Painted Concrete Patio And How Ours Held Up After 4 Years

In our previous home we had painted the patio concrete and I am sharing all the details of how it held up after 4 years.

If you have ever considered painting a concrete patio and are curious about if it works and how it holds up… I am talking all about it and how it was doing 4 years later from painting it.

In our previous home we had this great little back patio and it was a quiet relaxing space. It needed a little TLC though. I decided that I would experiment with painting the concrete slab and give the space a new look. It felt risky as I wasn’t sure how it would work or if it even would work!

BEFORE

Goodness! What a before… Like most of our projects, this one happened in phases and by the end it was by far one of our most favorite things about this previous home of ours.

The Timeline…

I started the patio painting project in 2016 and detailed it more specifically HERE. The project itself was simple, but it took nearly 15-20 hours to stencil the pattern. My neck was very sore after that project, haha! We continued living in this house until the summer of 2020. I was able to watch how it did over that amount of time. Even though we are no longer living there, I wanted to keep you updated on how it was holding up after 4 years.

Preparation Is Key…

We carefully prepared the patio as I did want it to last, I would definitely recommend following all the directions on any products you use and cleaning the surface as directed. I know this made a difference! We used filler/sealant, primer and then a porch/patio paint. We are going to be painting our concrete (not stenciling) here at our current home and I will make sure to let you know all the things we will use.

The stenciling went on great and it was imperfect, due to texture. I fully expected this and while you could certainly get picky with things, I wanted a rustic feel as I knew it was outside and weathering would occur.

Uncovered Vs. Covered Patio…

Here’s the thing, we had both! For nearly a year, this patio sat uncovered and we lived 15 miles outside of Seattle. I am sure you can imagine our weather, haha! There was lots of rain. All that to say, it did really well for that first year. There were signs of wear especially in spots that just kept getting soaked in water. But overall I was really pleased. I didn’t even bother touching up after the first year, again I was good with some weathering and imperfections.

After a year we chose to rebuild the pergola and cover it. Best decision we ever made there living in rainy weather nearly all of the year!

I would absolutely say that having it covered helped preserve the quality of the paint and how it held up. This would be something to consider. Even so, I still felt like the edges or places that did get wet over time lasted. You can even see from the photos how well it did after 1 single year uncovered.

Quality Of Products Matter!

As I mentioned before, it is absolutely my recommendation to use the best high quality products. I do believe in a project like this it can make all of the difference!

Cleaning And Maintenance Over Time…

We found that taking good care of our patio was important. If dirt was building up or water was sitting on it, we would take care of that. I can’t make a formal recommendation on how to clean a painted patio as all products are different, but we ended up using some dish soap and our hose with a mop to clean things up once or twice a year and gave it a good rinse. I wouldn’t do anything that would scratch it or discolor the paint in any way.

To sum things up, I would say that our painted concrete patio held up very well after 4 years! Considering it was covered and we took good care of it. I would do it again and we are doing something similar in the future with our outside space now! This time though it will all be uncovered and surrounding our pool. I will keep you updated with how that gos and any recommendations I may have along the way.

Thanks so much for stopping by today and see you soon!