Re: Another underway in Las Vegas
I'm sure most everyone has heard the old "cheapest upgrade is a can of paint" from a real estate agent somewhere along the line. Well, it wasn't "cheap" by any means, but wow, what a difference a few buckets of spray deck can do to a big ol' piece of gray concrete! While both the wife and I love the look of the stone decks many people use, part of our design priority was to minimize maintenance (to maximize fun time!). Due to the shape of our yard, it meant a lot of deck. So, in order to maintain some sort of "budget" (can we just make that a 4-letter word? LOL), we decided to go with the spray coated concrete. For those interested in the process, here's how ours was installed over the past couple days.
This is a two part process. First, an undercoat is laid down, flat troweled for texture, and then the color/sealer is sprayed over it. Any good paint job requires most of the work in the preparation. This one is no different.
Lots of masking to protect surrounding surfaces:
Here you can see the masking tape for the pool "outline" that we had put in to help match the cap on the wall, and provide a visual reminder you're getting close to the water line:
The back of the raised beam was also given a skim coat to smooth it down, as this was also coated:
The process begins! First the undercoat is added to the sprayer. Nothing fancy, this is the same tool that's used to spray wall texture over drywall:
First globs being sprayed on:
the globs given a few minutes to set up:
"flattened" to create the texture:
Top of the picture is "before", bottom after the troweling is done:
Even the pour-a-lids get this:
And, the whole deck is done. They'd actually put the darker accent/outline color on as well, Then cleaned up for the day:
This is where it gets tough! The colors are very hard to capture correctly with photos. Also, the final color for the "field" is almost the exact color of the undercoat, so some of the pictures aren't as dramatic as it is in person. Here is the accent color:
More accent color on the spa steps. Basically, anything not "ground level", we had done in a darker color:
A little preview using our stone samples. This is the final accent color, with the stone, then the undercoat color. First in the morning shade:
Then in the morning sun:
Let's fast-forward to the end of the next day. It was impossible to show any difference in the painting process due to the colors. It was sprayed on with a typical paint sprayer. but here it is in it's finished glory:
In the afternoon sun, showing accent and beam:
I think the tiles really "pop" here:
This is about the best picture I can find showing the colors/contrast:
We wanted as light of a color for the field as we could get (to make it "cooler" in the summer..yeah right!) but not get too dirty. This is an almost perfect match for some stucco accent colors on the house, so we think it goes well overall. Now, we can't wait for the stone to be applied, so we can see if our color choices worked together or not...Maybe this week, as the stone was received, we'll see!
So, what do you all think? Still on the right path?
