Concrete Staining in Oklahoma City

Three eras of concrete inside one city limit

Oklahoma City covers roughly 600 square miles of land and reaches into four counties, so “OKC concrete” covers very different slabs. Heritage Hills, where construction began about 1903, and the other districts near downtown hold early-1900s houses with old porches and walks. The inner suburbs are full of mid-century slab-on-grade ranches. Out past the Kilpatrick Turnpike and along the far south and west sides, subdivisions keep adding new driveways and pool decks every year.

Each era needs a different start. A ranch house garage that has collected oil for sixty years has to be cleaned and tested before acid stain on the garage floor will soak in evenly. A two-year-old driveway on the north side often has only a curing compound to remove.

Historic districts: what shows from the street

Heritage Hills was the City’s first historic preservation district and went on the National Register in 1979. Mesta Park, Crown Heights, Edgemere Park, Jefferson Park, Paseo, Putnam Heights and Shepherd are also HP-zoned, and exterior changes there need a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Historic Preservation Commission or its staff.

Capitol-Lincoln Terrace and Wilson-Harn are handled differently. The State’s Capitol-Medical Center Historic Preservation Board reviews them, and its standards say not to paint, stain or cover original porch floors, and that new concrete seen from the street should match the concrete beside it and not be bright white. Whether the City applies the same wording in Heritage Hills or Mesta Park is something to ask the City’s preservation staff before planning any colour on a front porch. In practice, back patios and interior floors are where colour usually goes in these neighbourhoods, and stained interior slabs in a basement or addition sit outside the street view entirely.

Permits at the Development Center

New or replaced driveways, sidewalks and curb cuts go through a Right-of-Way Construction permit at the Development Center, 420 W. Main St. Homeowners also file the City’s residential driveway form, which asks for the driveway width and the curb cut width (the driveway width plus the radius). No City rule on staining or sealing an existing slab turned up in the published permit material, so call Development Services at (405) 297-2525, option 1, if you want it confirmed.

Hail, heat and red clay

Oklahoma County averages 72 nights a year below freezing and 13 days above 100°F, and the City hit 113°F on August 3, 2012. The county also sees hail over an inch across on five or more days a year, with sunshine about 67% of the time. Under that much UV, the sealer is what wears first, which is why resealing and stain restoration matters as much as the first coat. Underneath, Oklahoma Geological Survey work puts more than three-quarters of the state on bedrock that can produce expansive clay, so a slab that has heaved needs repair before stain, which colours the surface but does not level it.

Nearby areas

Nichols Hills sits inside the city on its north side, and Bethany borders it to the west along the 39th Street Expressway.

Oklahoma City concrete questions