OPEN HOUSE & cooking/entertaining neighbors!

Penny · Answer

We pressure washed ours to sell and looked great but not new. Very tedious to do it well. Used the smallest attachment and very small rows. Not like new though.

Vicki · Answer

Interesting all those feedback. I noticed that every time I had my driveway removed and poured new one. Less than an year already cracks like 'lighting cracks' on my driveway. I had like twice to do that. No more. I think it is better to have those holes with paver sand, add stepping stones to replace any holes or use nice color to match my house like beige crushed stones on my driveway.

Itsreally C · Answer

many make the mistake using the smallest tip ( usually a 0* nozzle ),,, unfortunately, unless you have a higher capacity machine ( we use 4gmp - 4,000psi ), you can't take advantage of the REAL cleaning power of a pressure washer & have to live w/the ' ghost lines ' from small stuff, slow cleaning, AND insufficient cleaning ,,, vicki, your ' lightning cracks ' are usually called ' crazing ' resulting from water added to the surface so finishers could finish conc w/o it setting up too soon & losing the ' pour ' - you'll find it more often on hot sunny days because the finishers are behind,,, the fix is easy - retain a better contractor but,homeowners won't often pay the price necessary to have properly placed, finished, cured, & jointed driveways.

Gary · Answer

The company that made my 23 year old stamped concrete driveway beautiful is LookNew, LLC. You can check them out at:
 
www.ilooknew.com
  
Before and after pics of mine are posted there.  They pressure washed it for free and put two coats of the highest quality coloring agent in the USA (normally $3-5 per SF) for only $.99 a SF.

The front edge was busted up bad from 23 years of cars banging into it.  
Though they patched it with some Quickcrete, they said it would not last and they were right.  No problem, considering the speed my children come into the driveway!  I expected the edge to crack up overnight, it lasted 6 months.

What makes this fix so incredible to me after looking everywhere for how to restore my expensive stamped concrete driveway is; 
1) The color is incredible (Charcoal), 
2) the fact that it didn't change the texture, 
3) that it does not get slippery when wet, and 
4) that it is guaranteed not to peel, chip or bubble for 10 years.

They even have a free program for their clients where they will come back and refresh it for 50% off ($.50 a SF) anytime within 3 years if for any reason it gets damaged or I choose to sell my house and want it looking brand new (curb appeal is sooo important to generate interest in buyers).

I truly believe this company has the least expensive, highest quality way of creating a beautiful driveway and keeping it beautiful (or for that matter a patio or poolside) of any company in the Decorative Concrete Industry!  I should know, I look hard for a few years before I found them.  No other company came close to their price and certainly not for such high quality!

Amazing Improvements and Garages · Answer

Gary, you sound a lot like a distributor of this material.  Do you have any business relationship with this firm?  Your latest post sure makes us wonder...  We have used the New Look materials on previous occasions as an interior concrete staining solution.  Its not as good as they say.  Take it from a professional applicator.  It has its place, just not in every place.  It has been used in theme parks with heavy foot traffic with good results, yet so have Scofield pigments,  yet its not designed to be a good solution on concrete driveways. (Particularily older ones with failing concrete.) Tires grinding the surface when turning around will quickly wear off the color.  It also does not penetrate as well as they want you to believe.  I picked up a couple pieces of your broken driveway which were sitting in the street.  The coating was wisper thin, without any perceptable absorbtion whatsoever. This is what keeps the slip resistance so high in initial coats.   I also looked into the 'business program' of this solution and found it lacking.  They are pre-setting the price for the service and totally dimimishing the costs of proper surface prep.  They show a 1000sf price model where the material is .50psf, brushes add .06 cents psf, pressure washer rental at another .10psf ( actually it runs .15psf via Home Depot rentals), etc.  The loaded cost is around .70psf.  The client pays .99psf and should there need to be a re-coating (expect it sooner than later), the company says the client will only pay .50psf.  According to my calculations, this means the contractor will go broke paying for recoats when the loaded costs of these materials is at least .20psf more than what they will receive for the overcoating job &  As far as overcoating is concerned.... we have real life experience with these products.  They build a film, become slippery when wet and yes...they chip.  Period.

Amazing Improvements and Garages · Answer

There is a material from Scofield called Concrete Revive which is a pigmented, penetrating siloxin and not an film building material such as Look New/New Look. Its installation is much more indepth and as such delivers on the promise of colored concrete - and one that does not add slip or film flaking to the driveway. Here is a link: http://www.scofield.com/concrete-color-restoration.html As far as cost, with all the indepth installation, it will run $3+ psf. Significantly more than the one being touted here, but its the real deal. Get Look New would be a candidate for some driveways, but not for many I have seen here in the Metro. One solution simply does not fit everyone.

Janet W · Answer

I had been in the concrete industry for 35 years. There is no way to make old concrete look like new. You can stamp and there are  'molds' to make it look like brick or stone then they color it. Those do look nice.
You don't want a slick surface. 
You can do exposed aggregate, but I wouldn't on a drive way.
Use the proper amount of expansion joint and realize that a freeze/thaw cycle over the years will wreck havoc however Mother Nature wants.
Concrete is a porous material....just the way it is.

Itsreally C · Answer

janet, can't you just turn it over & use the other side ? ? ?

Jane Anderson · Answer

You could try concrete acid stain on your driveway, I've heard that works really well. http://www.enduracoat.net/b/2476100011

how do I make my old concrete driveway look look like it was poured yesterday, like new concrete?

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how do I make my old concrete driveway look look like it was poured yesterday, like new concrete?

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