How Is Our Painted Driveway Holding Up Two Years On? (And Would I Paint Concrete Again?)

We just got back from a long weekend in the south west that ended up being unintentionally unplugged when I discovered our accommodation didn’t have reception. Well. That was alarming. How am I supposed to relax without watching Tiktoks of animals who think they are humans? I should have paid more attention when our accommodation’s online description said it felt like going back in time to the 70s… they were not exaggerating. You don’t realise how much you use your phone until you can’t. Even playing what should be a peaceful evening game of Scrabble became an existential challenge. “That’s not a word.” “Yes it is.” “No it’s not, you cheat” “It’s a word, Google it” “I CAN’T WE DON’T HAVE RECEPTION WHY DID YOU BRING US HERE” etc.

Mr Nerd will probably make me delete this photo if he sees this post so please enjoy my wilfulness while it’s here.

Well, after our unplugged family weekend I was catching up on emails and Instagram DMs today, and I read this one.

“Hello, thanks for the great blog post about painting your driveway with Crommelin.

Can I ask how it looks now? We have a painted driveway and we want to spruce it up. Just wondering how the Crommelin looks a couple of years on, especially over the pre-painted areas?

We’ve been told by Bunnings we have to remove all paint for Crommelin to be effective. That will be a huge job so just wondering if you noticed a big difference in the final result where the driveway was painted previously? Thanks again for the great website and tips!”

I’ve had a few DMs about our driveway refinishing project over the past couple of years – especially from Pinterest where that project went viral – so I thought it would be a good idea to revisit it now and share some updated photos.

So a bit of background to refresh. Painting our driveway was one of our COVID lockdown projects, done in February 2021 (with a two-year-old in tow….. always a real accomplishment). Here’s my original blog post.

As you can see above, we had a very unloved-looking, very large expanse of driveway, some new and extended, the rest from the 1970s and previously painted (by yours truly way back when, with a product called Berger Jet Dry I wouldn’t recommend).

Then we painted it and it was looking like this.

Now two years later, it looks like this.

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