Tim,
My garden is full of paving slabs, I cannot afford to go and buy new tiles etc, but maybe interested in painting them a terracotta color. What treatment would you recommend? I will have to take them up anyway so can pressure hose them clean and let them dry. Is there a special treatment that I should do before, during or after? The finish must be strong as I have two dogs and frost in the winter!
String Seymour
London SW11 3LY England
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String,
I have got a much better solution than painting. Paint will fail no matter how well you clean the pads. The vapor pressure from water vapor coming up through the soil will push the paint off in short order.
I would simply clean the slabs in place in place and then cover them with a 1/8 inch thick layer of colored stucco. You can add permanent dry shake pigments to the stucco and develop just about any earthtone colour.
The trick is to purchase one or two extra pads and practice on those until you achieve the texture and colour you desire. Be sure to wait 30 days for the stucco to dry to the final color. The trick to making the stucco stick is applying a coat of cement paint to the stones before you apply the stucco. Read my Concrete Overlay column for tips on how to do this.
Tim Carter
www.askthebuilder.com
W3ATB