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Faux Brick and Tile Treatment on Stucco Patio
Faux Brick on Backyard Stairs
Faux Brick on Terrace Patio Plant Holes
Faux Flagstone on Rock Wall Front Yard
August 30, 2014 - on going until 2017 |
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The patio between the two stucco
walls on one side of the house and the garage has
some very boring concrete and some damaged areas.
The two stucco walls in this area, which had some
buckling damage, were just repaired and painted.
(Stucco repair covered on this page...) I
had also repaired some big gaps between the stucco
walls and the concrete patio. In addition, I
filled a bunch of holes that had been drilled into
the concrete during a termite inspection. At
this point, I have sealed up any area on this patio
where water could seep in underneath the concrete
slabs.
The plan is to create the look of a combination of
fake tile and bricks.
I researched different options
like concrete overlay stamping which can be
expensive. Just purchasing the concrete
stampers/molds themselves can be very costly.
Renting the stampers/molds is not an option in this town.
Hiring a firm to do it, is even more expensive.
There is the option of resurfacing my concrete and
then painting the tiles and bricks on. Usually
on close inspection, you can tell the tiles/bricks
are painted on. I wanted something a little
more realistic looking for this area. (To
see a faux tile painted surface, please visit this
page...)
While researching on the web, I came across this
video with some very impressive results:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlEJsIFPtEs The creator of this video used vinyl cement patch to
create fake bricks and tiles for her front porch. I
liked this option because on close inspection of the
finished results, it looks real. This is
because the faux brick and tile surface is slightly
raised above the grout lines, like a real brick or
tile surface is.
I decided to try this option after viewing the video
several times. |
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Part of
the patio showing concrete surface |
Before trying this method over
the entire patio, I was going to work on the stairs
first. Besides the cement stairs, I am also
working on the wrought iron around these stairs
which I cover
on
this page...
I started with the wrought iron
first, but realized that I would need to do the faux
treatment on the stairs first, before I put on the
newel covers on at the bottom of the stairs.
So I stopped working on the wrought iron to work on
these stairs.
The cement on these stairs takes a beating from the
rain which comes off the roof right on top of the
stairs. So there was some damage to the
stairs. Last year I had patched some corner
areas where I was about to loose some big chunks of
cement. The photo below shows some of the
patched areas.
The entire bottom stair needed to be repaired. Which
I did first.
There are some surface cracks and staining on the
cement which I would cover up later with the vinyl
concrete patch. I also wanted a rougher
surface over this concrete. The concrete on these
stairs is very slippery when wet. Which is why
I had placed the rubber scroll mats on the stairs. |
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Stairs
leading to stucco patio with some patching done |
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Bottom
step completely patched |
Following the instructions on the
video, I went to the hardware store to purchase the
materials I would need.
They had everything I needed except for the Terra
Cotta Liquid Cement Color. I bought the Red,
Charcoal, Buff, and Brown. I figured with
these colors, I could make the Terra Cotta color I
wanted. |
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I purchased Quikrete
Concrete Bonding Adhesive, Quikrete Vinyl
Concrete Patcher, and Quikcrete Concrete
Cure & Seal. |
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The other item I needed was 1/2"
masking tape. You won't find it at the
hardware store. I ended up buying some online
at Amazon.
The first thing I needed to do before resurfacing
the stairs was to apply the Concrete Bonding
Adhesive. In the video, the "cement artist"
diluted the bonding adhesive. I just used it
full strength and applied it to the clean surface
with a brush.
The next day I mixed the vinyl concrete patcher and
resurfaced the stairs.
Using this concrete patcher was problematic for me.
It took me several batches to cover the entire
stairs. The patch material dries in 30
minutes. I work very slow with my physical
limitations. So I had to make only what I
could work with within a 30 minute window.
A note on the resurfacing I did. Quikrete
actually recommends using their concrete resurfacer
for this type of resurfacing. After reading
about the materials online, the patcher was probably
the best option for my stairs because of the
vertical surfaces. The resurfacing material is
a lot thinner and would not have stuck that well on
my stairs. I will however, use the resurfacer
on the rest of the patio. The patcher is just
too difficult to work with over a large area.
The next day, I placed the 1/2" tape on my
resurfaced area to make my faux grout lines. I
would be using two colors. A blackish color
for the stair edges and small tiles. A
terracotta color for the large tiles. For my
design, I wanted a different color to mark the edges
of the stairs to make them more visible. I
have always had problems going down stairs. The more
visible the edges of the stairs, the better. I
only used the small tile on the big step. |
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1/2" tape
placed on resurfaced stairs to mark faux grout lines |
I placed the blackish colored
patch material on first. I had to let this
patch dry first so I could cover it up. I
forgot to get a picture of this stage. My apologies.
I mixed a small batch of patch and used only the
charcoal liquid cement color.
