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Decorative Concrete
Add
color and texture to make concrete look like more expensive
materials or to create unique effects
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| When
you hear the word "concrete," you probably picture
structural elements like footings, foundations, and slabs.
And whatever you picture, the material is probably smooth
and gray. Yet there are lots of ways to transform this
common structural material into an impressive decorative
element. |
Most decorative techniques involve changing
the color and texture of the concrete surface. These methods
allow concrete to be used for nontraditional applications
like countertops but are most frequently used for flatwork,
which is the focus of this article.
The most common treatments make concrete
look like more expensive materials such as brick, flagstone,
and slate. Skilled finishers can produce stone or tile-like
surfaces that are hard to tell from the real thing. But techniques
aren't limited to copying other materials. Color and texture
can also be used to produce abstract or painting-like effects
that are not possible with other materials.
In researching this article, I talked
to a number of suppliers and spent time visiting job sites
with Tom Ralston of Tom Ralston Concrete in Santa Cruz, Calif.
With the exception of stenciling, his company has done just
about every kind of decorative concrete there is.
Changing Color
There are a number of ways to color
concrete. One of the older methods is to color the surface
by exposing attractively colored aggregate. Other methods
involve dying or staining the cement that's in the concrete.
Integral
color. The easiest way to color concrete is to have
the supplier add color pigment at the batch plant. You can
also add pigment to the mix after the truck arrives
on site. Either way, the concrete is colored before it's poured,
so placing and finishing aren't much different than usual.
Concrete prices vary widely from area to area, but depending
on who you talk to, using integral color may add 10% to 50%
to the cost of the material. The labor to finish is about
the same as for a standard mix.
Pigments are usually powdered and come
in a wide range of hues. You can get reds, greens, yellows,
blues, browns, tans, grays, and black. The color will go all
the way through the crete, so chips and dings will not be
noticeable.
Adding integral color is a simple way
to color concrete, but there are ways to mess up. The most
important thing is to be consistent, especially for jobs that
require more than one load. Each batch should contain the
same materials and the same amount of pigment and arrive at
the recommended slump - typically 4 or 5 inches. Each batch
should be mixed, placed, finished, and cured exactly the same
way. Change anything and you can end up with areas that don't
match.
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