Are you thinking about painting your concrete driveway? We recommend that you don’t jump into the project until you know the costs involved and compare them with those of professional services. Keep reading, it will likely save you a lot of money!

A question we are often asked is, “can I use concrete paint on my driveway or resurface it?” In most instances, this question is asked by people looking for the lowest cost option to improve the appearance of an unsightly piece of concrete, like a driveway.

While the sales pitch may sound like you are getting the best deal which will make a huge option, the opposite is subtly true. The sales pitch from a company promising that painting outdoor concrete is the best option will sound something like this: “We can confidently assure you that for a small investment, you can immensely improve the look of your home by painting your outdoor concrete with our special paint designed for Australian weather. Your home will look fantastic! What’s more, you can do it yourself!

Just buy the paint from Bunnings or another paint provider and it will look awesome. You will feel good about yourself for solving the eyesore and every visitor will notice how good your house looks. And who knows, perhaps next time you invite your boss to dinner he would be so impressed he or she might even give you a raise. Only good can result from a DIY home face-lift, just follow the instructions on the product.”

Then, they may even offer to do it for you at a very reasonable price and say, “to save the trouble of thinking about it, we offer to do the job for you at very reasonable rates. That way you won’t have to don your painting apparels and clean the paint off you after the job is done. Let us do the dirty work. All you have to do is watch and feast your eyes on the finished product.” Yeah, right!

Before you are taken hook, line and sinker from a slick salesperson only interested in their own commission and not the long-term satisfaction of their client, talk to a Barefoot Concrete expert, we won’t sell you the cheapest solution, but it will be the best value for the dollar you spend.

However, if you are considering “painting” a concrete floor be aware that some colour variation is likely to occur, it will never look as good as a concrete overlay that is sprayed onto the concrete by a decorative concrete expert. If any crack repairs have been done, they are likely to show through and still remain unsightly.

Again, be aware that concrete floors to be painted must be free of existing coatings, sealers or curing compounds otherwise, the colour will be unable to fully penetrate and bond to the concrete.

Over time we generally notice colour differences, faded spots, UV damage, bubbles, peeling, chipping and flaking. In the worst-case scenario the whole paint job begins to delaminate and what you end up with is a failure that now needs to be rectified.

Grinding the paint off is the only option to completely remove the unsightly problem from concrete. Therefore, what we have is a situation that instead of increasing the value of your home, now devalues it. What’s more, to get the look that you want, you need to mechanically remove the paint from the concrete and then upgrade to a concrete overlay solution that will deliver a fantastic result.

So, before you venture down the path of painting your outdoor concrete or fixing a failed concrete paint job, understand that the problem of a failing paint job most likely indicates that the concrete was not porous enough to accept the primer or paint in the first place, symptomatic of inadequate surface preparation, a very common issue when painters paint concrete.

Don’t compound the problem by trying to fix it yourself by applying more paint or sealing the painted surface, as it does nothing to fix the real problem, which is poor adhesion between the paint and the concrete. The result will be that the paint will continue to fail and your property will look worse.

Barefoot Concrete recommends a qualified applicator grinds off all the paint and prepares the concrete properly for a concrete overlay as opposed to painting it. Get in touch with us now to help you, this is what we do, and we are good at doing it!