You can lay over a concrete driveway with a variety of materials. Here are a few ideas: Resin bound concrete, Pavers, Pea gravel, or staining. Concrete can be slippery. For that reason, you should avoid driving on it for a while.
While neutrals tend to blend the best with most home exteriors, it doesn't hurt to add some warmth. If traditional gray concrete is too harsh, a perfect way to capture warmth and color is by going with a light brown. A warm tan often has subtle yellow undertones that give it an earthy, sandy feel.
A popular choice for finishing concrete is a broom finish. This look is achieved by taking a broom and brushing it over the concrete to give it a smooth- but also textured finish.
For almost all exterior applications, concrete stain is the superior solution. However, what type of stain is going to depend on your project's direction!
Embracing concrete's complementary tones can be a good technique to use when it comes to selecting a wall color. 'Grey concrete is often a cool hue,' says Faith Swickard, associate at Wittman Estes. 'Complementary colors enhance the tone – blues, greens, darker maroons.
While gray is the standard for concrete, it doesn't have to be bland. Plenty of concrete patios stick with the gray tones, but are able to add a unique spin. These can be stained to be clean and modern. Or you can mix things up with special charcoal, silver, or white highlights.
Especially if your concrete is in good condition, stain can be applied directly to the cleaned and prepped surface. For large areas like great rooms, driveways, patios, and pool decks, you can have incredibly beautiful finishes for far less than any other flooring option.
Keep fertilizers away from concrete
Fertilizers often contain ammonium nitrate and ammonium sulfate which are harmful chemicals that can disintegrate concrete. Avoid using these on our near your concrete during its first year.
Generally, gravel is the cheapest material, with resin and concrete being the most expensive.
Top it with a decorative overlay.
With some overlay systems, you can customize the look by staining, dying, scoring, stenciling or even stamping the surface. "The beauty of using an overlay system," Bob says, "is that you can transform a bland, unattractive slab of concrete into something that looks quite spectacular."
Colored concrete will get good and hard just like normal concrete. However, all concrete benefits from being sealed against stains and water damage. So even though it's not necessary, sealing your colored concrete will make it look good longer and will help prevent dusting of the surface.
The rule of thumb is lighter colors will make a room appear larger and darker colors make it seem smaller. Another side point to this same theory is that light colors show less scuffs, scratches and dirt whereas dark colors show everything. Often this is because light — natural or controlled — reflects off everything.
Although the terms cement and concrete often are used interchangeably, cement is actually an ingredient of concrete. Concrete is a mixture of aggregates and paste. The aggregates are sand and gravel or crushed stone; the paste is water and portland cement.
You can use concrete paint, concrete stain or even add a small, new pour of decorative concrete around your existing patio to create a border. A border creates a definitive edge to your patio while adding color, pattern and interest.
Make an Impression
The concrete itself can be much more decorative than just a plain gray slab. A wide variety of concrete stamps are available to impress the surface, from those that mimic stone or block patterns to leaves and fossils. You can also buy texture rollers.
Shades of brown, tan, sandy beige and other earth-tones are by far the most popular color choices for concrete driveways because they blend in well with the landscape and complement most home exteriors. In addition, darker earth-toned shades hide dirt, tire marks and stains, making the driveway easier to maintain.
The concrete is stamped with different patterns to rival the look of stone and tile, while still maintaining the benefits that concrete provides. It comes as no surprise that stamped concrete is typically the most expensive type of finish.
Which finish is the most affordable? The cheapest concrete finishes are broom and trowel finishes.
Epoxy is the most durable concrete finish and can be poured into cracks and crevices to help level the surface. But epoxy also is available in a variety of colors, allowing you to create unique hues and designs on your floor so you can even make a concrete floor look pretty.