[villagetinker]

Originally Posted by HappyTraveler

I have an appt next week with a professional to come talk about my situation so I will pose these questions to him but, since you have experience with this, I'd like to ask a few of you, please.

1) Is the staining a one-coat process and then one sealer coat?
2) If so, would that also mean it tends to be less expensive than painting?
3) On a driveway that has Southern exposure all day - how would you quantify a stain "lasting a long time"?
4) When staining with a clear coat to finish -- is Shark Grip also necessary like it would be on a painted surface?
5) If the job would include staining some newly poured concrete in addition to 30 yr old concrete -- would the resulting coloring be the same on both?

Thank you!

1. In our case yes this was a one step process, and clear was never applied.
2. You should never PAINT a driveway (or any outdoor concrete surface), regular paint will not last. Our contractor used a XYLENE based product for Sherwin Williams, which is actually a concrete stain.
3.Since a driveway is essentially flat I do not see how a southern exposure would be any different, ours lasted almost 10 years, and several other homes in the area have had the same experience.
4. IMHO, any coating applied to a driveway needs to have a NON SLIP finish, in our case the shark grip was added to the stain, we never had the driveway clear coated, but if we did it would have shark grip added.
5. The product we used was opaque, so I would expect the colors would be the same on new and old concrete. NOTE: if the finish of the concrete is different, then you may see or perceive a difference in the color due to the finish.

I hope this answers your questions, if not send me a PM and we can discuss further over the phone.