I had a PIC drive done less than a week ago and it is currently curing before being sealed. I have a couple of questions as I am a worrier. Firstly it started to rain heavily around 7 hours after the imprinting was completed. Once the contractor came back and washed away all the release agent it appears fine but will this have affected the hardening? It also rained most of the time in the following 4 days.
The second point (worry) is that there are a small number of area’s at the edges of the tile imprint where the surface/edge is flaked and the underlying concrete can be seen. I must point that these are tiny and over a 110m2 area there are only 5 or 6 of them. The contractor assures me this is normal and when they come back to seal it they just fettle it in some way with colour hardener. I’m not bothered about these from a cosmetic point of view, it just a wondered if they could flake or break up more. The picture is of the worst occurrence and is taken from just 6 inches away.
In general a have been impressed with the contractor a lot of earth & debris was removed and the concrete is around 90mm thick having been layed on a lot of compacted gravel. Also having read the article on this website regarding the process of PIC it described exactly what they have done.
The rain shouldn't be a problem. If it lashes it down iduring or immediately after imprinting, it can be messy, but if the surface looks OK at this stage, it probably is.
The missing detail at mat edges is due to the colour hardener adhering to the mats during imprinting. Ideally, these defects should be spotted and patched immediately: delayed patching often runs the risk of being more noticeable, but the skill level of the installation team will determine just how "invisible" such repairs will be.
