Can I renovate paving slabs?

mrsyardbroom

The paving slabs outside my back door look awful. They're years old but none of them are loose. The surface has gone from them and you can only see remnants of the colours. I can't afford to have all the slabs taken up and renewed. Is there any way of making them look better?

melanzana

Have you tried to pressure wash them? Often works well. Try that first. It will certainly improve things. Then re sand between the joins.

Someone who knows more than I do about these things might have more ideas though.

mrsyardbroom

The actual surface has gone off the slabs. There are bits of colour left but I need something to coat them with.

martinthebandit

Clean them, as has been said with a pressure washer, and then google block paver paint or similar

mrsyardbroom

These are the slabs I want to renovate. I will clean them before painting/resurfacing.

melanzana

mrsyardbroom wrote: »

These are the slabs I want to renovate. I will clean them before painting/resurfacing.

They don't look too bad at all. (better than mine at the minute!). A good pressure wash will reveal the colours again.

mrsyardbroom

I'll go to the paint recycling shop and see what they've got.
If you haven't heard of paint recycling it's a great way to save money. Lots of people only use a bit of a tin of paint and then leave it lying around. Community Repaint is a scheme that recycles all this old paint by selling it people who will use it. It only costs around £2 a litre. I bought 5 litres of unopened vinyl silk paint recently for £10 and a a litre of white gloss for £2.

kazwookie

1. Power wash them first.
2. How many are there in total? look on FB or similar to see if anyone is giving away FOC the number you need if you want to replace them, then get someone to help you lift the old ones and relay with the FOC ones.
3. If you paint them make sure it is non slip paint, as if it is the wrong paint and they get wet (rain / snow) they will be slippery and you could fall over when walking on them, as I found out to my cost some years ago and ended up with a broken wrist.

mrsyardbroom

Thanks. I don't want to relay the slabs but I'll get anti slip paint.

GDB2222

mrsyardbroom wrote: »

Thanks. I don't want to relay the slabs but I'll get anti slip paint.

Masonry paint might possibly work.

DorsetLad

Are you sure the "surface has gone"? All the slabs I've used don't have a separate surface as such; instead the concrete is the same colour all the way through. Your slabs look to me to be a mix of cream and grey slabs that are mostly now covered with lichen. As suggested above, first try a pressure sprayer to get rid of the lichen. You may be surprised at the brightness of the colours that are revealed. Our patio slabs become uniformly dirty grey by the end of each winter, but pressure spraying then returns them to the original mix of cream and red.

I wouldn't recommend painting them. In my opinion the paint will wear off quite quickly and they could then look even worse.