I then covered up the dark gray tiles and bricks on
the end of the stairs so the terracotta color would
not get on it. I cut small cardboard squares
to cover the small tiles. |
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Dark gray
cement areas masked to protect them from terracotta
colored patch material |
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For the terracotta colored tiles,
I mixed one part brown, one part red, and one part
charcoal and added it to my water. I needed to
mix four separate batches for this stage.
Letting different sections dry and with some rain
interruptions, I finally finished this stage three
days later. |
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Terracotta colored tiles being placed on |
The photograph below shows the
stairs before I did a little touching up.
Several things had happened the past few days.
Rain and the swamp cooler leaking. The white
stuff on top of the faux tiles is from the water. I
did put a huge plastic sheet over the area, but
water still got in.
Also, what bugged me a lot was where some of the
cement color had seeped in underneath the tape.
So my grout lines were a little murky looking and
not the clean gray I wanted. |
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Before
touching up.
Rain and swamp cooler water had seeped
in under protective plastic turning some areas white |
To touch-up the grout lines, I
rubbed a little bit of my DAP Vinyl Concrete Patch,
that I had laying around, in the grout lines. I
tried getting rid of the white calcium deposit with
some vinegar, which did not help. What I did
was mix a little of the cement color, red and brown,
in water and painted it on top of the terracotta
colored tiles.
And before....any more rain came...I sealed the
cement with the concrete cure & seal.
The photograph below shows the touched-up and sealed
stairs. |
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Touched
up stairs now complete. Concrete sealer
brushed on |
I used almost the whole 40lb bag
on the stairs. I had plenty of the other
items left over. A little less of the
charcoal color which I used for both tile/brick
colors.
Was this project easy to do? Yes, in
concept, but it was tedious and took me a long
time. This type of resurfacing concrete is
only for small areas. If you have a huge
backyard patio, it would take you a long time
unless you had help. For instance, someone
to mix the next batch of concrete patch while
one person is spreading a batch on the cement. |
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There was some staining of the outer areas as seen
above on the right. I did spill some of my
bucket of water, which did not help. Since
this area will eventually be resurfaced, I am not
going to worry about it.
The whole patio will be done at a
later date and I will update this page.
Now, back to the
wrought iron... |
Backyard Stairs
November 15, 2014
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While working in the backyard on my
rock wall repair project, I needed
to do repairs around the stairs that are between the
lower patio and a terraced area. A retaining
rock wall is on both sides of the stairs.
Since I am painting the rock walls after I repair
them, I figured a stair face lift, like I did above,
would work out great here. I have
decided to make just faux bricks.
Since I made such a mess when I did the stucco patio
stairs, I have decided to only work on just two stairs at a
time.
I resurfaced the top two stairs and then marked out
my brick pattern with 1/2" masking tape
the next day.
I then mixed the vinyl concrete patcher with the
concrete color as I did above and applied it to the
stairs.
I mixed one part red, one part brown, and then added
charcoal until I got a dark terracotta color. |
Top 2 stairs resurfaced and marked with
masking tape |
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The
photo to the right shows the work completed
today.
As I suspected I made a mess below the work
area. Good thing I have not resurfaced
the bottom two stairs yet.
November 21, 2014
There were a couple days where the night
temperature was below freezing, so work was
halted. As soon as it warmed up, I
continued on the stairs.
The photo below shows the completed faux
brick stairs. I finished the second
stair and resurfaced the third. The
next day, I faux bricked the third stair and then
resurfaced the fourth. The final day,
I faux bricked the bottom stair.
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Work completed as of Nov 15, 2014 |
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Work completed on Nov 21, 2014 |
After
the final faux brick step cured for 24 hours I painted
on the Quikrete Acrylic Cure & Seal.
This placed a slight sheen on the "bricks"
and darkened the grout lines. I am not
particularly crazy about this but I do want
to protect my work.
The stairs came out exactly as I wanted
them. A little rough and worn looking,
like they have been there for a few years.
The wall to the right of the stairs, which
had been repaired, was painted up to the
point where repairs were completed. |
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Faux
brick stairs completed and rock wall work continues |
Terrace Patio Plant Holes
December 9 - 15, 2014
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I am now
working on the rock wall on the terrace
patio. I needed to move the dirt in
the terrace patio plant holes to do repairs
to the wall. I have decided to do something
with these boring holes while I am working
with concrete.
Besides the huge cracks in the patio and the
spalled concrete, there are six plant holes
along the perimeter of the wall. Two
of the holes have no plants in them right
now. Three of the six holes have grape
vines, which I want to keep.
My husband suggested filling in the unused
holes with concrete. I have decided
not to because it is easier to leave the
holes as they are and plant something in
them next spring.
I have decided to do a faux brick treatment
along the hole edges which will repair the
damage around the rims and make them look a
lot better. |
Two
of six plant holes on terrace patio |
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The first thing I did with the
holes was to dig away all of the dirt so the edge
was exposed down to the depth of the concrete slab.
