SOLUTIONS
Concrete Sealers
Concrete sealers come in hundred’s of options and variations. Sometimes when I ask a customer what he has applied to his floor in the past he invariably walks me to the maintenance closet or area and points to an old pail or drum of whatever he has used. Most of the time even after 1,000’s of job and site visits it’s a product even I’ve never heard of. That being said concrete sealers come in about 5 or 6 different types. I am going to quickly describe each category of concrete sealer.
Cure and Seal
Designed to hold moisture into a concrete slab during the first 30 days. It’s not a sealer designed for traffic. Most times when you see a floor covered in black rubber it’s the cure and seal acting like a magnet for rubber and dirt.
Silicates
Sodium, potassium and lithium silicates are all variations of densifiers and dustproofers, which in the right application work great. They are designed to be applied and soak into the concrete reacting with the free lime to create a hardened floor.
Silane
A exterior salt inhibitor designed to allow water to travel through the concrete but trap the salt molecules on the surface to prevent rebar encapsulated within exterior concrete from rusting.
Acrylics
Usually water based thin film coatings designed to be applied in area of low traffic or use.
Epoxy
Water based or 100% solids coatings designed to be applied to the surface of concrete as a sacrificial wear surface which can come in many specific varieties such as troweled, shop, chemical resistant and thin mil and exhibits fantastic bonding abilities.
Urethane
Water based and high solids coatings designed to be applied usually as a topcoat to an epoxy primer that exhibit significant wear capabilities.
There are also a number of ways to prep and apply your concrete surface depending upon which of these products fits your needs. ICS has extensive knowledge of each of these products and has applied them 1,000s of times.
