Refinishing patio concrete-slab

[gary]

I live in Riverside, California (halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs).

My house is 35 years old.

Six or seven times during this period, I've applied UN-DILUTED Muriatic Acid to clean the concrete slab on my patio. Now the slab is now very rough (it hurts to walk on with bare feet).

Although I can't pour another thick layer of concrete over the existing slab, can I apply a thin overlay to cover the old, dirty, stained and pitted concrete to result in a smoother and good-looking slab?

Can a fairly-knowledgeable homeowner do this project?

What product(s) are needed?

What steps are involved?

How durable is the overlay? (The concrete slab is hosed off several times a week to remove leaves and dirt. Also, the patio is surrounded by flower beds, potted plants are on the slab and hanging pots are above the patio. All get watered several times a week).

How long will the overlay last?

[gary]

I live in Riverside, California (halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs).

My house is 35 years old.

Six or seven times during this period, I've applied UN-DILUTED Muriatic Acid to clean the concrete slab on my patio. Now the slab is now very rough (it hurts to walk on with bare feet).

Although I can't pour another thick layer of concrete over the existing slab, can I apply a thin overlay to cover the old, dirty, stained and pitted concrete to result in a smoother and good-looking slab?

Can a fairly-knowledgeable homeowner do this project?

What product(s) are needed?

What steps are involved?

How durable is the overlay? (The concrete slab is hosed off several times a week to remove leaves and dirt. Also, the patio is surrounded by flower beds, potted plants are on the slab and hanging pots are above the patio. All get watered several times a week).

How long will the overlay last?

[gary]

I live in Riverside, California (halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs).

My house is 35 years old. Six or seven times during this period, I've applied UN-DILUTED Muriatic Acid to clean the concrete slab on my patio. Now the slab is now very rough (it hurts to walk on with bare feet).

Although I can't pour another thick layer of concrete over the existing slab,can I apply a thin overlay to cover the old, dirty, stained and pitted concrete to result in a smoother and good-looking slab?

Is this project only for professionals or can a homeowner do it?

What product(s) are needed?

What steps are involved?

How durable is the overlay? (The concrete slab is hosed off several times a week to remove leaves and dirt. Also, the patio is surrounded by flower beds, potted plants are on the slab and hanging pots are above the patio. All get watered several times a week).

How long will the overlay last?

[RicodJour]

Unfortunately for you, undiluted muriatic acid is probably the worst thing you could have used. The directions on the bottle usually direct you to use a particular diluted solution for a given surface. Pressure washing would have given you and equally clean surface and not eaten away the surface (unless you're really heavy handed with the pressure washer).

There are epoxy resurfacing products that will last a good while and not add too thick of a topping. This will get you started:

R

[nowforsale]

in excess muriatic acid might cause some severe etching resulting in cracking, hopefully you irrigated the concrete sufficiently with water after applying the muriatic acid to prevent long term damage

perhaps one of the better overlays you could use would be something like quickrete concrete resurfacer, which is designed to repair spalled concrete like yours - it is very durable and should last a long time

before going with something as permanent as quickrete concrete resurfacer (which at $25 a bag it also costs significantly more than concrete which sells for about $3.50 per bag), you might try something lighter, like mixing portland cement with water till it is about the consistency of paint, then brushing it onto the surface - might not last long since the plants are watered often, making the quickrete concrete resurfacer mentioned above better in this application - might want to experiment and see which works best

[raven]

OK, first off: STOP THAT.

What you've done is etch away to cement and exposed the sand and aggregate. Over time this will wear smooth again, but you may not want to wait.

Rent a concrete floor grinder and you should be able to take off the high spots: then relax and stop typing to keep the concrete pristine white: let it gain character and -be- the zero maintenance surface it's supposed to be.

Overlays and coatings are a crummy solution to the problem IMHO.

John