What are the best silicate concrete sealers?

When you’ve decided on a penetrating concrete sealer, maybe for a project like a garage, a driveway, or a basement made of traditional concrete, you no longer have to consider surface sealers like acrylics, urethanes, and epoxies. However, there are a few different choices at the level of penetrating sealers.

Silicate sealers are the a common choice for densification. They are a high quality, dependable choice of penetrating sealer. They are made up of small particles of silicate, a material that will penetrate past the surface pores of the concrete to react chemically within the concrete to create CSH. CSH, or calcium silicate hydrate, is a naturally occurring mineral within the concrete that provides its strength. However, concrete is naturally porous with a large number of air pockets. With a penetrating sealer delivering silicate into the concrete, the silicate will react chemically with the calcium, free lime, and various alkalis within the concrete to create more CSH, which increases the concrete’s strength.

A silicate sealer is made up of silicate suspended in a type of carrier, typically a sodium. That is why you see sodium silicate sealers everywhere on the market. These are excellent choices, but a newcomer to the field is the lithium silicate sealer. The difference is that the carrier, which only functions to transport the silicate into the concrete, is lithium instead of sodium. Keep in mind that silicates both sodium and lithium do not offer any type of waterproofing protection.

Our Take: Silicate densifiers we like are Lithi-Tek 4500 and The Ashford Formula.