Concrete step sealing/painting recommendations

Hi all,
so looking to get some opinions here. I have an older home from the 50’s that we moved into about 6 years ago. The front open concrete porch and steps to front door were painted and looked really good back then but have slowly started peeling last couple years. I started power washing to remove the old paint to redo it. Going take me a while as power washing is slow but it is getting down to the original concrete. My first question once I get down to original concrete is it ready to paint agian or is there something else that needs to be done like acid etching or something. My next thought is painting but is there some other methods out there that would be better so I don’t have repaint ever 5 years or so. Maybe a clear sealer or something. Any ideas will be helpful. Thx

 

Bare concrete is safer, it won't get as slick as sealed concrete when wet. If you can remove 95% or more of the existing paint and want color - I'd use a concrete stain. It won't peel like paint is prone to.

 

A lot depends on how good the concrete looks. Staining looks good on new concrete but if you cant get all the paint off it may look bad.

Thats the problem when making the decision to paint concrete or brick or stone, once you go that route its nearly impossible to go back!