polished concrete

Cement mixed with expoxy?

Sounds like a good ue for a holiday to me.

Mary

Well, it sure beats lying on a sun lounger.

There are lots of UK firms offering concrete driveways with this kind of finish. Personally, I find it tacky. Apparently, it is achieved by pressing moulds into the surface before it takes its initial set.

Here are several of the many firms offering this product:

up properly - it would annoy the hell out of me. I guess a lot of cowboys have started doing this. One near me had a burst water pipe under and he had a great time having it all smashed up for access. My neighbour has it and his has some quite bad cracks - even though some expansion joints were made.

Another link: This shows the process.

Pretty much anything looks tacky when you have blanket coverage, block pavers being the obvious example round here. In a situation where you have an existing concrete patio and want to stay below the airbricks, this seems like it could be an alternative to tiles

It certainly does :-)

We're having our first proper holiday ever in a few weeks. A cruise.

To the Arctic :-)

Mary

Hope you like food. Six meals a day on cruises you know :-)

Seen this used in Egypt - it's all over the place in Sharm el Sheikh. Watched them doing it once - looked really easy - pour the concrete, then roll out big rubber mats with the design on them - walk over the mats, then roll them up again and repeat. No idea how they get the finish though.

Gordon

The food is supposed to be excellent.

The problem, the captain told me, is the air. It shrinks one's clothes.

There'll be no lying on a sun lounger though :-)

Mary

It's very common in this area, and many firms do it - I don't, although I have been asked, and it has several + and - points

• points: It's cheaper than conventional paving. It doesn't allow weeds to grow through. It's laid usually in a day or two. It doesn't sink or move. It's stronger.

- points:

It looks cheaper than conventional paving. It can crack. Repairs are almost imnpossible. It is permanent, meaning that laying a cable or pipe will make a bollocks of it. The colour fades, leaving a miserable looking natural concrete colour. It's like a skating rink in winter. Expansion joints are cut into it after completions where weeds can then grow.

According to one of the UK firms it's an "acrylic sealant". I guess spraying that is the easy bit, but there's no sign of any aggregate on the surface, which you would normally expect with concrete.

It's 'trowelled up' like skimming - that is to say, it's laid one day and the 'fat' is brought up to the surface over a fairly long period of time, even as late as the next day, then it's imprinted and the colour added (mortar dye) and finally the acrylic sealant is applied after it's set.

Pavingexpert has a few pages about it somewhere.

Interesting about the colour. In this case I don't think there is any added colour to fade. It looks to me just like sealed cement. I suppose the slipperiness would depend on the surface texture but might explain why it wouldn't be used in public areas in UK. It certainly looked good contrasted with the flora in Greece, and gets cleaned when it rains, unlike our council paving that gets progressively dirtier.

As others have said, but more info here:

And about the possible sealants, here:

There are 4 main types of sealants........

• Water-based Emulsions * Solvent-based Acrylics * Moisture Cured Urethanes (aka SPPU's - Specialist Pre-Polymer Urethanes) * Hydrated Polymer Glues

The most commonly specified sealants in the UK are the acrylics and urethanes.

Thanks. Very informative site

Thanks, I don't ever want to see it again. ;-)

It is not an alternative to tiles. It is a full depth concrete slab whose upper surface is finished with those dreadful rubber moulds.

It might look great to some people when it is relatively new, but it has all the usual problems with mass concrete slabs and will look very unattractive after a couple of years.

By then, the cowboys who installed it will have gone bust several times and re-opened for business the following day under a slightly different name each time. There won't be any comebacks. Your warranty, such as it was, will have gone the way of hundreds of thousands of double glazing warranties: Kaput.

The final verdict will be that of the people you try to sell your house to. They will regard your cracked and flaking driveway as a liability,and reduce their offer by the cost of removing the old slabs and putting in a brand new drive.

You may have gathered that I don't like these drives. To me, they are about as attractive as Jack and Vera Duckworth's "stone" cladding. ;-)

...

Hundreds of thousands.

Hmm.

Evidence?

Mary