Patio and porch coatings
Textured, UV-stable coatings for the concrete you actually sit on in an Alabama summer.
The build-up, step by step
Every patio coatings job Shanks installs follows the same order, because skipping a stage is how floors fail. Taylor is on site for all of it.
Clean and profile
Outdoor slabs carry mildew, efflorescence and old sealer. All of it comes off before anything is applied.
Repair
Freeze-thaw spalls and control joints get rebuilt so water is not sitting in them.
Textured build
A broadcast or knock-down texture that stays grippy in rain and does not get hot enough to burn bare feet.
UV topcoat
A color-stable topcoat, because everything outside here lives under direct sun.
Right room, right system
Back patios, front porches, breezeways, carports and pool surrounds.
Where it is the wrong call
Slabs that pond water. Standing water under any coating shortens its life, so drainage gets addressed first.
Back in service: Foot traffic next day, furniture at three days, full cure a week.
Compare the other systems
Why this floor costs what it costs
A quote on this work is really a quote on preparation. Here is what Taylor is looking at when he walks a floor:
Condition of the slab
A clean, sound slab grinds in a morning. One carrying old paint, carpet glue, or a failed coating can take a full day longer before anything can be applied.
How much repair it needs
Cracks, spalled edges, pitting and old anchor holes are filled and ground flush before coating. A slab that needs a lot of this can add a day on its own.
Access
A walk-out basement with a door at grade is straightforward. Carrying equipment down a flight of stairs, or working around a building that has to stay open, adds time.
Which system you choose
Build thickness and the chemistry of the topcoat are the two biggest material costs. A heavier commercial build genuinely costs more than a residential one.
What Alabama slabs do
Out toward Gadsden, Southside and Pell City there are a lot of walk-out basements cut into a hillside. Those slabs sit against earth on three sides, so they get moisture-tested before a quote rather than after a failure.
Most of the housing around Anniston, Oxford and Jacksonville was poured between the sixties and the eighties, and those slabs were hard-trowelled to a tight, closed surface. They look clean and they take a coating badly until they are properly ground, which is why a store-bought kit so often lets go here within a year.
Where the trailer goesWhat the days actually look like
People are usually more anxious about the disruption than the floor. Here is what the days actually look like:
Watching the weather
Outdoor work runs on the forecast. Resin cures on a temperature and dew-point window, so a job gets moved rather than gambled when rain is coming.
Clearing the area
Furniture, planters and grills come off the slab. Anything that has been sitting in one place for years has usually left a mark that needs treating.
Prep day
Cleaning, grinding and crack repair. Outdoor slabs almost always need more repair than indoor ones because of what winter does to them.
Back in use
Foot traffic the next day, furniture back at about three days, and the full cure across the following week.
Keeping it looking new
Rinse it down a few times a year and keep leaves and standing water off it, especially in the corners where mildew starts. Reseal or recoat when the sheen starts going patchy, which outdoors is a matter of years rather than decades. Never use a pressure washer at close range on a coated slab.
Anything Taylor installs comes with a walk-through at handover covering exactly this, plus what to avoid in the first two weeks while the coating reaches full hardness. If something does go wrong later, tell him about it rather than living with it.
The owner is the installer
Shanks Concrete Coatings is Taylor and Heather Shanks, working out of Anniston. Taylor trained directly with Brian Phillips, The Epoxy Dude, in southern Indiana, and he runs the grinder and pulls the squeegee on every job himself. Licensed and insured, Alabama #2602341.
If a patio coatings floor is not the right answer for your room, he will tell you that on the first visit rather than sell it to you. More about how Shanks works, or send over the details of your floor.
Patio Coatings questions
Will it get too hot to walk on?
Lighter colors and a textured surface stay noticeably cooler than a dark, smooth coating. It matters most around a pool and it drives the color conversation.
What about our winters?
Freeze-thaw is exactly why prep matters here. Water in an unrepaired crack expands and lifts the coating off, so cracks are filled and the surface is sloped to shed.
Can it go over stamped concrete?
Yes. Stamped patios are often the best candidates because the pattern is intact but the color has washed out.
How long does it last outside?
With sound prep and a UV topcoat, many years. A recoat down the road refreshes it without starting over.
Can you match the coating to our house?
Colors and textures are picked on site, in daylight, against the brick or siding they will sit next to. A porch that reads well against red brick often looks wrong against gray board, and a sample board settles it before anything is mixed.
Four questions worth asking any installer
Ask these of Shanks and of whoever else you are talking to. The answers separate a floor that lasts from one that looks good for a season, and a straight installer will not mind being asked.
How are you preparing the slab?
The only acceptable answers involve a diamond grinder or a shot blaster. Acid etching and a scrub with degreaser is not preparation, and it is the single most common reason a coating lets go.
Are you testing for moisture?
On any basement or ground-level slab this should be a yes with a number attached. Vapor pressure will push a coating off no matter how good the product is.
Who is actually on my floor?
Worth asking whoever quotes you. With Shanks the person who quotes it is the person who grinds it and coats it, and that is not true everywhere.
What is the topcoat?
A UV-stable polyaspartic or aliphatic urethane holds its color. A cheap job leaves a standard epoxy as the top layer, and it will amber in daylight within a year or two.
Other systems for the same room
Patio Coatings is one of twenty-two systems Shanks installs. If the room is telling you something different, these are the closest alternatives, and Taylor will happily point you at the cheaper one if it is the right answer.
Concrete Sealing
Another system Shanks installs across the same sixty-mile area.
Waterproofing
Another system Shanks installs across the same sixty-mile area.
Terrace Restoration
Another system Shanks installs across the same sixty-mile area.
Tell Taylor about your floor
Square footage, what the room is used for, and what the slab looks like now. That is enough to get you a real number on patio coatings.