Concrete Coatings Phoenix

Coating Concrete That Lives Outdoors

Exterior concrete is a different job from an interior floor, and the difference is the resin. Epoxy is not UV stable, so on anything that sees daylight we use polyaspartic for the base as well as the topcoat. It also stays flexible enough to cope with a slab that expands in 115 degree afternoons and contracts overnight. The same system covers a commercial floor that opens onto a yard or a loading apron.

Two things decide whether an exterior coating lasts. The first is surface temperature: a light color and a textured finish keep a pool deck walkable barefoot in July, where a dark smooth one will not be. The second is water. A slab that takes standing water after a monsoon, or draws moisture up from below, has to be assessed before anything is quoted, because that is the failure that no topcoat fixes.

What an Exterior Coating Changes

Bare exterior concrete in Phoenix cracks, stains, dusts and gets uncomfortably hot. A coating addresses each of those separately, and which ones matter depends on the surface.

• UV stability. Polyaspartic holds its color in direct sun. This is the single reason we do not put an epoxy topcoat on anything outdoors: epoxy ambers and chalks within a season or two of Arizona daylight.
• Surface temperature. Color and texture change how hot a pool deck or patio gets underfoot. Lighter finishes with a broadcast texture run cooler than a dark, smooth, sealed surface, which matters more than anything else on a surface people walk on barefoot.
• Grip when wet. Anti-slip aggregate is broadcast into the topcoat on pool surrounds, entry steps and any slope that drains across a walkway. Specify it before the quote, because it changes the topcoat build rather than being added afterwards.
• Sealing against water and salt. A sealed slab stops absorbing pool water, irrigation runoff and the salt that comes with both, which is what drives spalling and the white efflorescence bloom on untreated exterior concrete.
• Oil and stain resistance. On a driveway this is the practical one. Engine oil, transmission fluid and rust marks sit on the coating instead of soaking into porous concrete where nothing lifts them out again.