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Innovative equipment was used to quickly apply several colors of stain for an attractive fi nish.
hundred feet of drains to take water far
away from the pool,” he says. His crew
linked air-conditioning units to the
underground drainage system to keep
water from dripping on the new concrete
surface and staining it. Then they got
rid of the mud problem by removing the
planters and pouring 1,500 square feet
of regular concrete to fi ll the voids.
Hallack took several steps to
prepare the surface so the overlay
installation would be successful.
“Microcoatings are very temperamental,”
he says. “People really have to know
how to prep the subgrade, how to deal
with concrete movement and cracks.
Otherwise, microcoatings can become a
nightmare — they can delaminate.”
Repairing the many cracks in the
existing deck was an essential fi rst
step. Each crack was opened up with
a crack chaser and then fi lled with
Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender.
The cracks resulted from an insuffi cient
number of expansion joints in the
original installation, Hallack says. To
better handle the stresses, his crew cut
a new system of 1-inch expansion joints
throughout the deck, as needed, 8 feet
on center.
Filling in numerous birdbaths with
Miracote Repair Mortar I produced an
even, smooth surface for the upcoming
overlay. The condo owners wanted the
new deck to be a coherent expanse, so
Hallack’s crew also used Repair Mortar
I to fi ll the impressions in 1,100 square
feet of existing concrete that had been
stamped in a cobblestone pattern years
before.
“Prep is the success of any
microcoating,” Hallack says. “The profi le
not only has to be clean, but it has to be
open in order for it to take a primer for
the microcoating.” The fi nal preparation
step in this project was scrubbing the
entire deck using a nylon grit brush to
remove surface contamination.
It took about 500 bags of Miracote
Mirastamp to place a half-inch-thick
overlay on the deck. Mirastamp liquid
release agent, part of the Mirastamp
system, was used on seamless stonetexture
skins from Proline Concrete
Tools of Oceanside, Calif. After
removing the skins, the crew reopened
all of the expansion joints, which had
been marked with concrete nails.
Applying several different colors
of Mirastain II in random, overlapping
patterns created an attractive effect. “We
started by staining some darkened spots
The polymer-modifi ed cementitious overlay
installs and dries quickly, so residents were able
to continue using the pool each afternoon and
evening.
of green as a base scattered around,”
says Hallack. “Then we used about four
different colors, primarily in the earth
tones like adobe, and we used a gray
color as well.” Spraying the color was a
several-person job, with one handling an
electric pump and 25-gallon tank system
designed by Hallack, another using the
spray nozzle, and others brushing in the
stain with very smooth brooms. “A lot
of my work is major staining,” Hallack
Dec. ’07/Jan. ’08 | www.ConcreteDecor.net | 43