Concrete ironing

Concrete ironing is a procedure aimed at making the concrete surface harder and increasing the degree of waterproofing.

When deciding to build your own house, you are taking a serious step and quite naturally you want your future house to stand for at least a century. However, few materials can guarantee such a service life. In order for them to stand for at least 100 years, additional strengthening measures are required. Concrete also belongs to such materials. Because over time, under mechanical and / or chemical action, its outer layer begins to collapse.

By the name of the method, one might think that it is related to the addition of iron to concrete, but in reality it is not.

Ironing technology is the process of coating the outer surface of concrete using dry mixes with a special composition or cement. Such powders have a variety of components in various proportions.

The components in the production of such powders are: liquid glass, corundum, granite filler, sodium aluminate, granite filler, etc. They can be contained in the composition as all together or separately, depending on the type and purpose.

All atmospheric phenomena (winds, rains, frost, harmful sun rays) negatively affect the quality of the outer concrete layer. To strengthen it, concrete reinforcement is used. It can be done in two ways: wet or dry. The specific choice depends only on the position of the surface: horizontal or vertical.

Let's consider both options.

Dry method (exclusively on horizontal planes). Through a fine sieve, on a flat surface of concrete, cement or the aforementioned mixture is sieved. The thickness of such a layer should be about 3mm. This layer must be leveled, compacted and smoothed. Further, the dry material will independently absorb the necessary moisture from the air and harden.

Wet method (on vertical or horizontal surfaces). An already prepared slurry of cement is applied to the surface. In this case, additional components such as sand or others can be added to it.

Cement with sand in the wet application should be in a 1: 1 ratio. Also, to improve certain surface qualities, water glass, corundum, granite filler, sodium aluminate, granite filler, etc. are added to the mixture. After the mixture is ready, it is applied to the desired surface and leveled. Next, she needs to be allowed to dry for at least a week. After the coating has hardened, it must be wiped off and a polymer protection can be applied, which gives the protection an aesthetic appearance.

Also, for concrete ironing, appropriate impregnations are sometimes used. They can be found in specialized hardware stores.

The most popular and high quality is rightfully polyurethane. It fills the pores in concrete with polymer. Due to this, the outer layer has the properties of both concrete and polymer. Such impregnation can be applied in any ambient temperature conditions. The only nuance of this method is that the impregnation must be applied to not yet fully hardened and even concrete.

After leveling the concrete, impregnation is applied to it and allowed to dry. Further it is recommended to grind it. This is best done with a special grinder.

As a result, the resulting layer protects the concrete from moisture, harmful sunlight, chemical and mechanical influences.

Also, it will not be superfluous to mention that impregnations exist in a variety of shades. The right shade will add beauty and fit well into the overall design of a room or building.