Now, my husband and I were expanding the patio on two sides. The cement was dumped and we started to smooth it. Then it started pooring down rain. While we tried to protect it, water still puddled in some places, leaving dips in the finished work. Also, the new concrete is a different color than the old. Is there any way to smooth out these dips effectively and make the cement all the same color? I know that adding a thin layer on top would only leave the finished work to chip and crack, so I'm wondering how to go about completeing the patio.
Hi - You can add a dye to the cement before it hardens to change the color - but that won't help now, plus it would be hard to match the old color. If you live in a warm climate then one solution is to put an outdoor tile over the whole thing - using extra mortar in the low parts. When we lived in florida I put a red terra-cotta type tyle on our patio and it came out nice. You can also go to Lowes/Home depot and look in the paint department for an epoxy coating. They are common for garages, but they have them for walkways/patios too. Good luck.
Stain the concrete with concrete stain, just spray it on with a garden sprayer its easy all colors available, I would recommend the darker colors to try to get the old and new as similiar as possible. You could also contact a company that does stamped concrete overlays 6-8 per foot though
I think you've got about 3 options. The easiest would be to put 2 of new concrete over the entire thing, old and new. Use a 3/8 aggregate in the concrete instead of the bigger stuff. The only thing you need to be careful of is how this lines up with your door (can you fit 2 of concrete on the top of the patio and under the door to the patio?) A slightly tougher approach would be to use a vinyl/cement mixture (you can buy them at Home Depot or a better version at a masonry supply company). You can spread these very thin and they will still be solid when cured. They are tough to finish nice and have a tendency to look a little streaky when done though. Or the best approach might be to jackhammer out the whole thing and start over. New concrete will never be the same color as old stuff because it changes as the concrete cures and weathers. Sorry, wish I had a simple fix.
