How to Paint an Old Concrete Driveway

Guys, don’t think that just because I have a house blog that I’m always super gung-ho about getting started on our long list of things we want to fix up here. That is definitely not the case. I procrastinate a lot, sometimes because I’m scared of making the wrong choice, because I just can’t make up my mind, or because something is a BIG task and I just. Don’t. Want. To. Get. Started.

One house task I’ve put off doing for a long time – more than two years in fact – is painting our old concrete driveway. Wait, I guess that should be driveways. We technically have two (on the side is a bay for a boat or trailer, visitor car etc) plus the paving in the garage and the backyard, as well. So that makes for a BIG area to be painted. But we have finally started – and bitten off a nice chunk.

Let’s take a quick walk through memory lane and have a look at what our driveway and carport area looked like before we started our exterior reno.

Here’s the house when we bought it! Let’s take a minute to remember our beautiful old wisteria. Sob. I used to trim it so devotedly. Then one day it died and I was devastated. As you can see below, it really ties the (outdoor) room together. I mean that literally, I think the wisteria was actually holding the old carport together. RIP.

Also RIP to my beloved old Pulsar which I ran into the ground like the Italian racecar driver I was in a past life.


I’d already painted the concrete driveway you can see below with a paving paint, years ago. Looks good, no?

I actually painted the old wooden carport white at one point thinking it might dramatically improve it. Clearly it made a massive difference

When we did our exterior renovation to clad our house, part of it entailed demolished the old single carport in favour of a new double carport and we extended the existing driveway to create more parking space – my hubby’s dream fulfilled. Two cars parked side by side, not tandem! Mr Nerd says in hindsight, he wishes we had knocked the old driveway out completely and redone the whole thing because the cracks in the old driveway annoy his tender OCD self. But I shuddered at the thought of getting rid of all that concrete and somehow managed to convince him it would all look good when it was all painted the same colour…..

Cut to more than two years later and we still hadn’t gotten around to painting or sealing the driveway. I think my lack of enthusiasm was partly because a) it’s a big job and b) I have tried two different kinds of pavement/driveway paint in the past, and I was not impressed with either of them. See that reddish section in the picture below? That’s what I painted years ago, using one of those kinds of paving paints. I’ve also used another brand to do the driveway and paths of my parents’ house, and it turned out to look equally average after a while. I know, I know. We live in Australia, the sun is a monster, concrete gets hot, no wonder that paint fades blah blah blah. However, I just could not get excited about going to all the effort of putting money and energy into painting something substantially large, only to have it looking like crud a few years later. Who would?!

Anyway, it being left unfinished has always bugged me until recently when I consulted Google to help me find the best product for painting a driveway, and who did my searches lead me to, but someone I actually know – Michelle of Jarrah Jungle blog, who is right here in Perth too! Michelle actually doesn’t blog at Jarrah Jungle any more, but her blog is a crazy good resource – they wrote all about renovating their older home and doing up the gardens and she has really good tips and nice honest, open information.

I was really impressed by how their driveway looked in her photos and decided to try the same Crommelin product she used.

I bought the solvent-based Crommelin DiamondCoat Tintable Sealer in an 8L tin, and then you add in the colour additive – I got a 1L tin of the Crommelin DiamondCoat Tint in Basalt. You can get it at Bunnings. The girl at the paint desk mixed it up for me. We ended up needing another big tin for the second coat (and we’ve still got more to paint on the other driveway and out the back so I’m guessing we’re going to need much more! Eating an elephant over here). The big tins cost $151 each and the 1L tint pots were $40. So let’s say this driveway cost a bit over $400 to do, covering the cost of your roller and brush.

See the new concrete in that pic above? As much as Mr Nerd and I liked the light colour of the new concrete and I like how lighter colours make hardscaping look so much more open and airy, I know there is something forgiving about dark colours especially for something that will get a lot of traffic, oil marks, dirt, bore water etc. So like Michelle, we also opted for the Basalt finish, which is a nice deep grey. The Crommelin sealer is meant to be perfect for use on both new and old, stained concrete that has seen better days, and hey! We had both.

So I bought the concrete sealer and stuck it in the shed for like, I don’t know, three, four, five months? And then, after ten months of no community transmission of coronavirus in Western Australia (we are INCREDIBLY lucky to be living in this part of the world. I think about people living in places like London all the time) a hotel quarantine security officer tested positive for COVID, and last Sunday afternoon, it was announced that a Perth-wide lockdown would be enforced from 6pm that night for five days (the night before Little Nerd was due to start school).

