Hiring Contractors For Home Improvements
Basic Options for Coloured Concrete for Commercial Paving
Tim Graham
If you're planning a decorative concrete project for your business, you may have come across different colouring methods and wondered what's best. However, you only need to work out the ultimate result you want. Your contractors can consult with you on how they might achieve it. Nevertheless, it's always handy to have an outline of the options so you can have more fruitful discussions. Here are several concrete colour options.
Stains
If you want earthy colours for your company's courtyard or outdoor cafe, the contractors may use acid stains to colour the concrete. These come in muted shades of tan, green and terracotta, for instance. Acid stains chemically react with the concrete, which generates antiquing and marbling patterns. Being semitransparent, stains allow you to see the concrete's texture and rawness. Water-based stains are also somewhat transparent, but they come in brighter hues and they don't react to the concrete in the same way. Contractors can combine colour treatments to create subtle effects. So they may combine stains with other options, such as integral colour.
Integral Colour
Integrally coloured concrete is made differently from stains. Contractors apply stains on top of set concrete. However, integral colours comprise pigments that are mixed into the cement before it's poured. While stains permeate the top parts of the concrete, integral pigments run throughout the entire slab. Neither treatment will chip or flake as paint may. Integrally coloured concrete won't feature the unique marbling that you can achieve with stains. But you could pour this internally coloured cement and then stain it as well. You need to consider whether you plan to colour existing or new concrete. Stains can be applied to either, whereas you need to pour a new slab if you want integral colours. The pigments come in rich black, pink, brown, grey and other shades.
Dyes
Another way to colour concrete is with dyes. Like stains, these are applied to set concrete that may already exist on your premises. Or you could pour concrete and wait for it to set. However, dyes offer a more vivid colour palette than stains, and they cover the concrete more evenly with less mottling. So you can feel comfortable that if you select a certain dye, the result will be relatively predictable, more so than with stains. You can pick from bright red, blue or yellow, for example. You can also combine dyes with other colour methods.
Dry Shake Colours
Finally, the contractors may use dry shake colours. These are applied to freshly poured, unset concrete. They're worked into the cement with tools. You can pick from intense shades of black, pink and tan, for example. Different dry shake colours can be applied together. Commercial concrete contractors may do this to replicate the multi tones of natural stone. And dry shake colours work well in combination with other methods.
For more information, contact a commercial concrete contractor near you.
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Hello! My name is Richard and this is my new blog. On this blog, I hope to pass on some useful information about how to work with contractors. I recently decided that I wanted to give my property a complete overhaul. I wanted to have a new roof installed, the interior remodelled and the driveway repaired. I asked around and I put together a great team of contractors who could all work together to get the job done. However, that isn't to say there wasn't the occasion challenge during such a big project. I learnt a lot from the experience and I am really pleased with the work that the contractors carried out.