Query on ageing a driveway

[sbbuk1968]

Hello all

Ive just moved into a house with a brand new horrid rainbow coloured drive, Somthing like the chantres vendage that can be seen at..

ideas/advise on how I can age this or grey it etc etc. I know this will prob happen naturally but would like to help it along. Its about 5 X 6 Meters.

As at the moment I feel like bungle from rainbow ;)

Thanks in adavnce Steve

[Nigel Molesworth]

Wait till the weather is warmer, cover it in milk.

[The Medway Handyman]

Or yoghurt, or liquid fertiliser.

[SJP]

"Its about 5 X 6 Meters."

Gas or Electricity Meters?

[Nigel Molesworth]

Good catch! ;-)

[sbb]

:) Its was early here in the UK when i posted (Thats my excuse anyway)

Thanks for the suggestions, will give it a go.

[Andy Hall]

Being concrete, it will age and pale anyway quite quickly - within a year or so.

Other than that, wait about a month until it's a little warmer, then obtain some horse manure and some milk (large quantities of milk).

Brush on and leave for a few days and then brush off.

[Dave Fawthrop]

|On 25 Feb 2006 01:19:17 -0800, [e-mail] wrote: | |>Any ideas/advise on how I can age this or grey it etc etc. | |Wait till the weather is warmer, cover it in milk.

Yoghurt mixed with water, is more traditional. Get the cheapest you can from the local Asian Supermarket. It gives some food for algae to grow on and gives a greenish tinge. The recipe used to be cow clap, water and soot, but we are more ?civilized? nowadays ;-)

[Nigel Molesworth]

But can be expensive.

Visiting a dairy farm is worthwhile, you can buy a couple of gallons of contaminated milk for the price of a pint.

[Dave Fawthrop]

|On Sat, 25 Feb 2006 11:32:37 +0000, Dave Fawthrop wrote: | |>Yoghurt mixed with water, is more traditional. | |But can be expensive.

Not the cheap stuff from your local Asian supermarket as I recommended.

[Nigel Molesworth]

I guess it depends where you live.

I've got three dairy farms within a 2 mile radius, but I can't remember the last time I saw an "Asian supermarket "

[Roberts]

Buy a diesel Landrover, it will leak oil everywhere and you will have a black drive that is waterproof. Then sell the Landrover on Ebay! Robert

[Andy Hall]

That's only the old ones.

[salesguy]

As others have posted, you can use milk/yoghurt/manure to promote the growth of moss/lichen to give the drive an artificial 'old' appearance.

The other method, which will immediately dull the colours is to use brick acid on what I assume to be concrete pavers. This will eat away the top layer of coloured 'fines' in the blocks and expose more of the aggregate, thus reducing the brightness of the colour.

A couple of warnings - firstly, try out the acid & the effect of longer/shorter times on a couple of spare blocks. The acid does not need to be left on long before it is washed off with copious amounts of water. Secondly, it can be hard to get the same look across the whole drive.

Brick acid can be obtained from most builders merchants.

I sold block paving for about 6 years, and have seen this done to several drives where the new, bright paving looked awful in front of old houses!!

Best of luck

SalesGuy

[sbb]

Thanks for that and all your replies. Will def give it a go.

[Rick]

Cover in nautral youghert, or buy an old landrover that leaks oil :-)

Rick