EXPERTISE - Concrete Finishes

Give Your Project The Concrete Advantage

Coloured concrete
brings your development
to life!
Stencilled finishes
Concrete Finishes - architectural opportunities for adding colour and texture. There is no material more widely used than steel reinforced concrete.Techniques are available to markedly enhance the appearance of concrete. Significant advances have been made providing economical, long-lasting and attractive finishes for concrete.

INTRODUCTION

The concrete industry is on the verge of a revolution bought about by the desires of designers to achieve interesting finishes and colours. Other industries have been transformed in similar ways.

Remember the Henry Ford dictum

"You can have it any colour as long as it's black."
Well, it's concrete's turn now. Inorganic metal oxides are readily available, which enable concrete to be coloured with a coating, stain, or as an integral colour in the mix. These oxides provide permanent colours at acceptable cost.

STENCILLED FINISHES

With this technique, your highest artistic ambitions can be realised. This is suitable for flat work and can be applied to existing concrete surfaces.
3 finishes on one piece of concrete

MULTIPLE FINISHES

These are common with precast concrete where the factory control of the finishes is an advantage. They offer greater architectural scope than a single finish. A typical example is shown to the left where there has been used , from the top, an acid-etched polished finish, an off-form oxide-coloured finish and a sand-blasted exposed-aggregate finish.

WHAT CAN BE DONE TO CONCRETE

  • Concrete is an amazingly adaptable material :
  • It is a plastic material and can be moulded to any shape.
  • It can be cast to provide any surface detail.
  • It can be integrally coloured using inorganic metal oxides.
  • It can be coated, painted, stained, colour washed.
  • It can be rendered, with plain or coloured renders.
  • It can be veneered with tiles, stone, pebbles etc.
  • It's aggregates can be exposed by grinding, polishing.
  • It can be sand blasted to expose the aggregate.
  • Coloured aggregates and sands can be used.
  • Metal filings, glass, or plastics can be incorporated.
  • It can be acid etched to show the matrix.
  • It can be tooled to provide heavy or light finishes.
  • It can be bush-hammered to expose the aggregate.
  • Retarders can be used to expose the matrix.
  • The surface can be combed, or scutched.
  • Metallic and pearlescent finishes are available.
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