Want To Do Something With Bare Concrete Driveway - Suggestions Please
 

Just what the title says. We'd like to finally put some sort of surface on our bare concrete driveway, and probably sidewalk and other connected concrete areas. We're not looking for real fancy patterns, but will consider anything that keeps the driveway looking decent, is washable, and is durable.

Thanks. :)

Pavers..Took me 7 years of searching make up my mind if few break changed them out any other coatings on a driveway or walkway fade over time require constant maintenance maintained maintenance

a few of us on our street had a local guy paint our driveways....it was a two day project (base coat and design/sealer)

the color compliments the house color...we all had different designs in the middle and around the edges of the driveways It looks as nice after a year as it did when it was done

Fellow's name was Roger....unfortunately his invoice doesn't have any contact information on it...and he didn't have a card...
like I said...just a local guy with a truck trying to make a living. I would guess that he's working the Southern Oaks area

We inherited a textured drive, In 6 years, our first reseal, and fix some issues $800.00, next reseal $600. This week had king create reseal $1100. So far they did the best job, and guys were great. We do have a full 2 car and cart drive.

If I had my choice I would love a bare driveway

Why

Have had 9 new homes in Florida some with long driveways . I’ve had beautiful landscaping but never spent a dime on the driveway and I or visitors never noticed. FYI my homes were also decorated well but I never spent a dime on garage floor and I or visitors never noticed . What’s The Point

We had ours painted with a Xylene based paint, and a cobblestone design. Driveways by Jay did the work, but I heard is is no longer doing this, too bad he did a really nice job. That was over 5 years ago, just getting ready for the first reseal. One very important point, make sure who ever does your drive uses shark grip or equal slip reducer on these surfaces or you will have an ice skating rink (slippery) surface when they are wet.

Most people use a concrete stain, which goes on like paint and costs about $1,000. Then, it needs to be sealed every year or so. To me, it is a waste of money. I prefer the bare concrete.

You “keep the bare concrete” people have me reconsidering that option. :)

Any suggestions on how to clean it? Or who who be good to hire to clean it?

I think Egners, 352-758-8537, will clean it as part of their house washing service. I used a product called "Pour-N- Restore" to remove an oil stain. There are also other products to remove rust stains. I wouldn't use bleach on it because that can make a permanent stain.

I prefer plain concrete but a lot of driveways, like ours, develop black stains. This I thought was the residue of "black mold" but I was recently told by a neighbor that minerals in the concrete may be causing the stains.

This makes some sense because the stains have discrete edges and it hard to imagine how mold would grow on sun baked concrete with discrete edges. Also, I power washed my concrete so that it was perfectly clean and in a couple of years the stains were back in the same locations. "Wet and Forget" has had no effect on them.

So, if somebody has a suggestion for preventing these black stains on unpainted concrete, I would love to hear them.

So, if it is minerals in the concrete, wouldn't a concrete coating make the situation worse? You wouldn't be able to clean the black stain. My driveway develops a black stain where the downspout discharges water. I think it is mold or tar from the roof.

Many of the stains on Concrete are from the sand when the Concrete was produced.

If I had it to do over again it would still be just Plain Concrete.

We’ve used Wet & Forget Outdoor Cleaner On our driveway. Over a period of weeks, the black stains disappeared, and it stayed clean. We love the stuff!

Been here 19 years. We like it plain concrete, seen our neighbors spend a fortune on their driveways over the years. It's a driveway, you drive your cars on it, leave it concrete, put the money to upgrades inside your home that you'll enjoy over the years, or into great vacations.