Stamped Concrete Sealing

After my stamped concrete patio was poured, it needed to be sealed. First, you should wait about a month so the concrete can cure. The contractors who installed my concrete patio did the first seal (which looked great), but after a couple of years, the rich color had faded a bit, so it was time for me to freshen it up. In a fortunate coincidence, I was chatting with a co-worker of my wife at a shin-dig over at my house and they introduced me to their friends who are in the concrete business. Torrey & Cindy Thomas at Edge Concrete were much more knowledgeable than the folks who actually did my deck - wish I had them do the project - D'OH! ;-)

Based on their recommendation, I did the following which worked great:
1. Purchase 5 Gallon drum of Dayton J-25 Aggre-Gloss sealer ($140 at Colorado Materials in Longmont), 16 ounce container of Rhino-grip/Shark-Tooth/Sure-Step/etc. grip additive ($20 at CM) and 1 gallon of xylene ($20 at Home Depot). I used a roller with 3/8" nap - you can also use a sprayer but be careful of clogging.
2. You need about a 3 day window with no rain. Ideal weather conditions are moderate temperatues with clouds - if too hot & sunny, then you'll get some bubbling, especially if you let the sealer puddle. And you don't want overnight temps to get too cold.
3. Really, really, really clean the stamped concrete patio. I hit it hard with a pressure washer (twice actually!) and then let it dry for 24 hours. I then did a final dust-off with a leaf blower.
4. Dump grip additive in 5 Gallon Drum of sealer and shake/roll well and let it dissolve in. Shake again just before using.
5. Combine 2.0 gallons of sealer & 1 gallon of xylene and use roller to spread first coat - probably best to do in the evening.
6. After letting it dry overnight, apply second coat (probably not needed for vertical surfaces/edging) of straight sealer the next morning.
7. Go back the next day and then a week or so later for touchup and use up the last of the Aggre-Gloss.

While some people seal their stamped concrete annually to keep that rich "wet look", I've done it every 2-3 years.
Here's a time-lapse video of me sealing the concrete patio in 2019 ... plus an extended version with color commentary! ;-)
Video showing the second coat applied with color commentary.


Note: One time I was a knucklehead and tried using the cheaper concrete sealer from Home Depot - this was a disaster! It peeled up within weeks and basically looked like crap. Torrey had warned me about this but I had forgotten - D'OH!

Alek rolling the sealer on the stamped concrete patio

stamped concrete halfway

Love the "Wet Look"

stamped concrete done

Original application of concrete sealer by the contractors

concrete sealing 1

Periodic Sealing brings out that rich color of the Stamped Concrete

concrete sealing 2