The concrete industry in the UK is slowly progressing towards a new chapter in their industrial domain. Continuing with the growing trend of home visualization and extensive customization, decorative concrete has become a major part of any construction project; so much so that now it is a governing factor in determining the type and quantity of concrete delivered at construction sites.
Civil engineering in the UK has taken a huge development boost in the recent years, and more and more modern aesthetic qualities are being implemented in this field in conjunction with the traditional ingredients for construction on mix on site concrete trucks. This is where decorative concrete has had a huge impact.
Why the use of Concrete in Decorative Aesthetics?
Concrete is the basic ingredient that can be found in any construction project. Even though it is primarily used to lay out a strong and durable foundation for any project, builders and architects have found a more aesthetically pleasing use for the concrete delivered at their sites.
Builders have started using concrete as a means to decorate the interior of buildings as well as to perfect its exterior poise. This new method has been adopted by several professional high quality concrete London contractors and other cities due to its impressive implementation and an overall professional touch to the project.
How is Decorative Concrete Prepared?
If you are wondering whether there is a special method for preparing decorative concrete on mix on site concrete trucks, the answer to that question is: No. Decorative concrete is prepared in a very similar manner as normal concrete mix, except for the use of aesthetics such as colouring agents in the final mix.
Since the primary purpose for using decorative concrete is beautifying and polishing interior and exterior designs, its actual applications differ from that of normal concrete delivered at construction sites. The application of this type of concrete is largely influenced by the design and styles that are required in the construction.
What are the Types of Decorative Concrete?
There are plenty of uses for decorative concrete in designing the interior and exterior of any building. So it is quite natural that there will be different types of concrete used in different scenarios. Let’s take a look at the types:
- Coloured Mixtures:
This is the most useful among all types of decorative concrete due to its wide application in the architectural industry. It can be easily prepared by adding the appropriate concentration of colouring agents to the concrete mix during its preparation stage using volume concrete calculator.
These colouring agents are made from chemical compounds containing heavy metals such as Chromium. Different colours can be obtained by varying the concentration of its ingredients in the screed mix ratio.
- Stamped Concrete:
Stamped concrete is yet another effective and innovative method of decorating your building with concrete. It is prepared using the stamped method, by impressing design blocks on to the wet concrete mixture and leaving it to dry out.
The dried concrete ready mixture is then obtained by releasing lubricants on the design blocks, so as to get the decorative concrete with actual impressions of the design.
- Form linings:
This method is quite new to the UK, even though it has been used extensively in the US and Canada for decorating public buildings and bridges. In this method, design blocks are created using wax and solid clay in a more intricate manner as compared to stamped concrete. Then wet concrete is poured in to by mix on site concrete trucks, thus acquiring an impression of the design block.
It also involves very little use of additional colouring agents in the initial wet concrete mix since form lining blocks can easily transfer their design to the walls after it has dried.
What are the Advantages of using Decorative Concrete?
As far as the strength of structure, cost of concrete and quality of the building materials are concerned, using decorative concrete has no direct significance on these three factors. However, if you are going for a modern interior design in your house, decorative concrete plays a huge role in achieving it.
In addition to that, its ease of preparation as well as the relatively small amount of time required for it makes it a very good addition to any building. They are available at highly cost effective rates compared to ready mixed concrete prices London, so why not go for it?