Decorative concrete, which can take on the name colored concrete, stamped concrete, or stained concrete is making all the waves now. There are a lot of ideas you can achieve with colored concrete on your walls, patios, driveways, floors, and other areas. Everything about this stained concrete from the pouring process to the curing process is absolutely breathtaking.
What Is Decorative Concrete?
Decorative concrete takes plain and traditional gray concrete and then enhances it with the use of texture, color, or both. It gives aesthetic enhancement to your structure and still maintains its purpose as a vital component of the building. Stamped concrete comes in different forms and color options.
Stamped concrete is able to create mimics of wood, tile, stone, brick, and other materials with the use of overlays, water-based stains, acid stains, color hardeners, and many more. It can be featured on sidewalks, parking lots, and driveways.
What Is The Difference Between Decorative And Utilitarian Concrete?
Decorative concrete is a type of concrete that aims to achieve aesthetic goals in terms of concrete flooring or other concrete surfaces. This stamped concrete does not necessarily need to add to the structural integrity of a building and can be used solely for decorative purposes.
Utilitarian concrete focuses on function and gives little or no attention to aesthetics and designs.
What Is The Difference Between Decorative And Architectural Concrete?
Architectural concrete is a kind of complete concrete that is used by contractors to provide an aesthetic finish and also structural function to a building. On the other hand, decorative concrete does not work as structural building members as the majority of its work is to enhance the structure with color or texture.
How Is Decorative Concrete Made?
Decorative concrete can be gotten by applying a wide range of materials to traditional concrete in the pouring process or even after it has been cured.
What Types Of Decorative Concrete Are Out There?
These are the different types of decorative concrete you can find:
Integral Coloring
This kind of concrete does not involve dyes or stains. Instead, a selected pigment is added to the concrete during the mixing process. The color is integrated into the concrete.
Texturing
There are different textures that can be added to concrete including sand finish, chemical applications, and other methods to get the aggregates exposed by removing the top layer.
Stenciling And Staining
You can stain or stencil concrete to end up with a material that is pleasing to the eye. This can be achieved by masking selected areas before staining, acid etching, or sandblasting.
Stamping
Stamping of concrete is done to mimic materials like cobblestone, natural slate, and brick. This is a process that produces decorative concrete that is resistant to damage and saves maintenance costs.
What Is The Most Popular Decorative Concrete Finishes?
You can get decorative concrete in the following finishes:
- Stamped Concrete: To achieve an expensive-looking design, patterns can be imprinted and stamped onto concrete.
- Acid Staining: Luxurious and rich colors are achieved on plain concrete floors with the use of acid-based chemical stains.
- Water-based staining: This is a kind of coating that bonds with the concrete to produce a high-class finish.
- Decorative Overlays: With overlays, you can give life to a previously worn-out concrete surface. The different types include vertical, stamped, and polymer cement overlays.
- Polished Concrete: Here, the concrete is polished to produce a high-quality and glossy finish.
- Colored Concrete: Colors can be integrated into concrete during the mixing process to give it a glorious shine
- Epoxy coating: This is a kind of coating that makes decorative concrete wear-resistant and also makes it resistant to tire marks, grease and oil stains, and chemicals.
What Are The Benefits Of Decorative Concrete?
In addition to its appearance, there are other advantages of using decorative concrete. These include:
- Lovely Designs: There are almost endless possibilities for the kinds of designs you can achieve with stamped concrete.
- Great Versatility: This concrete can be useful to your home in many ways including making your driveway, walls, patios, and fireplaces stand out.
- Damage Resistant: It has great durability and it does not chip, scuff, or scratch easily. This means that your decorative concrete can last a very long time.
- Low Maintenance: It does not require too much attention when it comes to maintenance. You can easily clean and repair this concrete.
- Eco-Friendly: Decorative concrete flooring is among the top options in relation to green home improvements.
Is Decorative Concrete Durable?
Concrete is typically one of the most durable materials you can use for your building. Decorative concrete is very durable and can last for decades if you maintain it properly.
What Is Decorative Concrete Used For?
