hi,
i have a new driveway and I put the penetrating water based concrete sealer (water/salt repellent) on it last week. I put two coats and didn't drive on it as instructed.

We had a couple of days of rain after about 48 hours of application and the repellent worked great.....water would just role down the driveway and i would say 99% of the driveway was looking as if it was DRY. Then, after the rain, i noticed small pools (4 inch by 2 inch or so) gathering....after underneath, the concrete was wet!

I'm worried that this is going to mean salt water is going to go through in the winter and i'm going to have the pitting issues i've had to deal with.

Do i need an additional coat?
Is what i described normal? no matter how much sealer i put on?

 

I'm not sure how successful any sealant is going to be long term on a driveway. Between the UV rays and traffic the coating is apt to get worn off. Any moisture that comes up from underneath the sealer can cause it to blister or cloud up.

 

how did you prepare the conc surface ? where'd you buy the sealer ? we typically reseal once a year w/methyl-methacrylate laced solvent-based acrylic sealer which protects decorative concrete coatings - its also uv-resistant,,, cost is $ 165 per 5gal & its cut w/xylene 1 1/2:1 - 2 coat system,,, was yours water-based ?

 

UPDATE:

You just have to wait a few more days for the penetrating sealer to work 100%. We had another rain storm last night (5 days after the application of the sealer). No water got through the sealer. the concrete is completely dry! The stuff is pretty impressive actually. As much as i liked the color of the concrete before the sealer, and how dark it got, i have to say that having the protection against freeze and thaw and the avoidance of spalling is worth it!



ps. to answer your question marksr: mine is water based. penetrating. doesn't change the appearance of the concrete, etc. It works much differently than the acrylic film forming sealers, which sounds like what you have. The penetrating sealers go into the pours and actually chemically react with the concrete, thus prevent water/salt from going into the concrete. The acrylic, film forming sealers still let water/salt through, so if you are in an area like northern va where we have a lot of freeze/thaw issues, i think the penetrating sealers are the way to go. It needs to be reapplied every 3-4 years for maximum effect. Good luck.

 

thanks for the reply & info,,, i shall forward your comments to the makers of ' CSS ',,, they may be surprised as its the most often sealer used by eliteCrete licensed installers & an industry standard for decorative & regular conc

 

I stand corrected again.....i now see that water/moisture is getting through even after the 5 days i mentioned in my previous reply. I'm afraid that this will cause spalling like before....but i was told by the company that it won't.

anyway, i'm still getting moisture spots underneath small puddles after rain. These evaporate but sometimes take 1 or 2 days to fully disappear!

 

' spalling ' is an entirely different issue & often caused by 2 adjoining slabs frinding against each other,,, it can also be caused by unsealed jnts becoming filled w/incompressibles - when hi-temps cause conc to expand, spalling occurs - there are companies who make a living just sealing jnts & crks

marksr, even using CSS, i have to reseal our d/w throat annually,,, usually i run a lo-rpm buffer & blk pad across it 1st w/xylene scrub which removes old sealer yet doesn't harm the color