How to Install Imprinted Concrete Driveways
DRIVEWAYS|DRIVEWAY|PATIO|PATHS|IMPRINTED CONCRETE DRIVEWAYS|STAMPED CONCRETE DRIVEWAYS
We do advise for you to contact a Professional before attempting to carry out work such as an imprinted concrete driveway, path or patio, as this type of work can be very costly if anything goes wrong, and as everybody knows with concrete you do not have time on your side as every minute goes bye means one more minute you have lost, this is quite a fast process, i would say from the initial pour depending on how long the concrete has been mixing you have around 4 hours before you are getting that initial set during the summer months, through winter months you can be waiting around for a while we have known this at time scale to stretch as far as 8 hours before we even start printing and this estimated time scale is when concrete is laid at a standard thickness from 4" to 6", which is more than thick enough for any driveway.
Installing your new concrete can be achieved throughout the year but is not advised if the temperature does drop below zero Celsius
although there is an add a mixture that can be added by your concrete plant which will prevent frost from taking a grip of your newly laid driveway, so that answers that question which is that people can not lay concrete through the winter months, through the summer months concrete can have the opposite effect were as it can dry out to fast on will form a crust layer over the top which when printed it will look like what i can only describe it as glazed china. With all this in mind we do strongly advise you ring a Professional for a quote or a little advise, below i will make an ordered list of what is needed from start to finish.
1. On digging out ready for your new driveway you must take into account all your levels and decide which way the rain water will escape off your new driveway and make a plan around that, making sure your finished level will be 6" below your damp roof course, generally you will be laying 4" of M.O.T Type 1hardcore as well as 4" of concrete so in most cases after digging out you must be at least 8" below your damp roof course.
2. Laying your hard core, generally you will cover around 10sqm with 1 Ton of hard core, so bare this in mind as you are ordering. We use M.O.T Type 1 hard core that is readily available to buy from most building merchants and after this has been spread evenly across what will be your drive, path or patio you then need to compact this with a wackier plate or roller, after a few passes with the wackier plate we advise that you then water the hard core down and go over the hard core again with a few passes as the water will help you with better compaction.
3. Installing your shuttering which is generally done the same day, we use 4" rough sawn timber pegging the back of it with timber stakes in most cases every 24 to 36 inches to keep everything inpalce for the concrete as the last thing you want is movement in your shuttering as you start to pour the concrete.
4. Pouring the concrete firstly you need to order this so to work out this you need to know the coverage at a thickness of 4" 1 cube of concrete will cover 10sqm and in that the mix is a p320 mix with an air entrainer and fibres, once the concrete is down you will first screed the concrete to the correct levels before using a roller bug to push the aggregate down into the mix leaving a fatty cement like paste on the top, after this you will need a magnesium trowel to flatten the surface which still allows the bleed water to escape from the concrete at this stage you will apply your first coat of colour hardener before troweling in again with a magnesium trowel, the next stage would be applying more colour to areas that look bare before finishing the concrete with a steel trowel, you will test the concrete by firmly pressing your fingers into the concrete and if your fingers only go down as far as your finger nails you know you are ready to start stamping, you will now apply a release agent to stop the matts from sticking to the concrete, the general rule of thumb is to have enough matts to cover 2 rows of the driveway.
5. Washing off will take place 24hrs later using a pre seal solution and water mix softly rubbing it down with a soft brush and in some cases with a jet washer.
6. Sealing the finished job can take place within the 28 days of washing off your driveway, it is normally sealed with an acrylic based sealant using a non slip additive.
