How to make painted walk non-skid?

[Bennett Price]

My concrete walk needs to be repainted. Does one just sprinkle beach sand on the wet paint to make it non-skid? Are there special non-skid paints? Suggestions and advice welcome.

thanks

[Tom The Great]

I've been told beach sand was a good idea, but there are special types of granduals that hold up better. Kind of stuff used in 'sand blasting', it has many edges for making them more nonskid and adhearing to the paint.

Some of these granuals are suppose to be availble at home stores.

Now imho, I think the type of paint you are using has a strong effect on the life expectancy of any thing you put down. Have you looked into those epoxy paints?

later,

tom @

[JillAdams]

I thought of beach sand but I couldn't find sand course enough. I dont think any beach would have sand course enough. Someone mentioned I go to my local sand, brick etc dealer. I went down and asked if they had any course sand and they said they had some silica I could try. They gave me bag of it to try. It worked out perfectly.

What I did was lightly sprinkle some of the silica granules in the decking sealent after I used a paint roller to roll it on. I did that a year ago and I'm thinging I should have just mixed the granules and decking sealent together in the paint tray since having the granules just sitting in the newly rolled sealent might not be secure enough. I do need a second coat of sealent anyway.

Bennett Price wrote:

[BobK207]

Yes, there are non-skid paints.

Addtionally there is sand sold for the purpose of adding to paint.

Either would be available at a pro paint store (Vista Paint in SoCal)

cheers Bob

[Michael Daly]

If you go to a gardening supply place, they should be able to supply you with "sharp sand". Big-box home improvement stores also sell appropriate sand additives for floor and deck paints. If you don't need much, the higher price if this stuff isn't an issue (a couple of dollars for a pound versus maybe half that at another type of supplier - within the price difference of driving to the places for some folks).

Mike

[mm]

Have you tried the black volcanic sand of parts of Guatamala? Actually, I don't remember how coarse it was, but it was quite amazing to see a Pacific ocean beach with all black sand.

I had to wear my boots to the water line, because it was 60 feet from the house and I could only walk barefoot for 15 feet. I waded up the beach and then I started wondering if the tide was coming in or going out. I only had that one pair of shoes and if they washed away, I would have been in trouble.

Thanks. Good to know.

[dadiOH]

Beach sand will work just fine. Paint the walk, put sand in a salt shaker and shake away, repaint 1-2 times after the bond coat dries.

As an alternate, you could mask off areas where you don't want the non-skid then proceed as above.

As others have said, you can go buy sharp sand. I'm frugal and use sand from my yard that the gophers have kicked up. I wash and dry it first to get rid of organic matter - if your beach is an ocean one, do the same to get rid of salt.