1. Exposed brick walls add character, charm, and a chance of moisture. Learn how to protect your living space.
Currently, residential and commercial interior design trends are embracing industrial sensibilities; exposing and showcasing ductwork, pipes, brick, concrete, and additional construction features that typically remain hidden. Efflorescence, a white powdery residue, are salts that occur naturally within masonry. Although these salts can remain stagnant in the masonry, the permeation of water or moisture vapor can bring them to the masonry surface as brine. In the open air, the water evaporates, bringing unwanted moisture into living spaces and leaving traces of the salts behind. To help protect your home and belongings, it’s important to seal exposed masonry walls. For a sleek, modern, clear finish,
DRYLOK® WetLook High Gloss Sealer includes the added benefit of
UGL’s proprietary SaltLok® technology, formulated to provide resistance to unsightly efflorescence stains. If efflorescence isn’t an issue and you’d like to preserve the masonry’s original appearance without the high gloss WetLook sheen,
DRYLOK® Natural Look Sealer delivers a sophisticated, clear, matte finish in just a single coat, with easy soap and water cleanup.
2. Extend the life of your concrete driveway by protecting your investment.
So, what’s the secret to keeping a concrete driveway looking great? Maintenance! Think of it as a two-step process. The first step is prevention: try and keep problems from occurring in the first place. The second step is repair: catch and fix small concerns before they mushroom into major expenses. Today, the topic is prevention. As concrete is a porous material that contains tiny poles and pinholes, it’s highly susceptible to damage from rain, snow, humidity, and yes, even a dripping garden hose, misdirected sprinkler, or leaking kiddie pool. Obviously, it’s not going to fall apart immediately, but over time, water will take up residence in the concrete, expand and contract during freeze/thaw weather cycles, and begin to break the driveway apart from the inside out. Protect your investment with
DRYLOK® Concrete Protector’s clear coating.
UGL’s exclusive formula, which includes SaltLok® technology to help combat efflorescence, was developed to help shield masonry surfaces against water intrusion and
UV rays, as well as damage caused by de-icing salts, household cleaners, acid, gasoline, and oil. To maintain your driveway’s appearance and structural integrity, treat it with care. If landscaping gravel or stone gets tracked onto the concrete, sweep it away. When people, animals, and traffic press it into the surface, its abrasive nature can pit and mark the concrete. In the winter, if you must use an ice melter, choose carefully: some are less aggressive than others. Finally, if you own metal shovels, put them in your next yard sale. There’s less chance of nicking the surface if you use plastic.
3. For high-performance protection, choose a sealer that repels water.
Although its name says
“sealer,”
DRYLOK® Water-Base 5% Silicone Brick & Masonry Sealer outperforms most ordinary sealers. In hindsight, we should have called it a Super Sealer! Since exterior, vertical, above grade masonry surfaces like chimneys, stucco, stone facades, and concrete are completely exposed to wind-driven rain, sleet, hail,
UV rays, and snow,
DRYLOK® Water-Base 5% Silicone Brick
& Masonry Sealer is formulated to include Siloxane. A silicone at heart, comprised of large molecules that provide excellent coverage, Siloxane gives the surface what some might consider a superpower: the ability to actually repel water. See? It really is a Super Sealer! After the product is applied according to the directions, water will bead up on the surface. Plus, this penetrating sealer’s breathable nature allows water vapor, that builds up inside masonry over time and expands and contracts during freeze/thaw cycles, to escape. This helps protect the masonry from internal stresses that can eventually fracture and crack the structure. As an added architectural feature,
DRYLOK® Water-Base 5% Silicone Brick
& Masonry Sealer is virtually invisible, preserving your brick and masonry’s original appearance.
4. Here’s a trick to strengthen new concrete driveways, sidewalks, and steps.
In addition to protecting traffic-bearing masonry surfaces like tumbled stone and pavers,
DRYLOK® Natural Look Sealer can also be used to harden fresh concrete. When concrete is first mixed, cement is combined with what always seems like too much water. However, since the cement particles must absorb a certain amount of water and become fully hydrated for the concrete to cure properly, that extra liquid is a necessary part of the process. If outdoor temperatures are running high or the wind picks up, the evaporation process has a tendency to speed up, leaving partially hydrated cement particles behind. Improperly cured concrete is structurally weaker and is subject to a higher degree of dusting (that loose powder that comes up when you sweep a concrete surface). Poor curing can also result in shrinkage, which stresses the concrete and can eventually lead to surface cracking.
DRYLOK® Natural Look Sealer, in just a single coat, helps control the rate at which the water in the concrete evaporates; creating a tougher, more durable surface that resists impacts, cracking, spalling, and general deterioration. And although
DRYLOK® Natural Look Sealer has a milky appearance in the can, it dries to a beautiful, clear, matte finish.
5. A chic alternative to traditional floor coverings, concrete has one little problem. Here’s how to handle it…
The benefits of using concrete for interior flooring are numerous. It’s cost-effective, durable, impact-resistant, easy to clean, and quite striking in appearance, especially with added color, texture, staining, scoring, or stamping. Porous by nature, concrete is a masonry building material in which water vapor can build up over time and escape into your living space through small pores and pinholes in the surface. This unexpected and most definitely unwelcome moisture can damage your belongings, affect your quality of life, and even create an opportunity for mold or mildew to gain a foothold in your home. Often, homeowners mistakenly try to control the moisture by applying a sealer. Now, if you drop a glass of water on the floor, the sealer will help prevent the concrete floor from absorbing the liquid. In this instance, the sealer is protecting the floor. But, if the water is actually forcing its way up through the floor, you need something to keep the moisture in the concrete and protect your living space, something different than a sealer. You need a waterproofer.
DRYLOK® Clear Masonry Waterproofer is the first clear (non-pigmented), abrasion-resistant, high-gloss waterproof coating approved for both floor and wall applications. Featuring a patent-pending formula guaranteed to stop water, it penetrates and bonds to the masonry surface, creating an impenetrable barrier that withstands hydrostatic pressure up to 4
PSI. It holds up beautifully underfoot as a decorative finish coat, works as a primer under concrete floor paint, and may even be used under latex-based adhesives when it’s time to add carpet or tile.
