These days, the quintessential homeowner is spoilt for choice when it comes to decorative options. You certainly don’t want to live in a home that is bare and dull. It’s normal to want to spice things up a bit. There are affordable ways to make this happen. For instance, you can take advantage of decorative concrete. Here are some of the reasons to make use of this increasingly popular material for building or renovating homes and structures.
You can count on decorative concrete to be cost-efficient. Affordability is something that people aim for when building or remodeling a home. Since this type of concrete doesn’t require you to break the bank, you can ensure that any home project or venture will be completed on time and within budget. Plus, you can always rely on this product to be present in any store you might find yourself in. It’s readily available, and you can ask any one of your workers or helpers to purchase a bag for you. Additional expenses are not required to have these types of concrete painted or decorated. Once you have them, they’re good to go.
Decorative concrete is a use of concrete to enhance the aesthetic features of a structure. Apart from serving the functions of a normal concrete, it provides an artistic touch. It is a modification of simple concrete by use of different materials to beautify the flooring. Decorative concrete coatings transform the dull gray slab of concrete to add a touch of style and extend the life of your flooring. It has gained wide popularity because of its decorative features as well as the benefits that it has. Here is a list of reasons why decorative concrete is a good idea for you.
Decorative concrete makes your home more lively. It won’t take you too much work to design or improve your home when you purchase this kind of concrete. While people tend to have different ideas on how to make structures more beautiful, you can be sure that decorative concrete can be personalized to meet your aesthetic needs and preferences. You need to the kind of theme you want for your home and used that as a basis for the types of products you purchase at the store.
Evaluate potential contractors’ insurance policies and record their professional license number so that you can ask your state’s Department of Professional Regulation and Licensing about its validity. Keep a healthy skepticism about performance claims and check with the Better Business Bureau to see if there are any claims against a contractor. If you are interested in reading the entire article, simply go to its main source.
Decorative concrete can be personalized to meet your needs. One thing you don’t have to worry about with this product is if it will align with your vision of a home or building. Decorative concrete is incredibly versatile and can be adjusted depending on your goals for your humble abode.
| Additional reading: | |
| Title: | HTML: |
| DIY Concrete Patio | |
| Pour, Stamp and Seal a Colored Concrete | |
| Concrete Patio Sample |  |
| More on Concrete Patio |  |
| Do Concrete Patios Crack? | Concrete is good for warm climate landscapes that do not experience the extreme freeze-thaw of the northern states, which is the cause of uncontrollable cracking. Chris Major of Blue Ridge Landscaping in Holland, Michigan says, “Concrete is great and cheaper at the start, but it cracks.” Trust a Michigan landscaper to be forthright about the problem that does and always has afflicted concrete patios. The radical pressures of freeze-thaw make this a problem in the north, but other factors can lead to cracking too.Virginia marl is a unique soil condition that afflicts projects by Adam Heath at Mid Atlantic Enterprise. “Marl makes our soils unstable, causing big problems with paving. This is a mushy organic soil composed of silt and sediment that is very expansive. You literally can’t build on it. We have to excavate all our patio spaces to remove all the marl then backfill it with specific crushed stone to obtain the solid compaction we need.”
Similar problems are experienced by Matt Schmuke of Arcadia Design Group. “In Colorado you’re guaranteed that a slab will crack. Plasticity of the clay soil is the problem. With pavers we have an infinite number of joints so you’ll never see a crack.” Read more: https://www.landscapingnetwork.com/patios/concrete.html. |
| Concrete Sealer Pros and Cons |  There are two ways to use sealers on your concrete patio. One is as a standalone sealer over bare concrete. The other is to use the sealer on top of a concrete stain or paint, says Kerri Schlenker, Rust-Oleum brand manager for high performance coatings. “A stain isn’t going to offer protection, only color, so the sealer over it would protect the color and the concrete in general, ” she says.Sealers that are film-forming (meaning they leave a sheen on the surface) come in two types — solvent-based and water-based. According to ChemMasters, a manufacturer of concrete coatings, solvent-based sealers are high gloss and darken concrete, while water-based sealers are low gloss with minimal darkening and/or color change.
If you’d like stain protection from food, fire/water features or flower pots and planters, choose a film-forming sealer. However, one drawback is because these sealers form a film, they may create a slippery surface on the concrete. Consider them for stamped concrete and broom-finished concrete patios. And to prevent the sealer from yellowing your concrete due to excessive UV exposure, look for a film-forming sealer with UV stable resin. A second class of sealer is known as a penetrating sealer, or a water-repellent sealer. This type seeps into the concrete surface and is best for smooth concrete and broom-finished concrete. Penetrating sealers will offer freeze/thaw protection and, of course, prevent water absorption, but do not offer stain protection. Penetrating sealers give a matte finish to concrete and do not add slippage to the surface. Both film-forming and water-based sealers come in acrylic and epoxy varieties. Generally, epoxy sealers are applied to extremely high-traffic areas and to prevent chemical spills because they offer excellent protection. Acrylic sealers are often used to block water penetration for residential applications and decorative concrete. Keep in mind that applying any solvent-based sealer will require chemical clean-up, while water-based are easier to clean with soap and water. Choosing which type can be a tradeoff between long-term maintenance and ease of application. Schlenker says that the “easiest product to use and apply is water- or latex-based, but an oil-based or solvent-based [product] will last longer over time, requiring less maintenance.” |