Protection And Design Of Concrete

Concrete is not always the same. Protection and design of the durable building material are areas in which the painter can prove his competence. Marc Nagel Beton, the building material that was already known in Roman antiquity, is not particularly popular with many painters and plasterers. Ideally, it was hidden behind a plasterboard wall structure that can be filled and wallpapered. But what to do if the client and customer insist that the concrete is also visible? What possibilities do you have as a painter and plasterer to deal with a fair-faced concrete surface and also to prove the existing competence as a craftsman who knows the surface? Two areas in which one can be active are concrete protection and concrete design. Concrete protection is aboutTo protect the exposed concrete from environmental influences and, above all, to adequately secure renovated concrete components. In the field of concrete design, the focus is on the visual improvement of concrete surfaces that show undesirable color shades or patterns due to aging processes or incorrectly executed mixing ratios. Waxes and oils were already used in ancient times to protect concrete surfaces in order to make them water-repellent and thus protect them from the ingress of moisture. This is still one of the main reasons for concrete protection today. Because water is the main danger for concrete structures - especially if reinforcements are not installed with sufficient cover. To build up protection, new and refurbished concrete components, whether exposed concrete or concealed component,products from different manufacturers are used today. Most have in common the ingredients for creating a water-repellent, i.e. hydrophobic, layer. Here, silanes, a silicon-hydrogen compound, and siloxanes, a silicon-hydrogen-oxygen compound are used as active ingredients. They can be applied as glazes or in the form of a cream, whereby a longer incorporation time, as with cream solutions, also allows a deeper penetration into the building material and thus increases protection. The active substance content in the coating is also an important factor for the effectiveness. In addition, exposed concrete surfaces can also be provided with coatings that, in addition to protecting against environmental pollution such as salt or CO2, also cover small cracks and interfere with the color scheme. If you want the colorSuitable coating systems, colors and glazes can be used for this, especially with exposed concrete facades in the interior and exterior. Most coatings and colors for concrete, however, change significantly the character and appearance of the surfaces due to the high degree of coverage. If this is not desired, the concrete glaze remains as a possible variant. One example of this is the much-discussed New City Library in Stuttgart. After the facade was finished, it was found that the facade color was not the desired light gray color, but a typical dark concrete gray. So in a subsequent step, a light concrete glaze was used in order to obtain the desired, lighter shade and not to change the surface structure of the exposed concrete parts. Silicate-based thin-layer paints with lime-fast, mineral metal oxide pigments are mostly used, which are applied in several steps with a glaze brush. This creates a matt, mineral surface that looks as if it is a colored concrete. Coatings can be used to protect and design concrete surfaces without significantly changing the character of the surface.