I then cleaned the cement around 6 inches out from
the edge.
I then applied Quikrete Concrete Bonding Adhesive to
the surface.
When the Bonding Adhesive was dry, I then
measured out 4 inches from the edge and made pencil
marks.
Instead of masking tape, which I used above, I used
weather stripping instead. The kind that comes
in big roles and is sticky on both sides. The
weather stripping sticks better on a rough cement
surface and prevents color bleeding. The
weather stripping was placed around the hole at the
4 inch marks. I needed to make cuts on the
outer edge of the weather stripping so it would go
around the curves.
I put a piece of PVC lattice moulding on the inside
for a guide, but decided I did not need it. So I
removed it after the first batch of cement. |
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Weather
stripping placed 4" from the edge. PVC
moulding on the inside which I really did not need. |
For this faux brick project, I am
going to work in reverse of the projects I did
above. First I will make the faux bricks, then
I will put the faux mortar in. The reason for this
is because I want to make these brick edges higher
than the existing surface. I will be using the
same vinyl concrete patcher I used above.
I used the Quikrete Terracotta and Brown cement
colors. I needed to mix 4 small batches and
made the bricks around the rim of the hole and down
the inside edge. The brick edge will be about
3/4" above the surface. |
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First
batch of cement going on edge of hole. I
removed that piece of PVC moulding after this batch. |
When the cement started to harden
I cut into the cement my faux mortar lines. I
just went around the edge and marked 3" for the
bricks and 1/2" for the faux mortar lines. I
removed the excess cement.
I also used my gloved hand to remove any smooth
trowel lines. I just placed my glove wherever
it was smooth and dabbed the cement with my hand to
make it look rougher looking.
Where the cracks in the patio are, I filled them
with the cement patcher before putting the the faux
bricks on top. |
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Faux
bricks made and faux mortar lines marked in cement |
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Faux
bricks cleaned up and weather stripping removed.
Need to add faux motar |
I finished one other hole before
the end of the day. I will let the faux cement
bricks set for a day before applying the faux
mortar.
December 15, 2014 - Three of the plant rings
are finished. The other three I will work on when I
finish the rock wall on the terrace patio. The
faux mortar was added to the faux bricks.
In addition to the plant holes, I also put some of
the patch around the faux bricks. This is
because I will be putting faux flagstone on this
patio to repair the spalled and cracked patio.
By placing the patch around the brick on the holes,
I do not have to worry about it later when I do the
faux flagstone in 2015 (I hope).
In the section of the patio pictured below, I
repaired all of the cracks and made two faux
flagstone against the wall. The reason for
this is the grape vine. When I worked on this
section, I needed to pull the vine out of the way.
This way I don't have to move the vine when I get
around to doing the whole patio with the faux
flagstone.
The faux flagstone was created the same way as the
plant hole faux bricks. I marked out the area
with the weather stripping, put the cement color in the water
before mixing the cement, and spread out the dyed
cement between the weather stripping. After
removing the weather stripping, I put cement between
the faux flagstone. Since I had already patched
around the faux bricks, I did not have to put cement
there. The flagstone on the left is Buff and the one
on the right is Charcoal. |
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Faux
mortar added to faux bricks. Two faux
flagstone added to patio between plant holes. |
Faux Flagstone on Top of Front Yard Rock Wall Cap
March 9, 2015 - April 2015
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March 9, 2015 -
While working on my
rock
walls in the front yard I decided to do a
faux flagstone treatment to the cap of a small rock
retaining wall. This wall is a distinctive feature
in the front of the house and I wanted to make it
"pop".
The cement was in pretty good condition but there
were several cracks. Some are small surface
cracks. There are some big cracks around the section
that circles the tree. The plan is to make the
grout lines where the cracks are. If these
cracks reappear, and I suspect that the big cracks
will over time, all I have to do is just place some
more cement in the grout line.
I first cleaned off the top of the wall then marked
with weather stripping the lines where the cracks
were and then placed the rest of the grout lines
randomly on this section. |
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Weather
stripping used to mark grout lines |
I then mixed each color of cement
and with my trowel spread the colors in each
section. I used 4 colors. Buff, Brown,
Charcoal, and Terracotta.
After the faux flagstone tile set, I removed the
weather stripping and placed uncolored cement in the
grout lines. |
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Cement
added to grout lines after faux flagstone cement set |
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This section of wall was then
painted. |
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How small
section of wall looks after painting. |
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This project was interrupted by
the "Raising
the Roof" project. I will
add the photos of the finished project when I
complete it. |
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May 2, 2015 -
I actually finished this wall about a month ago but
did not have a good photograph until now.
Folks who walk by like the "rocks" that I added to
the top of the wall. They think they are real. |
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To be continued... |
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