Decorative
Concrete Creativity
Growth and
By Joe Nasvik
P eople nowadays are looking for
more interesting surroundings.
In the past we’ve considered con-
crete mostly for its functional proper-
ties. Now decorative contractors see it
as a medium with limitless possibilities.
Those involved in the creative process
have the opportunity to struggle with
ideas and leave their mark. Individuals
and small artistic teams are rapidly com-
ing up with new decorative finishes.
Basic and functional, concrete is the
most used construction material on the
planet. If the mix design is right, and
worker skills are good, concrete serves
our needs for a long time with little or no
maintenance. It can be molded easily into
any shape, has excellent fire resistance,
and is capable of great strength. Using it
as a decorative material takes advantage
of all of its abilities and lets creative com-
panies and workers push the limits of
what concrete can be made to look like.
Unlike the production of portland
cement, where records show the total
amounts of cement produced, no in-
dustry-wide records are kept on the
products used in the decorative in-
dustry. Despite the lack of informa-
tion, however, decorative concrete is
regarded as the fastest-growing seg-
ment of the concrete industry.
Plain concrete as a decorative
material
Color experimentation in concrete
has also revived interest in the natural
color of concrete. Many specifiers now
think that the color of portland cement
is perfect for decorative concrete.
David Berkson, a landscape archi-
tect with the SWA Group, Laguna Beach,
Calif., says that while walking he no-
ticed that tree roots had lifted a con-
crete sidewalk panel. The edge of the
panel had been ground to eliminate the
tripping hazard. He liked the rough-
ground appearance and the aggregate.
From that observation came the inspi-
ration for the Univision Office project,
Los Angeles—decorative bands of plain
concrete cast in a pedestrian walkway
approach to the building. Working out
the details with Lance Boyer, owner of
Trademark Concrete, Anaheim, Calif.,
workers broadcast stone aggregates with
a top size of 4 to 5 inches onto the con-
crete surface prior to finishing. Then,
using terrazzo grinders, they ground the
surface to expose the aggregate and pro-
duce a surface with traction. Berkson
reports that the results were very pleas-
ing. He also has specified plain gray
concrete with broken glass and ceramic
tile pieces broadcast on the surface—
again grinding the surface afterward to
produce a decorative effect.
More and more people looking for creative
surroundings in their homes and in their businesses
are turning to decorative concrete.
Another use of natural-colored con-
crete for decorative flooring involves
grinding and diamond-polishing sur-
faces to a high shine, eliminating the
need for sealers and waxes.
Plain gray concrete is also being
used for casting concrete countertops
with hard-troweled finishes, diamond
cutting patterns and three-dimensional
relief in flatwork, special hand-tooled
jointing details on slabs, and a wide
variety of exposed-aggregate finishes
on horizontal and vertical applications.
The colored concrete market
Park Boyer is the director of mar-
keting for Master Builders in Cleve-
land. His company is entering the dec-
orative market by introducing liquid-
dispensed integral colors. He’s con-
vinced that the colored concrete mar-
ket is increasing because the “plain
gray” industry has done such a good
job of producing durable concrete,
which doesn’t scale or come apart
under adverse conditions. “Without
good, functional concrete, there would-
n’t be a decorative market,” he says.
Henry Ford was once heard to say,
“You can have any color you want for
your car—so long as it’s black!” In the
past, that’s been the concrete industry’s
attitude, too—plain concrete is good
enough. Today, however, buyers favor
 TOM RALSTON CONCRETE
colored finishes and anything else that
creative imaginations can design and
build. Increasingly they want the struc-
tural component of a building to be
part of the ornamentation.
Mark Justman, director of market
research for the Portland Cement As-
sociation (PCA), Skokie, Ill., states that
340 million to 400 million cubic yards
of concrete were produced in the year
2000, based on the amount of port-
land cement shipped from production
facilities (2001 information is not yet
available). Boyer says that at present
the integrally colored concrete market
represents 1% to 1.5% of the entire
concrete market nationally, or 4 mil-
lion to 6 million cubic yards. He ex-
pects this could increase to 6% of the
entire concrete market by 2007.
Of the total concrete produced in
2000, contractors placed approxi-
mately 22 million cubic yards of con-
crete in exterior hardscape areas—
driveways, patios, sidewalks, and plazas
(according to PCA). About 16% of
this was integrally colored. In some
regions of the country,
however, as much as 30%
of all concrete sold is col-
ored. In those areas, if
you consider all types of
decorative concrete (not
just integrally colored),

Decorative concrete can help make a project unique. The

designer of this California beach house (situated almost
too close to the ocean) wanted people to think that the
waves washed through the building, eroding concrete and
leaving deposits. Tom Ralston Concrete cast the floor
with jagged Styrofoam pieces to simulate wide cracks, then filled the cracks
with cement, beach-type aggregate, and bits of seashells and exposed the
aggregates. Using a retarding agent and turkey basters, workers randomly
exposed parts of the living room floor (above) and kitchen island (inset) also.
They used chemical stains to make the concrete look old and worn.

