Ideas for concrete patio?

[RoxMonster]

Our patio is just a slab of concrete and very blah. About five years ago, we did that Restore Paint on it, which is basically like a paint for concrete, in a brown shade. It looked good for the first couple years, but now it has flaked off everywhere in huge chunks, and I feel like the patio looks worse now than before, though I do really hate the plain concrete.

I would love to completely dig it up and put in a nice stone patio, but that is not in the budget. Does anyone know if there is anything I can just put over top of the concrete, like fake wood or something? My only concern with something like this is not really having a lip at all. Our concrete just runs straight into the grass. Something DIY would be best. Anyone with personal experience doing something like this, I'd love to hear from you!

[isabel]

Have you considered basically building a deck over the top of it? You’d have a lip, but you could do a horizontal board at the end to give it a finished edge. You’ll have to stain/seal it regularly, but wood is easier to maintain than messed up concrete. Once you do have the money to tear it out and replace, you can replace with stamped, stained concrete to make it look nicer without paying for flagstone.

You could also use a trex-like product instead of wood, which wouldn’t require much/any maintenance, but it’s not cheap.

[TBM]

You could lay tile on it. I saw a show yesterday where someone put wood look tile on their patio and it was really nice. Another show had a patterned tile on the patio that was fun.

I would love to have the same tile outside that we have indoors for continuity, but right now we have an unlevel sandy dirt mess out there, so it would take a lot of work and $$$$ to get ours to the point where we could put down tile.


Alternatively, I have seen deck tiles laid on concrete, but it seems (at least ro me) like if you live somewhere humid there could be problems with mold under the tiles.

[thegan]

What about epoxy? I’ve seen some stone epoxy, while probably not the stone you’re talking about, it might be an option to get closer to the look you’re wanting.

[winecat]

I can't promise that you'll get it anytime soon but IKEA has some outdoor flooring options that can be put over existing deck/patio materials: www.ikea.com/us/en/search/products/?q=outdoor%20flooring

[notsopicky]

Can you do more concrete over the top of it, and stamp in a pattern? We went with a stamped concrete patio for under our deck in the interest of cost savings over pavers/stone. 

[namasteak]

May 25, 2020 10:38:26 GMT -5 winecat said:

I can't promise that you'll get it anytime soon but IKEA has some outdoor flooring options that can be put over existing deck/patio materials: www.ikea.com/us/en/search/products/?q=outdoor%20flooring

We are waiting on some of the wooden runnen tiles for our concrete patio!

[allhis]

This could be another more affordable option? We have a really large patio area, the 1/2 of it isn’t pictured here is standard concrete that holds a hot tub/shower/etc. I didn’t want a giant expanse of concrete bc I thought it would look too bland and also likely get large cracks over time. Instead we used concrete pavers with pea gravel. Not only is is considerably cheaper than regular patio pavers, but i personally prefer the look. We didn’t DIY but I’m sure one could. .

[sometimesrunner]

How big is the area? If you'd rather save money for a bigger reno down the line, what about power washing it to try and get the rest of the paint off, then using a big outdoor rug to cover it?

[RoxMonster]

Thanks for the ideas and suggestions! It is not a huge patio - about 20 x 12. From Googling, I found some composite deck tiles that snap together that they say you can put right over top of the concrete. We priced it out, and I think it would be under 1K to do it using some from Home Depot, so we might try our hand at that.