Protecting a concrete wall

During several years of exposure concrete to weather conditions (sun, rain, snow, ice,...) we have to take care of concrete as good as we can so it can be like new for next 10, 20 years. It is hard to rehabilitate the concrete so quality that we can guarantee those 20 years. But it can be done.

First (and probably most important) thing is to clean the surface the best we can. Here is highly required a pressure washer. And not some hobby line program ;)

Next. In most cases we have to protect the steel reinforcement first (if there is any to protect, if not, then skip this part). Here we used Mapei Mapefer 2K anti-corrosion cementitious mortar for protecting steel reinforcement rods.

Then we prepare the surface for applying the mortar. We saturate the surface with water but not so much that it stays on it. Now we apply the mortar as final layer. We used Mapei Mapegrout BM. It is 2K thixotropic mortar with low modulus of elasticity for the repair of concrete.

If we do all of these steps right and quality, the concrete should look like new for many years or even decades.

And of course, here you have few pictures:

When surface is cleaned, we apply anti-corrosion mortar.

Funky blue ;)

Applying main mortar for repairing the concrete.

Final look.

There are a lot of different manufacturers of those concrete-repairing mortars. In this case I decided to use Mapei. You can use the same or any other as long as you know it's quality is not questionable.