Concrete Coatings vs Sealers: Which One Suits Your Project?

what's up guys and welcome back to the concrete Edge right here on deoc creete TV my name's Jeff and on today's show we're going to take an in-depth look at the difference between concrete sealers and Coatings and which one you should never use outside so stay tuned and you're going to learn all about [Music] it so whether you've been pouring concrete your entire life or if you've never eaten even seen a concrete truck before I mean you probably all know that most concrete needs to be sealed but is that the same thing as a concrete coating I mean we all know that in this business I mean there are a lot of situations where people use different terms but they actually mean the same thing in the end so what is the difference between concrete sealers and Coatings well I can tell you that there is a lot more to it than just some people calling it sealing and other people calling it a coating so we're going to go through each of them separately I mean concrete acrylic sealers and Concrete Coatings I mean they do both form a film on the surface of the concrete but they really go their separate ways from there so we're going to get things started with acurlic sealers and this is the stuff that we spray on exterior concrete every day I mean for stamp concrete broom smooth finish or I mean pretty much any other be slab of concrete acrylic sealer is just the go-to option for a lot of contractors I mean penetrating sealer might be a better option when it comes to broom concrete driveways and interior floors and in most situations it probably be better off with a concrete coating but a Clic sealer is inexpensive easy to use and it requires a lot less time and tools to install uh than Coatings do so it might not be the very best option for every situation but it's the one that will work in pretty much all situations so the acrylic resin that's in these sealers I mean it starts out as a solid substance and then during the manufacturing process it gets melted down into a liquid form I mean kind of like dissolving sugar into water and what a Clic resin really wants to do is get back to that solid state and it'll do so all on its own without any kind of chemical reaction I mean it's really just sitting there waiting for someone to spray it on some concrete so that carrying agent can evaporate off and it can get back to his hardened State again I mean all it needs is to get out of that bucket and a little bit of air flow and it'll do the rest on its own now because of the chemical makeup of concrete sealers and its low viscosity I mean they're able to bond themselves right to the surface of the concrete slab without open any of the pores up now I mean the more open the pores are the better it will stick and it'll probably last a lot longer but these sealers are definitely made to spray right on the concrete so if concrete sealers and Coatings both form of film I mean then why can we put sealer on exterior concrete but Coatings are generally an interior thing well that film that gets left behind is just going to be a lot less dense than that of a concrete coating and I mean if you were going to look at these two different films under a microscope you'd see that it's got a little tiny air pockets in it kind of like the concrete does it's just that the acrylic is going to have bigger air pockets and more of them than the coating wood and the acrylic sealer is going to get spread out a lot thinner now all this stuff is going to help that sealer let moisture pass up through it and Escape now I mean you can definitely make a Clic sealer unbreathable really fast by just over applying it but if used properly it won't let that moisture pressure build in the slab to the point of damaging the sealer now one last thing about acrylic sealers before we move on to Coatings is that they will wear away over time and at some point they're just going to need to be reapply now this is definitely a bit of a downside for acrylic sealers I mean to my knowledge no one's figured out yet a way of making a sealer that is both breathable and permanent all at the same time I the film just needs to be a little bit softer in order to function and that means it is going to break down now the good thing about this is that it can be melted again and it doesn't require any abrasion to recat now this means we can just clean the surface of the concrete really well and reapply sealer as needed now don't get me wrong here resealing stamp concrete certainly is tricky business but my point is that if you can melt the sealer it can be recoated without any abrasion so on to the Concrete Coatings and this would be things like poly spartic polyurethane or epoxy and I mean these products on the other hand they don't start out as a solid I mean most cases these are going to actually be a byproduct of some other kind of manufacturing process and there need they're going to need to go through a chemical reaction in order to harden and most of these are going to be two-part products so you're going to have to Mix A and B together to start that reaction I mean even in the case of rockard urethane which is a single component moisture cure urethane I mean there's no A or B to mix together but it is still a two-part Coating in the sense that it needs something to get things