Decorative concrete has immense versatility and can be used in multiple areas. Some of the top applications of stamped concrete include:
- Concrete furniture
- Outdoor kitchens
- Garage floors
- Pool decks
- Fireplaces
- Concrete flooring
- Patios
- Walls
- Sidewalks and driveways
Decorative Concrete For Specific Rooms
These are the different rooms you can utilize decorative concrete in as well as the advantages associated with it.
- Basement: Decorative concrete floors are the best for your basement as they can hold up under an intense amount of stress. You can also clean it easily and not worry about it getting smelly.
- Bathroom: Decorative concrete is not slippery, which makes them perfect for your bathroom floor. They are also waterproof and durable. In addition to not getting damaged by water, these concrete floors can also be cleaned with ease.
- Bedroom: These stamped concrete floors are naturally cool and do not absorb as much heat as the others, which sees that you can rest peacefully even on a hot night.
- Dining Room: By utilizing concrete floors in your dining room, you can give people something to admire and discuss as they step into the room. You can customize it to suit your taste.
- Kitchen: Decorative concrete is great for kitchen floors because it is easy to repair, easy to clean, and low maintenance.
- Laundry Room: While you don’t really need to design your laundry room floor, there are other benefits to using decorative concrete. It is easy to clean and water resistant.
Can You Put Decorative Concrete Over Existing Concrete?
It is possible for polished concrete to be placed over existing concrete. With this technique, you can add texture, color, and pattern to the existing concrete. Even if the concrete is aged, it can be restored to a beautiful finished product with the use of diamond pads, mechanical grinders, or other products. You can use a polymer cement overlay as the sealant for the stamped concrete.
Is Decorative Concrete Structural?
Decorative concrete on its own is not a structural building member. This stained concrete is not just used as a utilitarian medium for construction, rather its aim is to enhance the texture and structure of a building.
Most people take advantage of this type of stamped concrete for only decoration because it is not used in building projects to improve structural integrity.
Is Decorative Concrete Expensive?
In a way, this polished concrete or stenciled concrete can be quite expensive. This is because it gives you a way to make your environment have that extra touch of class. Freshly placed concrete is usually polished before concrete stains are applied to give it that luxury and hard glassy finish. All these would come at a price.
Where To Buy Decorative Concrete?
There are a lot of different supply stores you can buy decorative concrete from. If you are looking for the best quality, then you should head over to Premier Precast and place your order. Their decorative concrete mimics natural materials, is slip-resistant, can be easily repaired, and is also ideal for exterior and interior applications.
Why Choose Decorative Concrete?
There are a lot of reasons why you should opt for decorative concrete instead of other materials. Utilizing this for your concrete surfaces would see that it has great durability and comes at a lower cost. You can also make use of decorative concrete in almost any place, including pool decks, concrete floors, and concrete countertops.
You can never go wrong with decorative concrete as there is a lot of visually appealing design you can go with. The appearance of decorative concrete is an integral part of how useful and popular it is.
FAQ
How Does Decorative Concrete Get Its Color?
The different colors you see on decorative concrete can be gotten through a variety of ways. Colored concrete can be gotten through acid stains, integral colors, powder or liquid releases, color hardener, or dry shakes. These colors might not naturally be achievable within a concrete mix, but they can be gotten when you add these products to wet concrete.
There are also various patterns you can come up with if you decide to combine all the products to form a more customized and aesthetic finish.
Is Decorative Concrete Cheaper Than Pavers?
Decorative concrete is slightly cheaper than pavers. It takes your traditional gray concrete and does a glorious transformation into beautiful concrete countertops, decorative concrete floors, and many more. Pavers are also known as paving stones and they can be constructed from concrete, brick, or stones.
Is Decorative Concrete The Same As Stamped Concrete?
Stamped concrete is also known as decorative concrete because it is a type of concrete design. This decorative concrete surface can take a lot of different names including polished concrete and even stained concrete and it is mostly used for aesthetic enhancement among other benefits. Stamped concrete gets its name because the design is stamped onto the concrete flooring before it is cured to make it look like a natural design.