Painting the terrace (EN)

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The terrace is on top of a workshop. You can see it's a bit cracked, but nothing to worry about. Well, one thing: it's not exactly waterproof. Or better said: it's exactly not waterproof. It leaks. Like a leaking sieve with a hole.

And it does rain here. Oh yes it does. And it has, apparently. The workshop is as humid and wet as a tropical greenhouse, with droplets hanging onto the ceiling. Not good. Best not touch the electrics here (switched off).

What to do about this. Cover the terrace with a thick plastic foil? Ceramic tiles? A layer of waterproof cement? We have a week...

Well, a guy at the local warehouse had another idea: a special paint everyone here uses on terraces. The tub says "terrazas", and, "impermeabilizante", and "elastico". So it must be good.

"¿How much do we need?", we asked the Spanish shop guy. This terrace is about 60m2. 4 liters? Very good, we'll start with that.

But first the cracks need filling. A packet of 1.5 kilo cement-y stuff for exterior purposes should do the trick. A few hours later another packet was fetched. Even with added sand this terrace eats it up faster than imagined. But, after a day's hard work it's done. Paint tomorrow!

Well, painting a cemented surface with this thick paint is hard work. After a few square meters it was clear this was not the way to go. The instructions, fortunately, mentioned that you can "dilute this paint 50% with water" for the first few layers, in case you have an absorbent surface, or loose stuff. We did have an absorbent surface with loose stuff.

What is "50% dilution", actually? And no, it is not half paint half water, as we quickly found out. Off to the shop for another two tubs, one to un-dilute our now far too diluted paint, one for the final coat. Only one of our "riojo ", and one tub of "riojo teja" were left in stock. Is that red too? Should be. It was not. Riojo teja is a very yellow-red color, while our red is a red-red color. Well, alright for the undercoat.

But we'll need to do a few more coats. Quite a few more coats. Even though this paint is "elastico", it can not withstand the grit this coarse cement layer releases. While rolling-on the paint grit of a few millimeters is loosened, and stuck onto the paint. Then, when dry and you walk over it, it loosens again, damaging the new surface.

Not nice.

So, that meant crubbing the surface with gloved hands, and using our new vacuum cleaner to remove the grit... And again. And again. Three 50% diluted covers were necessary until we were reasonably satisfied.

By this time both we, and the shop, were out of 4-liter tubs of red paint.

BUT! While looking around desperately, it appeared there are 15-liter tubs too. Saved!

The result after applying the final thick "peanut butter sandwich" coat!

We now have half the 15-liter tub left, which we'll use for another coat, in May.

The label on the can specifies "1.5 liters / m2", which we dismissed as an error at first. But, it probably is right by the time we really finish.