I have been running my tractor up and down my driveway,(hence tractor related) My blacktop drive has given up the ghost, and I'm thinking about doing it in concrete. "BUT" I want to dye the concrete black to look like asphalt! Has anyone out there ever done this?? My main concern is will the black fade as time go's on?? any comments will be well taken ! By the way, the color is added in when it's put in the truck,so it should mix up good Thanks in advance ...Jim in N.M.
 
Might want to check with the concrete company about mixing it in the truck. Most won't because they can't get the dye out easily. The only one that would wanted about $300 to clean out the truck afterwards.
 
Hi Jim;

I used red dye powder (True Tone brand) in sidewalks I poured five or six years ago and there's no sign of it fading yet. I think I remember hearing that black is more susceptible to fading but I'll bet that if you started with it as dark as you wanted, over time you would get used to it as it changed. Asphalt highways start out very black but over time they lighten until in many cases they're indistinguishable from old concrete. Do it the way you're planning and you probably won't be disappointed.

Stan
 
The guy who put my drive in was is a commercial finisher, old school guy. My drive is 5.5 inches thick with wire. The end of the drive to garage is resting on the footer I put down when I built the garage. I over built my footers, 32 inches deep and 24 inches wide. Top of footer is ground level so I could put brick on house and not have brick below grade.

My drive was put down 10 years ago. Brick work on house was finished in 1996. To date, no cracks in my brick work, drive hasn't moved, footer didn't settle, no cracks in drive.

The ready mix people gave me contractors price. I figured there wasn't a lot of difference over doing the footer, because it costs using block to brings things up to grade, not to mention labor, sealing the block. Blocks aren't as strong as my footer.
 
Like others have said, a lot of redi-mix companies are picky about adding dye to trucks, unless you are a regular, high volume customer. A good finisher can trowel in the color dye on the surface, especially if you go with something like a mag-swirl finish.
 
It will fade a little but so does asphalt. Think about brand new asphalt vs 5 yr old asphalt.i don't think you will get to much hassle from the concrete company an out mixing color in they do it all the time. That being said I have herd that when you trowel in color, if you do it right, the surface will be harder than regular concrete.
 
Twenty years ago I worked on a curb and gutter crew. We poured a one foot strip of nice shiny black concrete between the curb and the sidewalk in a southwestern Minnesota town. The color was mixed in the truck, and was as black as new blacktop.
This job was over a mile long and both sides of the road. All the concrete was poured in about a month. Twenty years later the black strip is just slightly darker than the regular concrete.
 
I have allways wondered about this as a way to melt ice on concrete. Wanted to try seal coat.

My painter says "don't you know the only thing that stains concrete is the stuff you don't want it to"

Anyway, I am tempted to do test strips to test.
 
I've found that most black color pigments will fade over time. The BEST that I've found, that has the least fade is micro-fine LAMPBLACK (it's pure Carbon).


:>)
 
A friend of mine just poured a shop floor and they added the dye in the trucks. I didn't ask him on prices but he mentioned it was expensive, or more than he anticipated. The dye was higher than he thought but he also had to pay to clean the trucks. Im not sure what they need to use to clean the dye but dont they have to wash the trucks out anyway?
 

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