Concrete walkway and sidewalk coating

What walkways and steps go through in Arizona

The front of a house takes the sun all day on one side or the other, and a walkway has no roof over it. The top coat is the layer that takes that light, and the two materials behave differently under it.

So a walkway with us is epoxy underneath, where it bonds to the concrete and carries the flake, and polyaspartic on top, the way every job is. That is how the two materials behave in the sun. What the written warranty says about your walkway is in its own words.

Grip is the first question on a walkway, before color. A garage floor gets wet when a car drips on it. A front path gets wet every time the sprinklers run or a monsoon storm comes through, and people walk it in shoes that were on the lawn a minute ago. Any smooth, glossy surface is slick with water on it, and a coated walkway is no different. So we ask at the quote how much grip you want in the top coat, standing on the concrete, and you answer it.

Sidewalks and long walkways are scored with control joints, the straight grooves across the slab every few feet. They are there so the concrete cracks along the groove when it moves, instead of across the middle. The joints are where the slab moves, which makes them the lines to watch under any coating, and how they are handled is one of the things to go over with Jayson on the slab.

Paths, steps and the front door

A walkway job covers the concrete from the driveway to the door: the walkways, the sidewalk along the house, the entry steps, the step down into the garage, and the entryway, the landing at the front door where the path ends. They get the same system and the same blend, so the path reads as one surface from the street to the door. At the door itself, the coating stops at the threshold. An edge that stands proud of the threshold catches toes and chips first, so the transition at the door is one to look at closely at the quote visit.

Steps wear differently from flat concrete. The front edge of each step, the nosing, takes every heel on the way up and every toe on the way down, and it is where any coating on a step shows wear first. Steps are also where grip matters most. Stairs for us means entry steps and garage steps. A staircase to an upper floor is not something we coat, because the diamond grinder we prep with does not go upstairs.

How we coat walkways and steps

• We blow the concrete off, grind the paths and steps with a diamond grinder and vacuum them, so the base coat lands on open concrete and not on dirt, stains or an old sealer.
• We fill cracks before anything goes down, so a crack does not collect dirt and water under the coating. Crack filling is an add-on priced on your quote.
• We lay the epoxy base coat and broadcast the flake into it while it is wet. Epoxy is what bonds to the concrete, and the flake locks into it and gives the surface texture underfoot.
• We leave the walkway to hold for 24 hours, so the base coat sets up hard before anything goes over it.
• We come back, scrape off the loose flake and roll on the polyaspartic clear coat, which seals the flake in and takes the sun.
• Everyone stays off it until it takes feet, 24 hours after we finish, because a coating that is still soft marks under a shoe.

The 24 hour hold between the two coats is why a walkway is a two day install, the same as a garage floor.

What it costs and what to expect

We price by the square foot, always. More path costs more, and so do crack filling or an old coating that has to come off first. Jayson comes out, measures the walkways and steps and gives you the price in person, and you pick your blend and book the install date at the same visit. If you would rather spread the cost, financing is available through Affirm. A patio or driveway done at the same time goes on the same quote, each priced by its own footage, like everything else we do.

Jayson is on every job, and the installers who start your floor are the ones who finish it. For those two days the walkway is out of use, and if it is the only way to the front door, you come and go through the garage or a side door until it takes feet. Kids and pets stay off it too. Packages and visitors are the ones people forget, so a note on the gate or the door saves a footprint in the base coat.