If there’s ever a time to get cracking on some home DIY you’ve put off for years, lockdown in summer might be it.

Ahh there is my handsome internet-shy husband, hiding in the bush.

First Mr Nerd used our Bosch pressure washer (we have this one, which I was gifted for a sponsored post years ago) to give the driveway a really good clean and a degreaser spray to help scrub off the oil marks. We tried to pull as many weeds out of the cracks as possible and swept it heaps.

When it was dry I did the edges of the driveway with a big brush and all over the indents as I knew the roller wouldn’t get into those.


Make sure you keep mixing your sealer throughout so it stays nice and consistent. Here’s me looking like a dweeb.

After the edges it was time to roller – I ended up using a large Monarch roller on a pole and tray.

Little Nerd made me this sign to hang up. I suppose it works, because it was hot as hell and painting in summer sucks so it’s fitting. Good band name.

We left the first coat to dry for a couple of hours but it dries so quickly (probably because it was really hot – just make sure it’s not above 35 degrees when you decide to paint because it will be too hot). Then we did the second coat.

Then it was done! It can take light foot traffic in 24 hours and is fully cured in seven days.

BEFORE
AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER

I was impressed with the quality of the Crommelin sealer from the minute I started to apply it. It went on so nicely and although it seems really runny when you look at it in the tin (nowhere near as thick and goopy as pavement paint) the concrete seemed to drink it up without losing the opacity and colour too much. I’m wondering if it’s because this product is a sealer, as opposed to a pavement paint, and if that’s the big difference? We got the Satin finish, which is a little bit glossy but not too much, which wouldn’t have suited our house. Even the cracks in the old parts don’t bother us as much now.

Anyway, we will see how it holds up with time – but for the time being I’m really happy with it. Of course, it’s not going to look as good as a whole brand new driveway professionally painted. The kids have already dusted it up with their bikes (Little Nerd learned how to ride without training wheels the second day of lockdown!) But we went out this morning and when we got home seeing the driveway all nicely painted and homogenous after it looked tired and piecemeal for so long just made me so happy. I know…. I’m definitely a house nerd.

Now we just need to get the enthusiasm up to do the other bits I haven’t shown here yet! Maya x

Maya-Anderson-House-Nerd

Author: Maya Anderson

When Maya Anderson was thinking of a name for her homes and design blog, nothing seemed more fitting than House Nerd. Obsessed with everything to do with houses, renovating and interior design, Maya is a features journalist by training with a background in print and a focus on homes and real estate. She has been renovating her 1970s house since forever, loves dogs and can eat her body weight in dumplings.

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  • This looks sooo good! We have procrastinated with our driveway exactly like you – we widened parts of it and the original part is all faded and crappy. We’ve been a bit overwhelmed with what to use to paint it and colour etc….even got quotes from professional driveway makeover peeps and nearly choked on the quote prices! We’ve also had regrets on not just getting a totally brand new driveway as the old bit does have cracks etc. Anyhoo, this has totally inspired me to have a go with the products you used on yours. Thanks so much!

  • The drive looks very spiffy!! You have an amazing job.
    I am jealous as I have an old asphalt driveway which is badly cracked and in summer, the weeds grow through the cracks. I have been putting off dealing with it as it will be a major expense – it will have to be completely removed and then a new one will have to be put down. I am probably going to spring for an asphalt driveway again because my house faces south and in winter, the sun does a grand job melting the snow (it does need to be cleaned up somewhat first, and the sun will do the rest – it does not mean, sadly, that the sun will thaw a 5 cm of snow on its own].
    There is a house not too far from me where the guy who bought the house did his own driveway (I think he is some kind of a contractor but I can’t say for sure). He put down concrete driveway and he took the design into his own hands and he actually did a pattern in the terracota colour and the concrete gray colour. It’s the most awful looking driveway in the northern hemisphere (I can’t think there can be anything worse looking than this one) and I noticed last summer that the surface starting peeling off. The house was on the market for a while and even though it is on a very desirable street (there is conservation area on the other side of the street that will never be developed) it did not sell so it was taken off the market. My hair is standing up when I imagine what the house must look like inside (if he was in charge of the interior design as well).