We had our 3' stampcrete apron poured this past friday afternoon, and we have some serious concerns with the quality of the pour. As you can see from the pictures, there are a few pinhole voids in the concrete, and there are some places where the concrete doesn't seem to be tight up against the plastic coping. Most places it is fine, but for the places in the pictures, I'm very concerned about water getting into there and causing cracking issues. I don't think this guy knew what he was doing when it comes to pouring pool aprons, and I'm not even impressed with the quality of the concrete itself. But that decision is in the past so I'm trying to determine the best path forward. He still has to come back tomorrow to remove the forms and seal the concrete, and I haven't paid the last installment for the job. I'm sure we need to seal up those voids somehow, either with some concrete mix or with some concrete caulk? Is there another option? Looking for some advice, thanks.
Serious concerns with quality of concrete apron
- Thread starter BlueWRXPride
- Start date
is this finished work, or is there supposed to be some other surface going over this?
He still needs to come back to seal it, but yes this is a finished surface. Nothing is going over it
I think that much is for sure. My biggest question is what to do at this point. Concrete is so permanent, ik not sure how this gets resolved.
I have concrete and it doesn’t look anything like that. I hope you can get it resolved. I would not accept that.
You will need to skim over using Quickrete ( or similar) concrete patch. It's pure cement without any sand. Get the deck filled in and then get a top coat like a kool deck or other. Many choices out there.
Quickrete to just fill the tiny voids? Or a wide swath to skim over the overall section? If it's the former I'm concerned about it holding up over the winter. If it's the latter I'm concerned about the look matching the rest of the stamcrete.
in Syracuse i think you are right to be concerned about any skim coat or patch with the winters you have - wet and cold is not a good mix. I assume patching is the best choice if it can match. How much money are you still holding back for this job?
I'm not holding back as much as I wish I were given where we are, about $900.
I texted him some pictures and his response was:
The voids will get filled in with sealer it's common sometimes for the stamp to pull it just happens. You can't get a broom like finish because your pressing not pulling that is why the sealer is necessary.
I'm not sure if that's BS or not. I'd think the sealer is would just fill voids up, and visually it would still look more or less the same, right?
I texted him some pictures and his response was:
The voids will get filled in with sealer it's common sometimes for the stamp to pull it just happens. You can't get a broom like finish because your pressing not pulling that is why the sealer is necessary.
I'm not sure if that's BS or not. I'd think the sealer is would just fill voids up, and visually it would still look more or less the same, right?
i think you want to know how cavernous those voids are - i suspect that a his response is a mix of truth and BS - if that was standard would he not have given you the heads up? I can't imagine all stamped concrete jobs result in voids like that. I would try to get more info though - hopefully some people with more expertise chime in here, or maybe see if you can find a concrete focused resource online or in person to double check with.
He's going to repair any voids like that with Tamms Thin Patch, and then apply sealer to everything. Looks like an appropriate use of that product from what I can tell...
What stamped finish is that suppose to be?
We had our stamped concrete sealed and it was very slippery! Contractor had to come back and add some gritty material to another coat of sealer.
We had our stamped concrete sealed and it was very slippery! Contractor had to come back and add some gritty material to another coat of sealer.
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I don't know the name of it. But he is going to be adding a non-slip additive to the sealer when he does that.
I'd insist that those voids be filled. You get freezing water in there and you will have cracks.
That concrete looks like it dried too fast and crew was not able to finish it. Maybe the truck was standing still for a while or got hit by traffic? I would ask for a redo, not your money back since now its more expensive to break and replace.