Transforming Front Steps with Concrete Paint
You never get a second chance to make a first impression. This is true for individuals as well as for a house. Whether you are looking to spruce up your curb appeal for your own enjoyment, or looking to sell your home, updating the entryway of your house is usually an excellent investment. It may seem intimidating, but most people can tackle this simple DIY project themselves rather than paying a professional. With a little bit of elbow grease, you can give your concrete steps a much-needed facelift and save yourself hundreds of dollars in the process. Below, we highlight the process we took with our steps.
What You’ll Need
Soapy Water
Concrete crack filler
Concrete primer
Concrete paint
Paintbrush
Paint roller
Painting tray
Pressure washer (optional)
Caulk (optional)
Instructions
Clean the Concrete Surface
This can be one of the most time-consuming steps of the entire project. If your steps are in pretty good shape, a simple rinse with soapy water might be all you need. More often than not, however, you will want to take a few extra steps… pun intended ;-).
Our steps were covered by an outdoor rug which took a lot of work to rip off. Whatever adhesive was used to put it down did its job well. We were able to rip the rug off, but a lot of the adhesive stuck around, and it needed to be removed. At first, we tried removing it using putty knives, sandpaper, and even a steel sanding bit on a drill.
What we found most effective at removing the glue was to pour boiling water on the steps. This loosened the glue enough for us to easily scrape them off with putty knives. For that, we found it easiest to boil the water in an electric water boiler, but doing it on a stovetop would work just as well… it might just take a little longer to do it.
We decided to go one step further by using our pressure washer to make sure we got the steps as clean as possible. Once the steps were nice and clean, we were ready to repair some minor cracks and holes.
Repair Any Cracks
Just make sure you smooth it out as much as possible so the patching will not be visible under the paint. Once the patches are completely dry, you are ready to move on to the next step. If the patches are not as smooth as you would like, you can always go back and smooth them out with some sandpaper. Just be sure to rinse off the steps free of any dust before moving on to the next step.
Apply Concrete Primer
This step is crucial to prevent water from getting in the cracks and eventually causing more cracks or damage during the winter months. Do not skip this step! We used a simple ready-mix concrete patch mix to fill in some of the damaged stops before painting.
Apply the concrete primer following the manufacturer’s instructions so the concrete paint sticks to the concrete appropriately. Using primer also helps fill in any small cracks or gaps you may have missed in the previous step. We used a paintbrush to apply the primer on the edges and vertical sections and a roller for the other areas of the steps. Some primers may require multiple coats. Make sure to read the directions carefully to make sure you apply it properly.
Apply Concrete Paint
Now it’s finally time to apply the paint. We used Granite Grip by Behr. You can find it at any Home Depot. Just like the primer, we used the paintbrush for the edges and vertical sections and then we used the roller for the other areas. There was no need for a paint tray. We simply poured the paint right on the concrete and spread it with the roller. We only did this for our first coat.
The sandy material in the paint did not spread as well as we hoped even when we used the recommended paint roller, so we decided to apply the 2nd and 3rd coats with the paintbrush.
And now let it dry. Make sure you block off the area so nobody steps on it before it has had time to fully dry. This paint was fully cured within 24 hours, but after a few hours, it was able to handle light foot traffic.
We were much happier with the results and would highly recommend you stick to using a paintbrush for smaller surfaces like ours. Painting the first layer with the roller sped things up, but taking the extra time on the 2nd and 3rd coats really gave us the desired texture, and we are thrilled with how they turned out.
It’s a good idea to caulk around the edges to seal any gaps. Just make sure you use the right kind of caulk and a color that will match your paint.
