The Ghost of Astroturf Past

Once upon a time, the steps leading down into the carport were covered in astroturf. Sadly, I don't have a picture of it with which to assault your eyes. Needless to say, once David moved in, it didn't stick around for long. Unfortunately, the adhesive did.

At the time of removal, some effort was made to clean it off. We tried relentless sanding, which helped smooth things out, but didn't help it look like bare concrete.

 

And so the stairs stayed this way for a few years. Don't judge.

 

Then, through the influence of advertising, we decided to do something about it. We had seen some TV commercials for Behr's Deck Over and David suggested that it might work well on our stairs. We went to Lowe's to see if they had a similar product (because Lowe's is closer to us) and indeed they did. It's called Rescue It and it's made by Olympic. But before we brought home a gallon of it, we wanted to get rid of some of the adhesive left on the concrete.

 We took home this stuff at the recommendation of the girl at the paint counter. Let me say here that I'm not usually a person who has much regard for her own personal safety. But you better believe I wore solvent-proof gloves and safety goggles while I used this stuff. It is serious business.

It looks like snot.

I brushed it on a little at a time, at first using that foam brush, which quickly started disintegrating, so I switched to a regular paint brush.

I waited 15 minutes, as instructed, then I got to scraping.

It worked so well it was almost disturbing. This ended up being a really unpleasant task, which I wanted to quit about 100 times before it was done. After finishing up, we wiped it down with mineral spirits, then hosed it off really well and left it to dry overnight.

Then it was on to the fun part! Olympic's paint can be mixed in quite a few different colors. We chose one called Taupe. We'd like to eventually have the gutters, soffits and exterior trim repainted a nice taupe-y color, so we figured having matching steps would be the bee's knees. It would also give us an opportunity to test out a potential color.

This stuff is super thick, so I stirred several times while applying it. The first coat covered really well, but the can said to apply two, so I did as I was told. I applied the first coat entirely with a brush, and after waiting an hour, applied a second coat with a roller to see if I could tell a difference.

Rolling was definitely a lot faster, but messier (hello, splatter) and didn't fill in the bumps and cracks like the brush did. If I ever find myself doing this again, I'll stick with the brush.

Look at those nice, smooth steps! In total, this project took about 3 hours for adhesive removal, and another 1 1/2 for painting (not including drying time). The paint can says to wait 12 hours before walking on the painted surface, so we will be letting it sit until tomorrow morning.

This project has gotten me inspired to spruce up our most-used and until now, neglected entry. I'm thinking of some bright colored flower pots flanking the door and maybe a wall light on each side? Maybe I'll even paint the door (which is open here so you can't really see it, but is white).  Let me know what you think!