Best way to Colour Concrete

14 Jan Best way to Colour Concrete

Color Pave supply everything you need to colour concrete a driveway/patio. We have over 50 designs and colour combinations to suit your desired choice when it comes to coloured concrete.

Here are the best ways to colour concrete:

• Integral Colour

The first method we recommend here at Color Pave is integral colouring. Integral colour is a blended oxide pigment available in a dry form that’s combined with concrete in a ready-mix truck and placed on-site for a rich, fade-resistant finished product.

When using integral colour for concrete, it is important to use the same ready-mix we provide throughout a project as sand, cement and aggregate can affect colour consistency. Another important thing to remember when installing integral colour is the amount of water you apply. Too much will lighten the colour of the project.

• Colour hardeners

Colour hardeners come as a powder, which must be applied by hand using a float or trowel to both new and existing surfaces. This may seem like hard work, but the results are worth the effort. Integral pigments colour the entire concrete matrix, whereas the colour hardeners we supply only colour the top surface layer.

Colour hardeners produce a stronger, more durable concrete surface and are an affordable option when it comes to colouring concrete.

• Tinted Sealer

A tinted sealer adds a wash of colour over the concrete while sealing the surface. Both solvent and water-based sealers can be tinted, however, solvent-based sealers give more of a solid finish. If you are looking to treat a large area with one colour, a tinted sealer could be the option for you.

Tinted sealers are applied with a sprayer or roller, which can be quite difficult because if the sealer is applied too thickly, the air displaced through the surface can’t escape, and it forms a bubble in the sealer surface.

• Acid Stain

Acid stains are one of the oldest ways to colour concrete. Acid stain is a mixture of water, hydrochloric acid, and acid-soluble metallic salts. Once the acid breaks through the tight cream at the surface of the concrete, the metallic salts get in and react chemically with the free lime at the surface of the concrete.

Here at Color Pave, we supply acid stain in a range of colours that chemically react with cured concrete to produce permanent, variegated, or translucent colour effects.

• Water-Based Stain

The final method we suggest provides unlimited colours to create custom hues. It can be applied to new or existing concrete and can be applied to cement-based overlays. We supply a low-pressure sprayer roller, which is used along with a brush and sponge to apply the water-based stain.

Should you already have damaged colour concrete, you can re-colour it, using one of the repair kits we provide here at Color Pave. If the coloured concrete is faded or broken, the repair kit can be used before the coloured/tinted re-seal process.

View our range of coloured concrete solutions here