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| Decorative concrete
can help make a project unique. The designer of this California
beach house (situated almost too close to the ocean) wanted
people to think that the waves washed through the building,
eroding concrete and leaving deposits. Tom Ralston Concrete
cast the floor with jagged Styrofoam pieces to simulate
wide cracks, then filled the cracks with cement, beach-type
aggregate, and bits of seashells and exposed the aggregates.
Using a retarding agent and turkey basters, workers randomly
exposed parts of the living room floor (above) and kitchen
island (inset) also. They used chemical stains to make
the concrete look old and worn. |
Mark Justman, director of market
research for the Portland Cement Association (PCA), Skokie,
Ill., states that 340 million to 400 million cubic yards of
concrete were produced in the year 2000, based on the amount
of portland cement shipped from production facilities (2001
information is not yet available). Boyer says that at present
the integrally colored concrete market represents 1% to 1.5%
of the entire concrete market nationally, or 4 million to
6 million cubic yards. He expects this could increase to 6%
of the entire concrete market by 2007.
Of the total concrete produced
in 2000, contractors placed approximately 22 million cubic
yards of concrete in exterior hardscape areas --driveways,
patios, sidewalks, and plazas (according to PCA). About 16
% of this was integrally colored. In some regions of the country,
however, as much as 30% of all concrete sold is colored. In
those areas, if you consider all types of decorative concrete
(not just integrally colored), colored concrete may already
be half the hardscape market. This will inevitably increase
in all areas over the coming years.
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