When you have concrete, and you know that you have to seal it with a concrete sealer, the next step is figuring out which sealer to purchase. Once you have done all of your research and purchased a sealer that shipped to your home – no problems – you are now ready to start the application process. If you ready all of your materials, clean the concrete, acid etch the surface, and wait the requisite amount of time, you just have one more thing to make sure of: the temperature.
Concrete sealer is a chemical mixture that contains particles of chemical sealant suspended in either water or a chemical solvent. Either way, the sealers have to be stored and applied at certain temperatures to be at their most effective. To begin with storage, concrete sealers should not be stored frozen, nor should they ever be at risk of freezing. A frozen concrete sealer will feature less effective particles of chemical sealant, rendering if significantly less effective when it actually is applied (though you may not be able to tell the difference). As many concrete sealers are water-based, which are undoubtedly better concrete sealing options, they are also at risk for freezing (you still should not allow a solvent-based product to freeze either, though it will be more difficult to make happen).
Similarly, there are some general temperature guidelines to keep in mind when applying the concrete sealer to the concrete slab as well. First off, the surface of the concrete and the environment of the room in which the concrete sealer is being applied should not dip below around 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, the concrete is too cold to allow the concrete sealer to penetrate or bond to the surface effectively, depending on which type of sealer you are using. The concrete and the room in which it is being applied should not exceed approximately 90 degrees Fahrenheit either, nor should it be applied in direct sunlight. If you find yourself with a surface that is too hot, wait for a cooler day or wait until nightfall. Similarly, if you have a surface that is too cold, try using a space heater to heat up the (for example) basement to a more agreeable temperature before applying the concrete sealer. While this may some extra effort, the concrete sealer will penetrate or adhere better, which is better for the concrete in the long run.
When purchasing concrete sealers, the market can be somewhat cloudy. It is not apparent enough to just understand what you need to look for, nor is it clear enough to just purchase concrete sealer without any research. The best way to go about the process is to perform a substantial amount of research before buying a product. You want to make sure you know what exactly you want to accomplish with your particular project, as well as what steps you need to take to complete it. Once you have this solidly in mind, you should go online and research the best concrete sealers for your particular project.
Once you have found the best type of sealer (i.e. penetrating, surface, silicate, acrylic), you want to start researching manufacturers. Manufacturers of concrete sealer are different from the distributors of concrete sealer. In this field, manufacturers typically do not distribute their own concrete sealer. Some of the weaker varieties will do so to save money, but the higher quality manufacturers don’t tend to concern themselves with directly selling their products.
Thus, you have a most manufacturers simply producing the concrete sealer products to be distributed by a distributor. Distributors can be large retail entities like Home Depot, or they can be smaller online services. These online services are a much better choice if you want to find a truly high quality concrete sealing product. Concrete sealers vary so much in usage and type that the big retail chains cannot stock all of the necessary varieties. They simply keep a couple of brands of weaker material on hand to sell to the unknowledgeable consumer. However, their online retail has some more choice, making their websites a better bet. Despite this, you should still consider purchasing from a third-party retailer online that can offer you some of the stronger and more specific concrete sealing offerings.
In sum, the manufacturers of concrete sealer research and develop their concrete sealers, making sure they are optimally primed to work to their full potential. Then, once the products have been developed and tested, they are produced in large volume before being sent out to various distributors. These distributors sell the manufactured product for a small fee, leading to a symbiotic relationship where all participants, including the consumer, are happy.
Concrete has long been recognized as a sort of wonder material. From the ancient Egyptians to the ancient Romans, concrete has been a staple in building and construction for thousands of years. Throughout that period of time, concrete has gone through many transformations, evolving and changing with every new technological and chemical advancement. One of the most recent advancements was the discovery and development of a new, self-healing flexible concrete by researchers at the University of Michigan.
Traditional concrete is often beset with wide, gaping cracks that threaten and destroy the material’s structural integrity. Wear, abrasion, and the elements all play a role in concrete’s destruction, and the image of the rundown, cracked sidewalk with weeds growing through are fairly commonplace. However, the new concrete material is designed to avoid these gaping cracks, and even can be fixed and repaired without any human effort.
