What the work is
Stamped concrete is flatwork with a texture and a color. Everything that decides whether plain concrete lasts still applies, and a pattern hides none of it.
The extra decisions are the release color, the pattern's scale against the space, and the sealer, which on a decorative finish is doing appearance work as well as protection and will need redoing on a cycle.
We will tell you what the maintenance actually is before you choose it.
What is included
- Subgrade preparation and compaction
- Reinforcement, forms, placing and stamping
- Color and release as chosen from samples on site, not from a brochure
- Control joints planned into the pattern
- First sealer coat
What is not
- Resealing on the maintenance cycle, which is its own item
- Matching an existing decorative finish exactly. We will show you the closest we can get
- Removing existing concrete unless quoted in
Sealer is a commitment
A decorative finish looks the way it does because of the sealer, and here the sun is hard on it. Ask what the resealing cycle is and price it into the decision rather than discovering it in year three.
Stamping is the surface. The slab is still a soil problem.
The pattern and the color are the last two things that happen. Underneath them is a concrete slab, and in gypsum-bearing ground the mix that slab needs is set by a soil sulfate test under ACI 318 exposure classes, with sulfate-resistant cement required at S2 and above.
A decorative finish on a slab that was not designed for the ground it sits on is an expensive way to make a crack more visible.
What the sun does to it, and what we will not promise
St. George recorded 98 days at or above 100°F in 2024, and 117°F on July 11, 2021. A dark, unshaded decorative surface lives in that, and the district's own guidance on outdoor surface temperature is that shade matters more than the material you choose.
The sealer is the maintenance item on this surface. We are not going to print a number of years for it, because we have no sourced figure for this climate and the honest answer is that it depends on exposure, traffic and the product. We will tell you which product went on yours and what it needs.
What to ask anyone quoting this, us included
- What is the resealing cycle and what does it cost?
- Can I see the color on my own site before you place?
- Where do the joints fall in the pattern?