How should I finish this concrete deck

We are building a house. It’s being built by a builder to lockup stage - and then I will take over and owner-build it from there. Changeover should be in about 2 months. Currently I’m doing research and project plans so that I be well prepared for the job ahead.

My current issue is with the downstairs deck. This is concrete - in fact it’s part of the house slab but is set down by about 75mm. The Concreters finished it off with a swirl texture and a neatly rounded edge - as per the photo. Now I’m wondering how to finish it. I was expecting to tile it, but now I’m wondering if I can avoid the cost and labour. Maybe I could just seal the concrete?

Further facts: the deck faces north, is about 15-18 sq Meters, is actually in the shape of two rounded triangles, is largely under cover, is about 1 metre off the ground, will have three steel posts on it, and has a gently domed surface for runoff.

What are my options for finishing this deck?

I want a nice job but it’s an upside down house and most of the living will be done upstairs where there is a much larger deck which will get used a lot - so it doesn’t have to be a showpiece.

Any suggestions appreciated.

Cheers
Arron

Whats you budget?

First, I wish that you had asked sooner. There are coloring options that can be done to concrete. But that is water under the dam.

Second, the swirls are done deliberately as a safety precaution. With a little bit of texture the concrete doesn't become as slippery as ice when wet. Here it is a liability prevention issue for both the home owner and the cement contractor.

Third, what are your goals in finishing?
I would leave it as is. No future finishing headaches.
You could use a flat, long handle shovel as a scraper. Use the shovel like you are trying to sharpen the shovel. This will knock a lot of the high parts of the swirl pattern down but still leave the anti-slip properties.
You could paint it with epoxy garage floor paint. Especially after treating with an 8 to 1 mix of muriatic (HCl) acid and rinse thoroughly. Any kind of paint leads to maintenance issues for years to come. Being it is Northern exposure (That threw me for a bit.) the UV exposure could be disastrous.

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Originally Posted by rwbuild

Whats you budget?

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It’s not really a budgetary issue. We were expecting to pay for professional tiling of a medium priced tile for this space, so anything less then that is a bonus.

I’m just curious to know what people are using. I’m oriented towards simple, sealed concrete. I don’t remember ever seeing this done on a balcony, but maybe it is common. On the other hand Im really just putting the question out there to see what people come up with.

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Originally Posted by rrich

First, I wish that you had asked sooner. There are coloring options that can be done to concrete. But that is water under the dam.

Second, the swirls are done deliberately as a safety precaution. With a little bit of texture the concrete doesn't become as slippery as ice when wet. Here it is a liability prevention issue for both the home owner and the cement contractor.

Third, what are your goals in finishing?
I would leave it as is. No future finishing headaches.
You could use a flat, long handle shovel as a scraper. Use the shovel like you are trying to sharpen the shovel. This will knock a lot of the high parts of the swirl pattern down but still leave the anti-slip properties.
You could paint it with epoxy garage floor paint. Especially after treating with an 8 to 1 mix of muriatic (HCl) acid and rinse thoroughly. Any kind of paint leads to maintenance issues for years to come. Being it is Northern exposure (That threw me for a bit.) the UV exposure could be disastrous.

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So am I reading it right that your two recommendations are
1. Just knock the ridges off the swirl pattern and leave as is.
2. Do as for option 1 but use muriatico acis followed by an epoxy based paint.

cheers
Arron

"So am I reading it right that your two recommendations are
1. Just knock the ridges off the swirl pattern and leave as is.
2. Do as for option 1 but use muriatico acis followed by an epoxy based paint."

YES!

Let me explain. My home has a lot of colored concrete and synthetic turf. There is almost no yard work. SWMBO has some pots with Milk Weed for habitat for Monarch butter flies. (Something best left unacknowledged.)

When looking at exterior maintenance there is almost none. We are both in our late 70s and really don't desire to do any of that outside poop.

So when looking 10 or 15 years down the road, will you want to enthusiastically attack outside maintenance?

I know that I want no part of any of that maintenance. We had the stucco installed with a color coat and the eves are wrapped with aluminum. (White) I jokingly refer to the house as a 'Football House' where I can sit inside all autumn with no outside maintenance.

