The concrete on my street changed from light gray to dark brown in like 4 weeks

I walk my dog down the same block every day near downtown Raleigh and noticed the color shift happened right after the city sprayed some kind of sealant a month ago. Anyone else seen a municipal coating change the whole look of a neighborhood like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

quinnj2416d ago

You said "the color shift happened right after the city sprayed some kind of sealant" and that tracks with what I've seen near my place in Cary. They coated the main drag through our development with that dark sealant, and the road went from a dusty light gray to a deep brown that almost looks like wet asphalt all the time. It's been about six weeks now and it still hasn't lightened up, even after a few good rainstorms. The weird part is the sidewalks next to it stayed the same, so you get this sharp line where the gray concrete stops and the brown street starts. Makes the whole block feel like it's wearing mismatched shoes.

the_logan16d ago

34% of the roads in my county got a similar treatment last spring. I tracked it. The sealant they use has iron oxide in it. That's the stuff that makes red clay red. It binds to the concrete and doesn't wash out. The sidewalks stayed gray because they used a different mix, probably a water-based acrylic that just sits on top. I asked a guy at the public works yard. He said the dark color is intentional. Helps hide oil stains and tire marks from the new electric buses they're rolling out. Saves them from scrubbing the streets every month.