The new concrete works by bending with the pressure caused by such problems as freeze/thaw cycles. Instead of being so rigid as to crack in a large, gaping manner, the concrete will crack much more subtly throughout the material. This is a natural benefit because the concrete is also designed to heal itself. With exposure to water and carbon dioxide, the concrete can actually mend its own cracks without any human interference. Instead of spending time and money on various attempted fixes for your cracked concrete, you will now only have to wait for the next rainstorm for your concrete to heal itself.
The new concrete substance bends rather than cracks, which preserves its structural integrity enabling it to heal itself without recourse to heavy machinery and human labor. In fact, the concrete has been shown to repair itself back to its original level of strength with only a few drizzly days. The biggest current negative to the use of the material is its unsurprising price tag. The new concrete can cost up to three times more than traditional concrete, which ensures manufacturers of concrete sealer will remain in business despite the new advancements. While self-healing concrete is an incredible discovery, it hardly is a cost-effective alternative to construction professionals and homeowners who just want to protect their concrete.
Maybe ten years ago, nobody paid as much attention to the environment. Products were produced with only performative aspects and results in mind. There were not as many federal and state regulations on products, especially concrete sealers. Similarly, there was not a widespread understanding of the dangers of certain chemical and industrial products. For instance, worker would toil for hours in closed-quarters areas full of asbestos, a practice which only stopped less than a decade ago when the cancer-causing properties of asbestos were discovered.
While the chemicals in concrete sealers are not as bad as those found in asbestos and other known cancer-causing agents (as far as we know now), they certainly are not good for one’s health. The increasing realization of their harmfulness has led to a revolution in the industry. This revolution began with the understanding of the dangers of volatile organic compounds, or VOCs.
VOCs are carbon-based compounds released from solvent-based concrete sealers. Technically speaking, they have a high vapor pressure that is released into the air from chemical-based products, like paints or concrete sealers, due to their low boiling points. Once in the air, they are absorbed into the environment, leading to a gradual build-up of harm. They also, however, can be absorbed by humans and animals in their vicinity, leading to a myriad of potential health risks ranging from allergic reactions to cancer, depending on the particular volatile organic compound and its level of release.
Federal law restricts the VOCs normally found in concrete sealers to be under 600 grams/liter. While this does not preclude the use of solvent-based sealers, it has led to manufacturers to begin producing water-based concrete sealers that offer the same level of comprehensive protection as their solvent-based counterparts. Even more recently, states in the Northeast including New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Virginia, New Jersey, and Delaware restricted the use of concrete sealers if their VOC content was over 400 grams/liter, further throttling the solvent-based sealers. Parts of California have the strictest regulations of all, requiring all sealers to have a VOC content of lower that 100 grams/liter, effectively prohibiting the use of solvent-based sealers.
While these prohibitions are rendering one of the primary concrete sealing staples obsolete, they are also encouraging research and development into new products. Manufacturers have begun to produce concrete sealing offerings that are water-based, thereby complying with all VOC regulations, all while giving concrete a competitive level of protection. In the years to come, these products will increasingly become stronger and more competitive until solvent-based sealers likely become a thing of the past.
With the large amount of concrete sealers on the market today, its often confusing for the consumer, professional or not, to know which is the strongest product. With companies making all sorts of claims on their website, which is perfectly legal for them to do, it can be difficult to know which products are real, and which are just being manufactured to make a quick buck.
The best way to tell if a company is for real, aside from extensive reviews and a long-standing reputation, is for their products to undergo extensive testing. Testing for concrete sealers is not yet a uniform requirement – however, the companies that test their products have nothing to hide, which should make you feel comfortable purchasing and using their sealers on your concrete.
One of the most well known testing standards is ASTM International. ASTM has a wide range of testing fields, from concrete and concrete sealers to metals and plastics. When concrete sealers are independently tested they are put through a set of rigorous tests that will determine their effectiveness, especially compared to the claims of manufacturers. The sealers are tested in such areas as resistance to artificial weathering, bond strength, penetration, and flexibility, among many others. They essentially test every product that is sent to them by the manufacturer with a thoroughness designed to root out any pretenders. Manufacturers have to pay a significant amount of money for their products to be tested – a company would only do this if they are sure their product is legitimate and effective. Therefore, companies that have products that passed the ASTM standards should be trusted, giving you some peace of mind as you shop online.