I was dead set against using acrylic sealers for years... now I'm not so sure

Back in 2019 a guy named Dave kept telling me to switch to acrylic cure and seal for driveways in Phoenix where the sun eats everything. I laughed at him. I was all about the old school curing methods with wet burlap and plastic. But after I did a 3,000 square foot job that turned into a dust storm because the burlap dried out too fast I finally gave in. That acrylic stuff held up way better on the next project and the customer didn't call me back with cracks. Still feels like cheating though. Has anyone else switched sides on a product they used to hate?

2 comments

2 Comments

ben4361mo ago

3000 square feet with wet burlap in Phoenix... yeah that checks out. I tried the whole burlap thing once on a small patio and ended up chasing cracks for a month. Switched to acrylic and felt like I was taking the easy way out too. Still haven't told my old boss about it.

the_sarah1mo ago

My 2015 job in Flagstaff with a 1,200 square foot sloped driveway taught me acrylic sealers are a band-aid, not a fix. The stuff peeled off like sunburn after six months because we didn't grind the concrete right first. I had to chip it all off with a scraper and redo it with a lithium silicate densifier and a proper dry cure. Now I'm stuck on the old methods because they force me to pay attention to the concrete instead of just spraying a coat and walking away. Once you see acrylic fail on a bad day, it's hard to trust it even when the sun is beating down.