Decorative concrete varies from integrally colored and dyed concrete, acid stained concrete, stamped concrete, and imprinted concrete. How you seal decorative concrete depends on a variety of factors including the type of concrete and what is currently down for a sealer.
Penetrating Concrete Sealer – Most of the time, you avoid putting a penetrating sealer down on decorative concrete because penetrating sealers won’t enhance any coloring, and they won’t prevent colors from fading. Penetrating sealers include silicate sealers (which are best to avoid if you don’t want CSH formation on the surface) and Silane Siloxane Water repellent sealers. Silane Siloxane water repellents are fantastic sealers, but again, they won’t prevent color from fading because they don’t leave a visible surface film
Wet Look and High Gloss Concrete Sealers – Wet look and high gloss concrete sealers are acrylic based sealers. Under this category you have solvent and water based acrylic lacquers, acrylic copolymers, and acrylic latexes. Acrylic latex sealers are not sealers, they are paint and usually manufactured by BEHR. Paint will peel and flake, and looks terrible when you go to do touchups. Avoid acrylic latex and go with an acrylic lacquer or acrylic copolymer.
When choosing between a water and solvent based acrylic it is important to think about recoating. In a few years when the acrylic starts to wear, solvent based acrylic sealers can be touched up with a solvent based acrylic without an prep work. With water based, you need to screen sand the surface before applying a touch up coat.
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Photo taken from Foundation Armor Concrete Sealers.
