Making concrete porch slip resistant

[thatguy]

We have a wrap around porch and a small side porch (250 sq ft) that are VERY slick when they are wet.. We are considering doing the front area of the wrap around porch then just a 38" walk way on the side.. Going with a walk way will cut the sq ft in half vs doing the full porch..

Looking at several options -

1) have a company come in and do a concrete overlay/spray deck on the porches - ( ex Sprayed Concrete Overlay Virginia, Concrete Restoration | Decorative Concrete of Virginia (VA) )

OR

2) DIY your products like Valspar Anti-skip porch and floor paint, Rust Oleum Restore, or Olympic Rescue-It... But none seem to get great reviews

This is not something we want to do ever year,

Any suggestions on a product that would work and last a while?

Brian

 

[PILOON]

I had an uncle that was a commercial artist and painter.
His trick was to gently throw dry sand on wet paint or varnish.
A second coat really embeds the sand for great traction.

 

[boggen]

prep work... prep work... and hhmmss more prep work! there is a lot of stuff for concrete. each product is going to be different in how it bonds to the concrete. wrong type of prep work and you will get pealing, bubbling, cracking and flaking of what ever you put on it.

some may call for a mutric acid / water mix washing before hand. some may require some sort of "primer" to be put down. some stuff may require certain temperatures / humidity levels, and correct timing between coats. some may require correct "tacky-ness" or stickey-ness before next coat goes down, some stuff may require a full cure before next coat goes down. concrete may need to age / cure long enough (if putting in fresh poured concrete)

with you going around house. shad vs amount of sun and time of day can have effects on the coats ya put on.

make sure you read the fine print / follow directions, and call up manufacture before hand, to double check stuff with what ever you end up using.

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some google search key terms for ya...

garage floor treatment
pool concrete covering
concrete floor sealer
epoxy garage floor

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there are various "spray on" stuff for pools/ponds to act like a sealer. this also goes into "spray on bed products" for coating back of pickup truck beds. to "spray on" roofing liners.

there also a lot of paint on / roll on stuff as well. many times a 2 part mix (mix 1 part A, and mix 2 parts B) or some such.

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to note it one more time PREP WORK!

 

[boggen]

I had an uncle that was a commercial artist and painter.
His trick was to gently throw dry sand on wet paint or varnish.
A second coat really embeds the sand for great traction.

have done this a couple times. i goofed up though. i should of taken time. and found a piece of plywood, or cardboard, or something. and do some test runs.

tossing some sand into varnish and trying to mix it really well up in a jar (didn't work to well for me, and left large almost like rock size clumps / spikes)

rolling / painting on some varnish and trying to hand throw "play sand" or "blaster sand" ended up giving me "lumps" of lots of sand here and there but not really spread out.

============
i think, it took a couple times. of using a belt sander. and then using multi layers. wet varnish some sand, wet varnish then some sand wet varnish then some sand. and doing multi coats and a little bit of sand each time. to get something half way. but nothing near a professional job look / feel to it.

---EDIT--- i take above back. i finally gave up. belt sanded the area back down. and went out and bought some sticky tape with kinda like a sand paper top to it for a non slick surface. and said done. a couple strips came off, and i washed area put another sticky back down. and said good enough.

 

[CalG]

Just wash the concrete down with the muriatic acid, Full strength if you have protective gear enough ;-)

Let the acid etc, then wash it off. Test on a sample bit before making the big splash...You may or may not like the outcome, but it sure does tooth up steel trowel flat work.

 

[oosik]

I applied a fairly thick goop with plastic beads in it. The only "prep work" was a good washing with hot soapy water to remove all grease & oil. Its been on the deck eleven years now and is still doing well. I bought the stuff at Lowes or Home Depot.

If I were to do it again - I'd use a high pressure washer with a liquid soap injection hose.

 

[Luke'sScreenName]

Tile over it?

 

[DrRod]

I've had great results from sprinkling sand on wet paint -- on both wood and concrete. Doesn't take much and has lasted for years.

Along with tile, maybe an easy answer is astro turf and the like. They have some surprisingly good looking stuff at HD or Lowes and unless you have a lot of cutouts its very easy to install.

 

[Coyote machine]

Get a concrete guy to grind the porch down with a circular large area disk grinder to remove the slickness, and leave a swirl pattern on the surface.

 

[4570Man]

If you decide to spread sand in wet paint it seems like a handheld fertilize spreader would help a lot.