Sprucing up your Outdoor Home with Attention Grabbing Sidewalks

Guest Blogger #253, Entry #756, November 11, 2011

Most of us have boring, dull, grey sidewalks or walkways around our house, but that can all change with the help of concrete coloring. More than ever, colored, stained and stamped concrete is becoming popular and affordable. Changing the color or texture of your cement sidewalks or walkways can improve the look and curb appeal of your home tenfold.

Coloring your sidewalks can add texture and warmth to your home

Image via: Land Scaping Network

Coloring Your Sidewalks

If you want to change the look of your existing walkways and sidewalks the only thing you can do is change the color. Cement stamping must be done while the cement is still wet. That aside, adding color to your concrete will be enough to enhance the general look of your yard. The options open to existing sidewalks and walkways are chemical stains and water-based acrylic stains.

Acid stains color the concrete through a series of reactions. The stain is made up of a water-based acid solution and metallic salts that color the concrete. The acid in the stain and the lime in the concrete react to each other, which “opens” the surface of the concrete. Once this reaction has taken place, the metallic salts can sink into the concrete and create a permanent bond with the cement. This type of staining often produces a color that seems to be deep and penetrating. If you want to stain a small portion of cement in your yard you can do it on your own. But if you want a larger portion of cement stained or you want to create some sort of pattern with different colors you should call an expert to do the job.

Water-based acrylic stains work by depositing color in the existing pores of the cement. Water-based acrylic stains are sometimes more popular because they are easier to apply on your own and they come in many more colors. Typically acid stains only come in earth tones, but water-based acrylic stains offer more choices and slightly brighter colors. The one down side about using acrylic stains is that the color won’t always be as powerful.

Concrete can come in different color variations

Image via: Mattern Masonry

Concrete Stamping for Sidewalks & Patios

If you are installing a new slab of concrete in your yard you can be 100% creative right from the start. From step one you can create colored concrete by adding pigment to the concrete mixture before it is laid or by applying pigments to the concrete before it is all the way dry. These two methods, known as integral color and color hardener are the two best ways of coloring your cement before it dries. Integral color options are usually limited to earth tones, but for more vibrant colors you can choose the color hardener method. Whichever you choose it is probably best to hire a professional so that the coloring agents will be well mixed into your concrete and properly laid.

Concrete stamping is the perfect companion to colored concrete. Although stamping is an architectural art form that has been around for centuries it has only been in the past couple of decades that concrete stamping has become indistinguishable from true stone laying. With the wide range of concrete stamps available today you can create concrete walkways that look like brick or stone paths. You can even create a concrete path that looks like it is made from wood. Many stamps imitate natural stones, bricks, cobblestones, flagstones, fieldstone or wood, but you can also find stamps that create fossil or leaf covered surfaces. The best thing about concrete stamping is that it is cheaper than using real stone or wood to create your walkways or sidewalks.

Stamped or patterned concrete can improve curb appeal

Image via: Concrete Network

Using a combination of coloring and stamping you can create walkways, sidewalks and patios that will outshine anything else in the neighborhood. Imitation stone walkways throughout your garden can add to a natural ambiance and colored sidewalks can liven up your neighborhood appeal and home value. So, if the exterior of your home needs a little bit of a makeover consider hiring a professional to add some color and texture to your sidewalks and walkways.

Citations:

• By Pacificoutdoorliving (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

About the Author: Robert Salamon is the owner of Hub City Construction, a professional concrete coloring and stamping company in New Jersey.  He can work with you to help design beautiful walkways and patios, to enhance the value of your home.

For more curb appeal ideas on Stagetecture, click here.