About 15 years ago I did our upstairs verandahs (1/2" Asbestos sheeting with an old fleck type of surface) using an acrylic sealer, on the recommendation of the guy who makes my epoxy glue. He did some physical sealing of screw holes and joins and told us to use this stuff over everything. It needs a primer underneath, then I put two coats on with a paint roller.
A couple of weeks ago I had to do a patch where we'd removed the old aircon, so I cleaned the area with sugar soap, and the old stuff cleaned up like new. There's been no blistering or fading at all. The left over stuff from 15 years ago, both primer and sealer, were completely useable, having been kept in a garden shed all the time. I'll go and get the brands for you in the morning. The surface is not slippery, and it was available in various colours.

You could spray the concrete a different colour, or stencil on a pattern?

THIS VIDEO was all I needed to convince me to have a crack and do it myself.

There is one other thing. A treatment for concrete is available that imparts a variety of colors. It is more of a dye and etching process. I have heard of it but not seen results nor used it myself. This goes back over 20 years but we were looking to build a house and I wanted a decent color for the shop (garage) floor. When looking for garage floor treatments, Google brought it up also.

It is really up to you with what level of finish you are happy with and if it suits your style if house.
Plain concrete is a desired architectural finish on some homes but for others can look like an unfinished project.
If you are happy to leave it concrete you could just coat it with a clear penetrating sealer to minimise staining or you could use a coloured penetrating sealer which there are plenty on the market , Fosroc is one supplier. The next option is to use a coloured coating like they use on stenciled concrete and you could leave it solid or use a stencil with it. There are plenty of suppliers of those products around or go with a tiled finish as originally planned.

The slab finish as you have is standard practice for project homes and mostly get tiled over.

There is is no right or wrong way amongst the options, just the one you like the most and suits your budget

This may be the stuff you need. The stuff I used was by the same manufacturer, but is a sealing membrane, not a concrete sealer.

If it was my house I would just tile it myself using outside tiles, quite easy to do and only need minimal tools, with 15-18m, should be able to finish it in a weekend, one day to lay it down, another to grout and clean up, and then it's done forever.

When we moved in to our house only the wet area were tiled, ie; bathrooms, laundry and toilets, I did the rest of the tiles in our house in about 4 days and that was about 80-90 sq.meters and that was on my own with no prior tiling experience.

Cost was just the tiles, bags of rubberized bedding grout (not sure how many), sealant grout, need a heavy drill and stirrer for mixing grout, 20L bucket, 9L bucket for washing, a chalk line marker, some tile spacers if you like or a long strip of a 5 to 6mm ally, a rubber mallet, large screw driver, grout spreader, a few sponges and a few rags for final polish, that's it. If however you need to go around things or corners, a small 100-125mm angle grinder with continuous diamond wheel and a face mask as well.

Tiles are one of those items are are available quite cheap from leftovers of new builds, overstocks, change of mind or out of fashion and come up on auctions regularly, I would be surprised if you couldn't do it less than $600-800.

The eye will be drawn to the most striking feature. The trick is to divert the viewer's attention away from the least attractive element. So, some well maintained planter boxes, a signature piece of outdoor furniture, a couple of ceramic wall hangings...whatever...will fix the problem. If you do nothing but cover the concrete, it'll still look like an unloved, unused outdoor space.

mick :)

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Originally Posted by Glider

If you do nothing but cover the concrete, it'll still look like an unloved, unused outdoor space.

mick :)

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Having read the comments here, and thought about it some more, I’ve decided this statement is 100% right.

Although the style of the house is ‘maritime minimalist’ there actually isn’t any other bare concrete so a sealed concrete approach will look unfinished and unloved.

So I’m going to tile it.

Fortunately I’ve done lots of tiling over the years - but all indoor, never outdoor. This leaves me with a question. How close to the edge would you put the tiles? Obviously the edge is rounded, should I stop before the rounding ? Should I stop before the line of the edging trowel?

There is a slotted aluminium angled "L" strip that goes up to the concrete edge and gets cemented down, the tile will be placed on top (the strip is placed with the little angle up) and the tile will be flush with the little leg up, that way it will protect the edge of the tile when you stand on the corner, so if you do stand on the edge you will be standing on the ally strip instead of the tiles edge. Hope that makes sense?

At least that is the way I did it on one front side of my porch. The other side I just put the tile a little bit over the edge and had the side tile flush up to it underneath to support it. When you get your supplies, just ask the guys at the shop.