A long, weathered Seattle staircase between two retaining walls was ground, repaired and coated in solid Light Grey Certified Penntek polyurea, landing included.
Seattle is a city of hills, and plenty of homes here greet visitors with a long run of concrete steps. This one climbs from the garage level up a narrow channel between two block retaining walls to a landing and a garden walkway at the front door. Decades of rain had left the treads stained, rough and dotted with fir needles, with hairline cracks in the side walls.
In August 2025 our crew coated the whole staircase, landing and top walkway with Certified Penntek polyurea in solid Light Grey. It is a concrete stair coating in Seattle that turned a dim, mossy passage into a clean, bright path to the front door.
We did the free consultation in May 2025. Outdoor concrete holds water, especially steps squeezed between retaining walls where the sun barely reaches. A moisture reading of 3.4% came off the meter on the landing that day. We test every slab, indoors or out, because a coating is only as good as the concrete it bonds to.
What we saw on the walk-through:
Stairs take more hand work than a flat garage floor. Every tread, riser and inside corner gets the same prep. The handrail came down so the coating could run unbroken along the wall, and the crew taped off the house siding and the garage door trim.
Caution tape went up across the bottom step while it cured, since this was the main way into the house.
Most of our garage floors get a flake broadcast. Here the owner went with a solid color. Light Grey gives the steps and walls one calm, continuous tone that matches the house trim and lets the garden do the talking. Next to the red maple, the azaleas and the white block walls, it looks clean without competing.
A lighter color also helps in a narrow, shaded stairway. It reflects what daylight there is, so each step edge is easier to read when you are carrying groceries up from the car.
Outdoor concrete expands, contracts and goes through freeze-thaw every winter. A rigid coating tends to crack right along with it, and steps are where that shows first. The Penntek basecoat is flexible and moves with the concrete. You can see that in the Penntek Stretch Test.
The bond is chemical, using a silane adhesion promoter, at over 1,300 PSI. Before the coating comes up, the concrete will come up. And the topcoat is non-porous, so moss, needles and dirt sit on top and rinse off. More on outdoor jobs in our post on coating basements, patios and driveways in Seattle.
Steep lots, retaining walls and long entry stairs are part of living in a lot of Seattle neighborhoods. Coating them is one of the more practical upgrades a homeowner can make, since it seals the surface against water and gives a uniform finish that is easy to keep clean.
Our Seattle concrete coating page covers garages, patios and walkways. For another outdoor job in the city, see a cracked, mossy Seattle patio we rebuilt in Flint.
Yes. Treads, risers, landings and short side walls can all be coated in the same system. Each surface is ground or hand-prepped first so the basecoat bonds to clean concrete.
Usually, if they are mounted on the surface being coated. Taking them down lets the coating cover the concrete underneath instead of stopping short around each post.
Yes. The color sits under a polyaspartic topcoat with FadeLock™, which passed a 16-hour QUV accelerated UV test and won't yellow or amber. That is what keeps a light color like this one looking right in the sun.
Got a set of steps that has seen better days? Book a free in-home quote or call 425-226-6085. We will test the concrete and show you color samples on site.
Here's just a few of our previous projects.
