I love the way the epoxy looks, but there are minor imperfections, such as trapped lint and small bubbles, that keep the surface from looking like a perfect sheet of glass. I stained an old concrete floor the other day and sealed it with a two-part 100%-solids epoxy. EPOXY IN SAWCUTS LEAVES WHITE HAZE Question: For the rest of the answer, read Blisters, Bubbles on Sealer Surface. While they don't always occur, there remains a chance they can show up. What are these, and how do I get rid of them? Answer:Īccording to several coating chemists in my resource network, as well as from my own personal experience, bubbles and blisters in sealers and coatings are always a concern. Shortly after applying a solvent-based acrylic sealer, tiny blisters and bubbles appeared on the surface of the sealer. Need professional help with your sealer problems? Find concrete contractors near me. They provide nice gloss, good color development, and greatly reduce callbacks. Consider using a solvent-based acrylic sealer with an 18% to 20% solids content. Lower solids also reduce the risk of slipping accidents. Lower solids allow moisture and air to move through the sealer easier. Less is more, and this is especially true when sealing decks around pools and hot tubs. Use a sealer with a solids content of less than 20%. Lighter-texture seamless patterns with simple sawcuts or large light-texture stone patterns work best. Pool decks are wet to start, so the combination can be especially bad. If you have lots of "grout" lines and or lots of rough texture, water will puddle in those low areas. Dark colors show everything, especially all the chemical residue from pool water, including chlorine, bromine and salt. If this does not work, you will probably need to strip off some or all of the sealer.įor any exterior stamped concrete that will be sealed, and especially pool decks, I have a few hard, fast recommendations: A xylene bath (lightly soaking the problem area with a xylene solvent and back rolling) is the first step. To fix the problem, I would wait until the winter is over and you get some warmer weather. Have you had any major wet weather events in the weeks prior to this occurring? As with most decorative concrete issues, it could be a combination of both of these things, with a little efflorescence thrown in for good measure. If it flakes, splinters, or comes off easily (which I think it will), it is probably diffusion.Īnother thing it may be is moisture condensation trapped under the sealer. If the sealer holds and does not flake, it may be something else. To confirm this diagnosis, do a sealer-adhesion scratch test or just lightly scratch the sealer with a key or some other hard blunt-end object. Moisture-vapor pressure, contamination or over-application of the sealer can cause this problem. The small air gap that now exists between the sealer and concrete causes the light to diffuse and create the grayish-white cloudy look. Without getting into complex physics, the sealer has lifted (even if only by micro-meters) and it causes the discoloration. This phenomenon, where the sealer is no longer adhered to the concrete, looks a lot like efflorescence from a distance, but on closer inspection is actually more gray or cloudy. Instead, this looks like sealer diffusion. These white spots are actually more gray, and they don't have the look of efflorescence. What is causing the white spots, and what percent of acrylic sealer or type of sealer do you recommend for a stamped pool deck? Answer:įrom the picture, it appears that efflorescence may not be the problem. We then applied one coat of sealer diluted with xylene followed by a second coat rolled on full strength. Before resealing, we cleaned the deck with a mild acid wash, neutralized, and then allowed the sealer to dry. We applied the sealer to a test area about three months before we resealed, and there did not seem to be any issues. We used a 30%-solids solvent-based acrylic sealer. About a month ago, we resealed the deck and now it has white spots (see photo). The last time the pool deck was sealed was about three years ago. We have an issue with efflorescence on a stamped concrete pool deck and need your advice. The grayish-white spots on this pool deck may indicate sealer diffusion, a condition in which the sealer lifts from the concrete.
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