Concrete finishes
One material, a dozen surfaces — and the cheapest yard of paving you can buy.
Poured concrete is the default surface in a San Diego backyard, and the finish put on it while it is still wet decides whether it reads as a driveway or as a floor. Every option below is the same slab underneath; the differences are what the crew does in the four hours after the truck leaves. Concrete cracks — the question a builder should answer plainly is where the joints are that decide *where*.
10 of 10 concrete finishes in this category
- Troweled & broomed
Broom finish
A bristle broom dragged across the fresh slab. The cheapest finish there is, the most slip-resistant, and — laid straight, jointed thoughtfully and kept clean — a completely respectable surface.
- Troweled & broomedColour families — we hold no photograph of this finish on one of our own projects
Salt finish
Rock salt broadcast into the wet surface and washed out once it cures, leaving a field of small pits. Softer-looking than broom, still grippy, and a long-standing San Diego pool-deck default.
- Exposed aggregateColour families — we hold no photograph of this finish on one of our own projects
Exposed aggregate
The cement paste is washed off the top to reveal the stone in the mix. Hard-wearing, high grip, and it looks like what it is — which is why it never really goes out of fashion in a coastal yard.
- Exposed aggregateColour families — we hold no photograph of this finish on one of our own projects
Sandblasted / etched
The cured surface is abraded to a fine, even matte. Quieter than exposed aggregate, more refined than broom, and one of the few finishes applied after the slab has hardened rather than while it is wet.
- Stamped & texturedColour families — we hold no photograph of this finish on one of our own projects
Stamped concrete
Rubber mats pressed into the wet slab to leave a stone, slate or plank texture. It gets you a pattern for the price of concrete; how convincing it looks is entirely down to the crew and the release colour.
- Colour & overlaysColour families — we hold no photograph of this finish on one of our own projects
Integral colour
Pigment mixed into the concrete at the truck, so the colour goes all the way through. Chips and saw cuts show the same colour as the surface — which is exactly what surface-applied colour cannot claim.
- Colour & overlaysColour families — we hold no photograph of this finish on one of our own projects
Colour hardener with release
Dry pigment worked into the top of the slab, plus a second contrasting powder that antiques the texture. Richer and more varied than integral colour, and it lives only in the top few millimetres.
- Colour & overlaysColour families — we hold no photograph of this finish on one of our own projects
Cementitious overlay
A thin polymer-modified topping over sound existing concrete. The way to change a tired slab without demolishing it — and it inherits every crack and every movement joint underneath.
Troweled & broomedSaw-cut score pattern
Not a finish so much as a drawing. Cutting the slab on a deliberate grid controls where it cracks and turns a field of concrete into a composition, for the cost of a morning with a saw.
- Stamped & texturedColour families — we hold no photograph of this finish on one of our own projects
Board-formed vertical concrete
Walls poured against timber forms so the grain and the board joints print into the face. Every wall is one-off, nothing is repeated, and the formwork is most of what you are paying for.