Who Knew??

In the beginning of our planning, we were looking at paving and/or stamped concrete. There was just too many things involved with each one that it was becoming all too consuming. Plus, these two options are pretty expensive.

It's a good thing that I spoke to our landscaper about salt finish concrete as he brought up the option of staining the concrete in two colors. Since the "stain" lady is his wife, he was able to get it at a reasonable price per sq. feet.

I found out on a whim that salt finish concrete was fairly reasonable and add staining, its not too shabby. It pretty much lowered our total a good $4K. Crazy, huh?

Met with the "stain" lady today. Never knew that this option existed for concrete. Then again, I didn't know much in the beginning stages and I'm continuing to learn each day. She provided a simple one page sheet that had colors in square boxes. Fortunately, she provided pictures of previous jobs to give me a better picture. Love me some pictures.


Staining is freakin' awesome. It gives the appearance of expensive flooring at a fraction of the cost. You can stain the concrete in a variety of colors. From white, green, red, yellow. The colors are endless.

I chose the stain color, bark brown, that is very much like the picture shown to the left. We will be having borders along our concrete and I chose a dark chocolate brown to outline it (picture on the right). I'm crossing my fingers that it will turn out great. No wait, awesome.