I worked with concrete a lot over the past few years, from polishing concrete floors, shuttering, concrete worktops, pathways, foundations or just plain old slabs, I’ve done the lot.
Basic concrete is an easy DIY job, it’s labour intensive but cheap in materials so well suited for those who wish to save some cash. The most popular post of all time on Survive France is in fact nothing to do with France at all, it’s all about concrete!
I began work on a pathway around the house a couple of days ago, rather than leave it as a standard roughish industrial finish I simply pressure washed the surface off after a few hours exposing the aggregates which are just beneath the surface. This has created a non slip and uniform surface that is quite attractive.
Depending on your mix and ambient temperature and also how much of the stone you wish to expose I would recommend waiting somewhere between 12 and 24 hours to do this. Do a test patch first.
This is what the fresh pour looks like, not the tell tale ridges from the screed baton, these will be removed with the pressure washing.
