Finishes · Seven Methods

Seven finishes, and how to choose between them

Texture, colour and surface are three separate decisions and they get made in that order. What follows is what each method actually is, what it costs in maintenance, and the situations where we would tell you to pick something else.

Stamped ConcreteStained ConcreteExposed AggregatePolished ConcreteDecorative OverlaysSaw-Cut DesignsColored Concrete

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Stamped Concrete

Texture pressed into the slab while it is still green

Stained Concrete

Colour that reacts with the slab rather than sitting on it

Exposed Aggregate

Wash the paste back and let the stone do the work

Polished Concrete

Ground, densified and refined to a mechanical shine

Decorative Overlays

A new surface bonded to a sound slab

Saw-Cut Designs

Lines cut into the slab as pattern, not just as joints

Colored Concrete

Pigment through the mix, or hardened into the surface

Choosing

Narrowing it down

01Seven finishes, and they are not interchangeable

Each of these finishes solves a different problem. Stamping gives texture and the appearance of another material. Staining gives depth and variation on concrete that already exists. Exposed aggregate gives grip and a natural surface. Polishing gives a hard, reflective interior floor. Overlays rescue a sound but tired slab. Saw-cut work gives geometry without colour. Colouring runs through everything else as a method rather than a finish in itself.

02Interior and exterior are different specifications

Several of these finishes exist in both interior and exterior versions and the products involved are not the same. An interior polished floor and an exterior polished surface behave completely differently in rain and in ultraviolet light. Sealers rated for a garage floor are not rated for a pool deck. Where a finish appears on both lists, assume the specification changes and ask what the difference is.

03What every decorative finish still needs underneath

None of this substitutes for the ordinary requirements of a concrete slab. Compacted aggregate base to a stated depth, adequate thickness for the loading, reinforcement appropriate to the span, and control joints cut at the right time and the right spacing. A beautiful finish on a poor slab is a more expensive failure than a plain finish on a poor slab, not a lesser one.

04How to narrow it down quickly

Answer three questions and most of the field disappears. Is the surface interior or exterior? Will it be walked on wet or barefoot? Is there a sound existing slab, or are we pouring new? Those three eliminate the finishes that cannot work, and the remaining choice is genuinely a matter of appearance and budget rather than of suitability.