EDAW
Above: This 8-foot-wide walkway extends
around the circumference of a park in the
Kierland Commons retail town center in
Scottsdale, Ariz. As the designer, EDAW
wanted the pattern to look like the mark-
ings on a diamondback rattlesnake. Dana
Boyer, owner of "the concretist" in
Apache Junction, Ariz., first acid-etched
and stained all the pavement, used aniline
dyes to enhance coloring in certain areas,
and then made a steel template and sten-
cil-sandblasted the pattern. She used sol-
vent sealers to finish the process.
colored concrete may already be half
the hardscape market. This will in-
evitably increase in all areas over the
coming years.
Several years ago, decorative con-
crete specifications were found prima-
rily on high-end projects where more
dollars were available for amenities. But
today that’s all changed. Building proj-
ects of all sizes and budgets get deco-
rative concrete treatments. Andrea
Cochran, who owns her own landscape
architecture firm in San Francisco, says,
“People often view concrete as plain
and horrible. But when you add color
or texture or special scoring details,
they get excited. Regardless of money
constraints, I first design artistic appeal
into my plans; then I specify decorative
finishes the client can afford.”
Integrally colored concrete is still
the largest segment of the decorative
industry. Stamped concrete patterns
and textures are next in market size.
After that comes a wide variety of pop-
ular finishes, including chemical stains,
overlay cement products, spray over-
lays, stenciled patterned finishes, sand-
blasted stencil patterning, diamond-
cut patterns, and decorative sealers/coat-
ings, to name a few.
Right: The con-
tractor placed
bands of plain con-
crete in panels of
dark integral col-
ored walkway.
Large aggregate
(4 to 5 inches)
was broadcast and
finished into the
surface. Workers
used terrazzo
grinders to expose
aggregate and pro-
vide a traction
wear surface.
ARTCRETE
Above: There are many ways to decorate concrete. Here finishers are placing paper
stencil patterns on fresh concrete. Color hardeners will be broadcast and finished into
the concrete. When the concrete is just hard enough to walk on, the stencils are
removed to provide a pattern and a joint that looks like mortar.
Building a unique house
D ennis Britton, a designer in Carmel, Calif., likes rehabbing older
homes—especially “cottage houses,” which he describes as homes
built with the floor at the same elevation as the ground surrounding the
home. In the old days, these homes often had dirt floors. Later the floors
were covered with paving stones or concrete. Britton is finishing a vaca-
tion home of this type very close to the ocean in the Santa Cruz, Calif.,
area. He wanted the floor in the living room to look as if the sea regu-
larly washed over it, eroding the concrete. During the concept stage, he
met Tom Ralston of Tom Ralston Concrete, Santa Cruz, Calif., who was
willing to try “off-the-wall stuff.” Ralston made samples first and then
cast the floor. His team broadcast different kinds of aggregates sporadi-
cally, randomly embedded seashells, intentionally created cracks that
drain water toward the ocean, and then randomly applied a retarding
agent with turkey basters to give the concrete an eroded appearance.
Sandblasting exposed the special aggregates and seashells.
Britton says that people who see the work “are blown away by the
result and are fascinated!”
TRADEMARK CONCRETE

What decorative concrete adds
to a project
Kevin Crehan is a landscape ar-
chitect with Nuszer Kopatz, Denver.
His firm designs hardscape areas for
developers of retail centers and hous-
ing developments. He almost always
specifies decorative pavement for re-
tail frontages, designing whatever the
budget will permit. His firm uses dec-
orative pavement and vertical elements
to create themes that say “this is a
special area.” In housing develop-
ments, he specifies different pavements
and treatments to designate outdoor
“rooms,” such as pool decks, picnic
areas, and shade areas.
Decorative concrete is important
for marketing, too. Crehan states that
developers can justify the cost for a cre-
ative design in terms of how it will af-
fect the sales pace and create a legacy
that ultimately becomes part of the de-
veloper’s reputation. He adds that his
firm always uses decorative treatments
with discretion.
process and kick around the possi-
bilities. Mike’s very creative, and I like
what we come up with together,”
Hyatt says. He knows that without
Miller’s involvement many of their
projects wouldn’t have turned out to
be as interesting. “Mike gets us going,
and we create,” he adds.
The driving force behind the
decorative concrete movement
Brad Bowman started the decora-
tive concrete movement in the early
1950s when he developed the process
for stamping concrete impressions. Until
he died in 2000 at the age of 90, his
mind played with new, creative ways to
use this material. He particularly liked
concrete for its unlimited range of pos-
sibility. Those who are currently mov-
ing this industry forward follow in his
footsteps—enjoying the creative process
and always keeping an open mind about
new ways to use concrete. ■

The synergistic effect Publication #C02E022, Copyright © 2002 Hanley-Wood, LLC. All rights reserved
Clients retain landscape architects,
designers, and architects to add creativ-
ity to their projects. Decorative concrete
contractors, on the other hand, are con-
stantly playing with ideas and using ma-
terials in new ways. So does the cre-
ativity for a project come from the de-
signer or the contractor? Both. The most
interesting ideas are generated when a
creative designer gets together with a
creative contractor to explore the pos-
sibilities. These sessions can be fun, and
often long-term relationships develop.
An example of such a relation-
ship is Jim Hyatt, a principal partner
of EDAW, Denver, and Mike Miller,
owner of “the concretist,” Benecia,
Calif. EDAW is the largest landscape
firm in the world, with offices in 23
cities and a staff of 750. Hyatt regu-
larly specifies decorative concrete and
has for many years. He likes concrete
because of the many unique things
that can be done with it. When his
firm decides to use concrete, “the ef-
fort is always to be creative and orig-
inal.” He met Miller several years ago,
and they have worked on many proj-
ects together. “These days, when I’m
involved with a particularly creative
design, I like to get together with Mike
during the idea phase of the design