4 Great Stamped Concrete Ideas for your Home Exterior
Looking for some great ideas to spruce up your walkways and patios? There’s a lot of great options out there. Stone and wood both make great options. But if you want the look of those fine surfaces but with improved durability and lower maintenance, you should definitely check out stamped concrete.
What Exactly Is Stamped Concrete
You’ve almost definitely come across stamped concrete many times and even stood on it without realizing it. In fact, you may walk across it daily and think it’s something else.
Stamped concrete is concrete that’s been dyed and had a design added to it to give another appearance. A metal or polyurethane stamp imprints the design on it. Many colors and stamp designs are used to give effects like hewn stone, pavers, cobblestone and even wood planks!
This material can be used indoors and outdoors to increase the appeal of your property. It’s easy to clean (just sweep or mop it off). Other than that, you just need to reseal it every 2-3 years.
Let’s look at some possibilities! These are just ideas – you can have many other patterns and uses of stamped concrete to create the look that best matches your home and your own tastes.
A Cobblestone Driveway
Do you live in an historic area that traces it roots to colonial times? Maybe your home dates to that period, or is simply built with a similar style.
A major part of that era was the cobblestone streets. You can have that look in your own driveway, but real cobblestone can be hard to get and expensive. Also, even though it’s charming to look at, it can be tough to walk on because the stones easily become uneven.
Cobblestone is a popular stamped concrete pattern. It will stay flat and smooth to avoid the risk of tripping. It’s also more reasonably priced. And we should mention here that stamped concrete is perfectly compatible with heated driveway systems!
A Hand-cut Stone Walkway
While cobblestone is one great option, another is the appearance of hand-hewn stone. It’s a wonderful look for many areas, but the walkway to the front of your house – or even through your backyard – is great.
Hand-cut stone has a rough, unfinished look. The corners are generally rounded and the surface is often a bit irregular. After all, it was carved by hand out of quarry!
But you don’t need to seek out real stone. Stamped concrete can imitate its appearance just fine, including the grout between the stones!
A Red Brick Patio
How would you feel stepping out your back door onto a red brick patio? Great, right? Red contrasts so well with the green of grass and leaves and helps to highlight all the vibrant colors of your garden.
Bricks, though, are much like cobblestone. They easily work loose or pop out of place. They’re also prone to breaking around the edges.
A brick pattern in stamped concrete, though, proves a bit more durability. While concrete also cracks, it can be poured in such a way that the future cracks are “guided” to the least-intrusive locations.
So prepare to set back in your lounge chair to read a good book with a great surface beneath you!
A Wood Plank Pool Peck
Another great area that deserves special treatment is around your pool. Lots of great stone designs work well here, but wood is something you might shy away from. Sure, it would look great, but you’re worried about how long it will hold up to pool chemicals. And you don’t want to end up with splinters in your feet, either!
An amazing thing about stamped concrete is that it can even be made to look like real wood. So that wood plank deck you’d love doesn’t seem so far-fetched after all!
When you choose stamped concrete, you get a great appearance that’s going to hold up over time. Another factor is that concrete stays cool than many stone surface, which is great to keep your toes from burning while around the pool!
Conclusion
When you want a fantastic surface that’s easy to care for, long-lasting and not going to break the budget, stamped concrete is an awesome option. We’ve looked at just a few ideas here for how you could incorporate it into your outdoor areas. But there are so many more looks and ways to use it! Be sure to check it out and learn more about its benefits.
About the Author
Bill Michaels works for Patterned Concrete. Since 1972, they’ve been a leader in the stamped concrete industry. From its roots in the Toronto area, it’s grown to have franchises across North America. If you’re a contractor interested in become part of our family, get in touch through our website!
