How we sealed our Ardex Concrete Counter Top - behind the diy

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How we sealed our Ardex Concrete Counter Top

- Tuesday, March 26, 2019. to read...

I researched for weeks about how to safely and effectively seal our island Ardex concrete overlay counter and I ended up opting for an impregnator and a sealer.


I chose 511 Impregnator Sealer because it had great reviews and is supposed to impregnate the concrete with sealer instead of just sitting on top of the concrete. Then we followed it with this Safecoat Acrylacq sealer because it is safe for counter tops, is water based and had great reviews.

To apply 511 Impregnator sealer you need:

1. A smooth surface roller that doesn't shed
2. A foam brush for edges and hard to get areas
3. 511 Impregnator Sealer


The impregnator was super simple to apply and pretty straight forward. We rolled it on all areas of the concrete and the directions say to let it sit for 3-5 minutes and wipe off extra... well our porous dry concrete sucked that stuff up and dried with no excess before we even were able to wipe it off at the 3 minute mark. So we repeated this step until we had excess to wipe off. We did 3 coats in total I believe and almost used the whole bottle for our 11x4ft counter space.

It says it takes 24-72 hours to fully cure, we only let it sit for 24 hours as we were on a time crunch but it seemed fully dry. WARNING: this stuff puts out some serious fumes at first, so make sure to apply in a well ventilated area!


To apply Safecoat Acrylacq:

1. Non shedding smooth surface roller
2. Foam paint brush
3. Safecoat Acrylacq (I bought a gallon and only used 1/4 of the whole jug)


I didn't get a chance to get a picture of the "during" process because I was more worried about getting this on evenly and cover the whole surface perfectly. Also it says to make sure the mixture is stirred after 20 minutes of sitting, so I wanted to get the whole island done without needing to remix. It goes on just like paint and is definitely not difficult. We applied liberal coats, keeping a good wet edge and avoided over brushing as the Safecoat suggested and we did 2 coats waiting 4 hours in between each. However I wish we would have done closer to 4 coats.



I was very satisfied with the way the concrete felt after sealing, it had a shiny smooth top layer that was obviously going to be easy to clean! If you are wondering how its held up after a year click below on my other blog post!

Concrete Overlay Island: How its holding up after a year

If you missed my post about how we built our substructure and applied the Ardex Concrete counters see that here:

Concrete Overlay Island Counter Top


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