How Can I Give My Concrete Walkway a Fresh Look in Los Angeles?

What is one part of your home or property that gets used everyday with heavy foot traffic and is almost always overlooked? Your walkway! Walkways play such an important part of your day without you even knowing. How do you get in and out of your home? How does anyone coming to your home get to your door? The walkway, that’s how! It only makes sense that you should do upkeep and upgrades on your walkway to keep it looking fresh and new year after year. 

Walkways take such wear and tear day in and day out. They are stepped on repeatedly, often rolled over with wheels, stood on and in some places covered in salt during the cooler months.  And here in Los Angeles, we have dry heat and earthquakes that can also cause damage. We seemingly forget that they need to be taken care of regularly just like another part of your home. 

What can you do you ask? As long as the damage is superficial, then you can restore or upgrade it through resurfacing. Resurfacing will save you hundreds of dollars in replacing. To make sure the damage is only superficial you will need to consult with a professional. If the damage is determined to be more than superficial you will have to tear up and replace the whole walkway and then can upgrade to a longer lasting material and style. 

How Do You Resurface a Walkway?

Resurfacing a walkway is relatively easy job for a professional. This would not be a project to undertake as a DIY. First a professional would assess your current walkway. If it is in good condition then it will be resurfaced to fill in any cracks or dents. After those have been repaired you can choose an overlay to be applied. An overlay is where you can upgrade to a nice style that can reflect your love of your home. Overlays can be stamped, stained, stenciled or engraved to add color or simulate the look of brick, stone, tile or slate.

Popular types of Overlay include:

• Flagstone Pattern

Your concrete walkway and steps can be transformed with a colored and patterned overlay to mimic the look and feel of more expensive flagstone. Faux grout lines are created by taping off the flagstone pattern before the overlay is applied.

• Stone or Brick Style Overlay

Like the look of stone or brick, but aren’t a big fan of the cost? You can create the same look of stone or brick with concrete. In this process, a polymer overlay with a hand-taped stone pattern and brick border gives your existing concrete entryway new life.

• Italian Slate Overlay

Want an eye-catching, beautiful finish? Rejuvenate your concrete walkway to look like Italian slate. If you choose this option, your concrete walkway will get a concrete overlay stamped in a seamless Italian Slate pattern and hand painted with water-based antiquing stains.

• Slate Style Overlay

To replicate the look of inlaid slate, your concrete sidewalk can be covered with a gray-colored cement overlay to create the look of a grout base. The slate pattern will be delineated with duct tape, and then an acrylic cement topping applied and hand painted to create a marbling effect.

This looks great! Couldn’t I do it myself?

Stamping and staining concrete is a time-crucial project. In order to get it done correctly, many pieces have to be in place before the concrete is poured, stained, and stamped. There is a steep learning curve to completing a project as complex as this one. It’s really recommended to hire a professional to do this type of project.