Concrete Coatings in Scottsdale

What Gets Cut Out Before Anything Goes Down

Cracks are opened up rather than covered over. A crack that is only skimmed will come back through the finish within a season, so it is cut back to sound concrete, filled, and ground flush with everything around it. Spalled edges get the same treatment, and they matter more than people expect, because a crumbling edge is where a coating starts to lift and it is usually the first place a visitor's eye lands. Pitted areas on a driveway or a pool deck, where irrigation water or whatever was spilled has eaten into the surface, are filled and leveled so the finish sits flat across them rather than dipping into every hollow.

What deliberately stays is the control joints, and across an exterior slab the size of a patio there are usually several of them. Those cuts are what let concrete expand at 115 degrees and contract again overnight without tearing itself, so they are carried through the coating rather than filled in to make the floor look continuous. Fill them and you get a crack of your own making inside a year. It is exactly the sort of shortcut you would never see being taken and would certainly live with afterwards, which is why it is worth asking anyone quoting you what they intend to do with the joints. The answer tells you most of what you need to know about how the rest of it will be done. If you want the specification itself, we cover how an exterior coating is specified on our Phoenix page.

When the Repair Is the Bigger Half of the Job

Sometimes it is, and that changes what the work is rather than whether it can be done at all. A slab needing a lot of cutting and filling takes longer in preparation than it does in finishing, and you should see that split before you agree to anything rather than meet it later as an extra. So the quote separates repair from finish and you can see what sits on each side of the line. The outdoor floor you end up with is the same either way: flat, closed and easy to keep clean. Call (602) 820-7739 or fill in the quote form and we will look at the damage properly first.

• 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.