The driveway and outdoor pavements of your home are usually the most neglected part of your home when it comes to finishing. You spend a lot of money on your home’s wall and indoor floors that you may not have enough money left to focus on completing your driveway.
You should not neglect your home’s driveway since it adds to the overall aesthetics of your entire home. It is best to improve the look of your driveway by transforming it into a decorative one. Here are some of the ways to make your driveway look better and theĀ decorative concrete supplies that you can use on the project.
What are the types of decorative concrete for driveways?
Decorative concrete improves how your driveway looks and even enhances your driveway’s durability by making it waterproof and slip-proof. Here are some of the different decorative concrete types for your driveway.
Using Acid Stain
One of the easiest ways to transform your dull concrete driveway into a decorative one is to acid-stain your concrete. When you use acid stain on your cement, the stain pigments soak and seep into the pores of the concrete, which results in permanently changing the colour of the concrete to match your preferred stain.
The best thing about acid staining is that it does not hide the characteristics of your pavement but is just adding a clear tone to your concrete. Acid stains will create a glossy effect, which will last for a long time. You can purchase acid stains from stores that sell decorative concrete supplies. Acid stained concrete driveways will surely be beneficial. This will transform your driveways into eye-catching pavements.
Using Stamped Overlays
A stamped overlay is another easy way of transforming your driveway into a more attractive and textured driveway. Stamped overlays give your driveway the look of having a lot of natural stones placed side by side with each other. You can still install stamped overlays in your existing driveway using a two-part process.
First, pour a thin layer of new concrete over the existing one. Stamp your overlay designs into the still-wet concrete. Repeat the process until all the driveway is covered with the pattern. There are a lot of stamp patterns to choose from, and you can purchase them at different decorative concrete supplies stores.
Using Knockdowns
Knockdown uses an acrylic concrete coating that is sprayed in random patterns onto existing concrete pavements. After the application, a trowel is used to “knock down” to level the high points of the sprayed concrete to produce a slip-resistant surface.
The advantage of a knockdown concrete pavement is that the increased surface area produced makes the pavement less slippery and, therefore, safer.
Trowel On
Trowel on is a technique of creating additional texture to your pavement by adding a thin layer of water-resistant concrete to your existing pavement and creating ripple-stone patterns using the trowel. If you are artistic and skillful enough, you can add different colours to different batches of new concrete to get a multiple-coloured pavement.
Painted
The least amount of effort that you can transform your old driveway into a decorative one is to paint over it. You can choose different colours for your driveway, depending on your sense of style.
However, it is best to consult with professionals from decorative concrete supplies stores about the type of concrete paint that will be effective for your driveway.
If you think that your existing driveway does not match the overall appeal of your home, then do something about it. Transform your pavement into a decorative concrete driveway.
Note: Article is written and published by Sarah Williams.
During our upcoming vacation at my brother’s beach house, we want to encourage our kids to do as much outdoor stuff as possible. I wanted to see if there are ways we could make use of the pavement park right next to the house and I found it interesting when your article suggested painting the concrete. I know a couple of our cousins and brothers’ families who have kids that are interested in painting and so having them try to color the pavement with safe paint could be a two-in-one activity. I’ll check around for any contractors who can show us the ropes on how to use these decorative products so we could have more fun on vacation. Thanks for your article!