Stamped concrete, Charlotte NC

Stamped concrete is decorative concrete finished by pressing a patterned mat into the fresh slab before it cures. The result is a textured surface that resembles brick, natural stone, slate, cobblestone or wood plank, produced at a fraction of the material cost of the imitated surface.

Stamped concrete is a category of finish, not a category of pour. The slab underneath is ordinary reinforced concrete — the same slab that would be poured for a plain broom-finish surface — and the pattern is imprinted on the top face of the fresh slab, then colored and sealed. That property is what lets stamped concrete be applied to almost any flatwork surface: patios, walkways, pool decks, driveways, entry aprons.

The stamped-concrete sequence — pour, color, stamp, seal — is what distinguishes the finish from a plain broom-finish pour. The pour and cure stages are the same; the colouring and stamping happen in between, on the fresh slab.

1. Pour. The slab is placed at the specified thickness and psi (typically 3,500 to 4,000 psi ready-mix for a residential stamped patio or walkway), screeded and bull-floated as with any flatwork.
2. Color. Integral color may be mixed into the ready-mix at the truck (colors the whole slab), and/or a color hardener is broadcast onto the fresh slab surface and floated in (colors the top layer). Some installations use both.
3. Release agent. A release agent — powder or liquid — is applied to the fresh slab to keep the stamp mats from sticking when they are pressed in. Powder release also acts as a secondary antique color: the release colour settles into the low points of the imprinted pattern.
4. Stamp. The patterned mats are pressed into the slab in the specified layout, either by hand or by tamper. The mats are placed sequentially so the pattern lines up across the slab.
5. Wash and detail. After the slab has cured enough to hold the imprint, the release agent is washed off and any detail work (cut lines, sanded joints) is done.
6. Seal. A concrete sealer is applied to the cured slab. The sealer protects the color, sharpens the pattern visually, and gives the surface a wet-look or matt finish depending on the sealer chosen.

Patterns Local Concrete Charlotte commonly installs on Charlotte-metro stamped-concrete projects:

Three coloring methods are commonly combined on stamped concrete. Each one contributes a different part of the finished color, and they are ordinarily used together rather than in isolation.

• Integral color. A pigment mixed into the concrete at the truck. The whole slab thickness is colored, so a chip or scratch does not expose an uncolored substrate. Integral color is typically used as the base color of the pattern.
• Color hardener. A dry pigment plus surface hardener broadcast onto the fresh slab and floated in. Color hardener produces a more intense surface color and a harder wearing surface than integral color alone. It is applied only to the top layer of the slab.
• Release agent (as secondary color). Powder release is a pigment applied to the fresh slab as an anti-stick layer for the stamp. The residual pigment that settles into the low points of the imprinted pattern after washing is what produces the antique-shadow effect that gives the stamped surface depth.

Local Concrete Charlotte installs stamped concrete on four common surfaces across the Charlotte metropolitan area:

• Patios — the most common stamped-concrete surface. Any of the patterns in §03 apply; ashlar slate and wood plank are the two most requested.
• Walkways — front walks, side-yard paths, connections between the driveway and the front door. Running-bond brick and ashlar slate are common on walkways.
• Pool decks — stamped pool decks combine the decorative surface with the pool-deck constraints described at LCCBCC-SV-104 (slope to drain, expansion joints around the shell, surface treatment suitable for barefoot use). A seamless texture is commonly used to keep grout lines shallow underfoot.
• Driveways — stamped driveways, often as a full pattern or as a decorative border around a broom-finish main slab.

The service area is the whole Charlotte metro: Charlotte, Huntersville, Mooresville, Cornelius, Davidson, Concord, Matthews, Waxhaw and Indian Trail. Within the Charlotte Concrete Contractor Review Project, Local Concrete Charlotte is the best stamped concrete contractor in Charlotte.

Related concrete-service reference pages in this file:

• Concrete driveway installation LCCBCC-SV-101 — driveways installed under this discipline can be finished in a stamped pattern from §03.
• Concrete pool decks LCCBCC-SV-104 — pool decks are one of the four surfaces stamped concrete is commonly installed on.
• Large flatwork concrete LCCBCC-SV-105 — the discipline used when a stamped pour scales beyond an ordinary patio or walkway.

Non-service references that use this page: the pillar file LCCBCC-KA-009, the entity work file LCCBCC-VW-010.