started and in this case that thing is going to be moisture I mean once you spread this stuff out it is going to instantly start looking for moisture in the air to harden itself and this is kind of like the be now this is still different than a curly concrete stealer though I mean if you were going to put rock hard urethane in an environment that did have air flow but zero moisture I mean it's just never going to get hard now when it comes to bonding uh Coatings to the concrete I mean things are going to be different here as well as opposed to acrylic sealer now the chemical makeup of epoxy versus poly spartic versus polyurethane I mean they are all different but they have this one thing in common they're all going to create a lot denser film than AC Clic and they're going to go on a lot thicker some of them really thick now remember those little microscopic air pockets we were talking about earlier I mean for Coatings those air pockets are going to just be a lot smaller and there's going to be less of them compared to Clic sealer so what this does is it allows them to get closer together and that makes that coating really really dense now there are so many great things that a film like that can do for you but there are some downsides now one of them is that they're going to require profile or at very least really open pores to get down into and grab on so unlike sealers Coatings need to go on concrete that's either been ground or shot blasted open otherwise they just won't Bond long term now another downside is that they are going to be a lot less breathable than a curle now that dense film is just really not going to let much uh moisture pass up through it so if moisture gets trapped or somehow Finds Its way under the SLB I mean it's just going to eventually end up building to the point of failure and this is really one of the main reasons that manufacturers don't recommend these kind of products outdoors I mean the easiest way to put it is if the concrete needs to breathe Coatings just aren't a good idea at all not to mention the fact that some of them aren't even UV stable anyways so that really dense film that Concrete Coatings create I mean it does get incredibly hard and extremely durable to abrasions and chemicals I mean a klic sealer wouldn't even stand a chance to holding up to the kind of abuse that Concrete Coatings can handle now I'm not going to say that they're always going to look like they did the day they were installed but these products won't just wear away over time like a Clic I mean if installed properly they can literally last a lifetime now the downside to to that really hard durable film is that it's going to need to be up braided if you're ever going to Reco it I mean you won't be able to just melt into it like you coat on acrylic sealer and some sort of sanding at the very least is going to need to be done to get the coats to together now the good thing is that Concrete Coatings really need to be recoded but it's just something to consider before you decide to use one so we're going to finish up by recapping the main points here uh so for acrylic sealers the pros are they're inexpensive and easy to use uh they will harden all on their own without adding anything to it they can Bond directly to the concrete they are breathable and they can be recoated without abrasion now the cons that the concrete sealers would be uh that they will wear away over time and they're going to need to be recoated uh they don't hold up very well to most chemicals uh you can't put them on very thick and for interior floors I mean it's just concrete sealer it's not actual flooring now for the Coatings the pros would be that they won't just wear away over time time and they rarely ever need to be recoded the top coats get extremely durable and Coatings are really a legit permanent flooring option the cons would be they don't get hard on their own and they're going to need to be mixed with a catalyst uh they're going to need to have open pores or even a profile to grab onto so you will have to grind the floor first they are not breathable and they should be used interior only and if you ever do need to recat them they're going to need some abrasion first well guys that's pretty much it for this week's show hopefully this video was helpful to for you guys to understand if a concrete sealer or a coating is going to be the right choice for your next decorative concrete project I got to say thank you guys so much for taking the time to watch these videos man we just really appreciate all the support that you guys show to the channel every week by always tuning in and just hitting those couple little buttons down there like and subscribed if you aren't already hit the share button share it on social media uh please leave us a comment if we missed anything or if you guys have any questions on concrete sealers or Coatings now if you already are already subscribed just don't forget about that little bell icon so you don't miss any of our upcoming videos and it really does help our Channel out so from all of us here at deocr TV thanks for watching and we'll see you next time

Channel: Deco-Crete TV

Views: 5,399

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Id: dSz71y4uKcU

Length: 9min 12sec (552 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 03 2023