One of the secrets of having a preserved concrete wall or floor is by utilizing a concrete sealer. After curing, you should also put a seal on it to lessen the possibility of break down. This would add to the strength and stability of the concrete. A sealer is recommended by most contractors for this would likely avoid the concrete from acquiring different elements that could penetrate through. Sealers are also used to avoid concrete from water absorption and help it to strengthen and decrease the possibility of shrinkage and cracking.
Concrete sealer is applied to complete any concrete installation. This sealer serves as the finishing touch for protecting the concrete to extend its life, enhances and preserves its features which makes it easy to maintain.
There are different types of concrete sealing products which depend on where you would apply it. Two main types of concrete sealer are those that create a protecting layer on the concrete's surface and the other are those that penetrate through the surface.
Surface sealers are commonly used for making a membrane that protects the surface from absorption of different foreign elements like water, salt, or harmful chemicals. In this kind of concrete sealer you can already prevent common problems of concrete deterioration because you stop it even before it affects the concrete structure.
This surface sealer includes dye adhesive which is considerably mild among others but ideally used on concrete exteriors for its UV characteristic and allowing the escape of liquids. Enhancement of concrete features and color was created to make bright and wet look appearance. Water based dye adhesive is mostly used indoors for it is not harmful with an almost odorless type of sealer.
Another surface sealer is the epoxy sealer which is widely used for garage and indoor flooring because unlike dye sealer, this kind of sealant makes escape of moisture impossible. It leaves a bright and smooth finish as they mixed well with concrete. The problem with this sealer is that it requires more elaborate preparations before applying that makes it more costly than the others.
And the most expensive of all surface sealers is the urethane which is commonly used in industrial structures and should be applied by professionals in order to attain its potential sealing quality. This is not recommended for small areas because it is quite expensive.
Penetrating sealers are silicon-based concrete sealer which penetrates concrete surface which reacts to free lime that creates calcium silicate. This kind of concrete sealer allows concrete to strengthen itself and prevents water from penetrating through it. This could be advantageous to concretes showing signs of corrosion and underground places with water leakage. This might not be like a surface sealer that creates a pleasing and attractive looks on concretes but still plays a big part on the preservation of it.
Sealing concrete is a primary need in the preservation and protection of a concrete property. It actually prevents major or serious problems from happening in the future if the concrete is left unsealed.