Outdoor Overlay with Ercole
Beautifying and renovating outdoor surfaces is easy and practical using Ercole, a seamless microcement overlay that can be coloured, stamped and textured. Be it your driveway, a sidewalk, a parking yard or the dog's kennel, if you carefully follow the procedure, you will obtain a new surface that stands the test of time!
Substrate preparation
The substrate preparation is crucial for the success of your job. We invite you to give the maximum attention and commitment to this phase.
The substrate must be solid and sound, suitable to withstand the expected loads, cohesive, without losing particles, uniform, clean and free from bonding inhibitors. A mechanical preparation such as sandpapering, shot-blasting or grinding would be ideal if the surface is very smooth.
Concrete substrate
In the case of a concrete slab, the greatest danger are cracks and fissures, contamination and rising damp.
Addressing cracks is challenging cause concrete is subject to movements caused by thermal dilatation or hydraulic shrinkage. If you have a cracked concrete slab, those cracks will likely mirror the final Ercole overlay. More information on how to address cracks in Application Sheet Crack Treatment.
Contamination or pollution in concrete slabs is frequent due to oil spills, tire marks, and vegetation such as leaves, fruit or other organic stuff that fall onto the floor and slowly penetrate the concrete surface. Also, the use of deicing salts is a source of contamination. All these substances can be transported by water or humidity and accumulate at the interface between the slab and the overlay, causing saponification or osmotic pressure and, ultimately, the cementitious overlay's blistering, delamination, or disintegration. You can use Degreaser to clean the surface in depth, followed by a treatment with Evercrete Pavishield or Vetrofluid to fill the concrete microporosity and pop out all the contaminants. You can apply Degreaser with a low-pressure spray device, then massage it with a broom and let it act for 20 minutes. Rinse with clean water. Rinsing with hot water using a high-pressure washer will expedite contamination removal. Repeat as needed. After cleaning, you can immediately proceed by spraying the first coat of Pavishield. As soon as Pavishield has dried, about 2 hours in standard weather conditions, you can apply the second coat. After the second application of Pavishield has dried, thoroughly rinse the floor again to remove contaminants that may have popped out from the floor. Now, your slab is ready to receive any surface coating.
Fixing rising damp may require patience and attention. If you see the typical symptoms, such as white efflorescences through the joints or in the concrete surface, corrosion or even humidity when not expected, then you should take care. Follow the procedure described in the previous paragraph about contamination, and then, after some days, test the results. A good test would be to use a plastic foil of dimension 1 by 1 meter, carefully tape the borders to the floor and wait 24 hours. After this time, if humidity or water droplets appear on the plastic sheet's inner side, you should apply another coat of Pavishield. Repeat the test until the internal side of the plastic sheet is completely dry.
Asphalt substrate
Applying Ercole on asphalt is easy and convenient; the only requirement is to have clean support. You can achieve this by power washing the surface: do not use any degreasing product.
You should wait at least 2 or 3 weeks before covering new asphalt; old asphalt can be coated immediately. Curing the new asphalt by broadcasting with silica sand on the top will help.
Be aware that any cracks or movement in asphaltic support will be reflected in the overlay.
Wooden substrate
It is possible to apply Ercole directly on wood, taking into consideration two details. Some types of wood contain tannins that are dyeing-like substances. They may migrate to the surface of the overlay and stain your job. To mitigate this risk, you can apply a primer such as Bonding Agent or Cerbero Base to the wooden floor.
The other thing to consider is the vertical (shearing) movement between the wooden planks. You must ensure the full support is well fixed, and using a glass fibre mesh in the whole area could be a good choice. The fibre mesh should be applied while wet on the first coat of Ercole and then covered by the second coat.
Tiled substrate
If you have support with ceramic or cotto tiles, the first thing to check is for loosing tiles. Knock on each tile and listen for any hollow sound. Where necessary, remove the loose tile and fill the gap with Ercole, Strutturale, or even Crono if you are in a hurry. Then, you should pre-fill all the gaps and tile joints with Ercole. Using a more dense mix, i.e. with less water, of Ercole will help this step.
After pre-filling, diamond-grind the floor to obtain a uniform, fully planar surface. Even if the grinding step is not always strictly necessary for adhesion and bonding, it's always an excellent choice to avoid uneven levelling.
Joints and cracks are often hidden in a tiling floor because they manifest in the tile gaps. They may reflect in the finished job; for this reason, the use of fibreglass mesh is always recommended.
Application of Ercole
Ercole is a low-thickness cementitious overlay, typically of 1-2 millimetres. You can achieve a smooth finish or a broomed one and even stamp it to obtain the desired texture. Follow the technical datasheet for mixing instructions and other requirements. Below are some tips to achieve a perfect and durable surface.
Be sure to bring some extra buckets. Typical consumption is 1.5 to 2 kg per square meter. If you need to colour Ercole, we suggest preparing all the mixing water required for the job and mixing the dye directly into the water. Doing so will ensure that each bucket has the same amount of pigment and obtain a uniform shade all over. Remix the water before each batch cause some dyes tend to settle into the bottom of the bucket.
Use paper tape to delimit the work area and keep the job place clean. If you cannot cover the whole area in a row, plan for interruption using paper tape for a straight joint.
Use a sprayer with water to keep the substrate moist at any time. Drying too fast leads to non-esthetic joints.
If joints or interruptions exist on the substrate, they must be honoured. You can report the joint location and take care later or insert a string into the joint to pull it out after the overlay stage.
The curing of Ercole strongly depends on weather conditions: the hottest and dryest, the better. Ensure that the whole area is exposed to the same state of sun and irradiation: if a part of the floor is in the shade, it could possibly achieve a slightly different colour than the rest.
Apply with a squeegee or a trowel, and keep a product stack on the work front. A feather edge will dry the product quickly and lead to cold joints. If you use more than a bucket, pour the new material into a zone freshly coated to achieve better uniformity.
Add a sachet of Livella to one bucket of Ercole to mitigate the trowel marks. Livella is a self-levelling compound, and reducing the need for mixing water will also increase Ercole's strength.
During the summer, using cold water (from the fridge) will be useful to extend pot life. You can do the opposite with cold weather using hot water, but be careful: applying Ercole in cold, humid weather or in any circumstances where we forecast low evaporation is definitively not a good idea.
Application of GiGi Sealer
Using a final sealer is optional but strongly recommended to extend the lifespan of your new overlay and for cleanability and stain resistance.
A good trick to improve the uniformity of the sealer is to spray a coat of Evercrete Pavishield or Vetrofluid on top of Ercole so that it reduces the porosity and absorption. The day after, you can apply the two coats of GiGi Sealer. Spray the sealer, creating small circles with your hand for a uniform application. Second coat of the sealer could also be applied with a roller or other technique.
Well done, your microcement overlay is finished!