Stained Concrete Slippery?

[Blueskies21]

Hey Guys.

So I need some advice. We poured the coping and decking of our pool separately in different colored concrete to get a contrast but we're concerned that the decking color ended up just looking grey ( we were shooting for a light tan) So we're trying to figure out what to do about it. I know we COULD sundek everything but that seems like an expensive solution though if that's what it takes we'll do it. We were considering staining the decking concrete and maybe we can get the color to be more obvious, I think probably that means we have to go darker but idk. My concern with that plan is that I've seen a lot of commentary on this site that stained or sealed concrete is slippery. All of our concrete is broomed finish. What do ya'll think we should do about this situation? Would it be too slick to stain it?

 

[Divin Dave]

If the concrete is not sealed, you can stain it.
If it is sealed, you will have to strip it off so the stain can penetrate the concrete.

To protect the stain and make it last a long time, you should add a sealer to it. There are not slip additives that can be added to sealers (but not stain) to make it less slippery.

 

[Blueskies21]

Dave, Thanks for the quick reply. It's not sealed yet so I guess we need to make the decision whether to stain it before we seal it. Do you have any thoughts on whether stained/sealed broom finish concrete is going to be slippery?

 

[Divin Dave]

Hi,
A sealed contrete will be more slippery than one that isn't because when it gets wet it stay that way for a longer period of time. The sealed concrete will not soak up the water.

Maybe some other concrete you might have at your house is broom finished too? Driveway? Sidewalk? If so, soak with with a water hose, get your feet wet and walk on it. That will give you a perfect indication of how slippery a pool deck will be.

If not, grab a 5 gal bucket of water and go find someplace to test with. Seriously! Better to look like an idiot to unknowing observers than to spend a lot of money on something you may be unhappy with for years.

The purpose of sealer is to prevent "stuff" from soaking into the concrete and staining it. The sealer will prevent anyhting, including water from soaking into the concete. Its well advised to add a non skid additive to the sealer, especially for a broom finish.

You can do some googling about sealers and additives. There are several different types of each.

 

[ShadDixon]

I have had a sealed driveway and found it very slippery- especially in flip flops (rubber shoes w/o traction). I've had people fall several times. I don't think the driveway had the no-slip additive that I've heard mentioned (but never seen).

I've also had sealed flagstone and that was slippery as well.

I'm trying not to have anything sealed on the deck of my new pool, but I still haven't decided what to do. Sealer makes the concrete color look a lot better, I agree. And the previous poster's idea about testing out some sealed concrete would be a great idea.

 

[Blueskies21]

Yeah, so I'm still on the fence. I don't want it to be slippery but supposedly the sealer will darken the color which I think we'd prefer. Maybe I'll seal my front sidewalk that we intend to rip out when we repour the driveway and see how slick it is comparatively.