Broom finish, leaf, color, wavy, swirling, and more. All finishes to freshly poured concrete. And all treatments everyone can try themselves. Any one of those finishes will give your sidewalk something besides the same old finish. What to do and how do you do it. But before we get that far, I am assuming everyone knows how to prepare, form, mix and pour the concrete. If not go to Patios and Sidewalks for that information. And if you do, read on.
We’ll begin with Broom Finishes. It’s not too difficult to do. When the concrete surface is sufficiently hard drag a soft broom across the concrete. For less texture wait until the surface has hardened even more. If the first brushing left too heavy a pattern you will have to retrowel the surface to eliminate all traces of the first finish. If you prefer the broom finish look, but think a little something extra in the brooming would look better. Try this. As you pull the broom across the surface of your concrete move it back and forth sideways just a little. No more than 2 – 3 inches in each direction. Doing that will apply what is know as a wavy finish to the slab.
Another way to give your sidewalk a different appearance is with a shell or swirling finish. Both are done by using a wood hand float while the surface of the concrete is still fairly wet. The swirling look is done by randomly moving the wood float across the surface in no discernable pattern. It will rough up the surface and give it a somewhat coarse look. The shell finish is applied the same way, but, instead of the swirling random strokes, a shell pattern is used. For the shell finish you grasp the wood float on the surface and move the top of the float from side to side while keeping the bottom of the float in one place. Then move the wood float right next to your first shell and do another. Keep this up until all of the surface has been covered. You probably will have to make several attempts at this before you are satisfied with how it looks. Don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t look ‘right’ at first. Just practice a few a few strokes and it will come to you.
Color is no doubt the quickest and easiest thing you can do to give your sidewalk a different appearance. There are 3 ways to color your concrete. The first is to put color in the concrete before it is poured in the forms. The 2nd way is to apply it to the surface of the concrete while it is still wet. And the third is staining.
You can purchase color and stains for concrete at most lumberyard and home improvement store. None of the three color methods are hard to do. The first is put the color in the mix before it is in your forms. In this case just follow the instructions given with the color. In the second method you spread the color uniformly across the surface of your concrete while it is still wet and then use the float to spread it around and in the concrete. Then finish the concrete as usually. Staining is the last color method. There are two types of stain. Regular and semi-transparent. Regular is like paint. It goes on and covers everything. Semi-transparent goes on the same way (use a paintbrush, a spray can, I saw one done with a mop and it looked pretty good), but there is a difference. It can be applied in layers. Since the stain is semi-transparent the surface of the pad will show thru the first layers of stain. The more times you apply the stain on the surface the less the concrete below will show up. In this situation it’s all a matter of preference.
A flagstone finish is a little trickier than the others. Here you float as usual and then make the flagstone while the concrete is still workable. Get a piece of 1/2 or 3/4″ inch diameter copper pipe and bend it into an S shape. Hold on to one end of the pipe and press the other into the concrete. Then just pull it across the surface. What you are wanting to do is make a flagstone pattern with random geometric shapes on the surface of the concrete. After you have finished with making the flagstone you will need to refloat the concrete. The final step here whether you want a boom finish on top of the flagstone or a smooth one. For a broom finish you follow the previous listed directions. If you don’t know how to do a smooth finish you can get some information at Concrete Finishing.
Finally there are several other effectsyou can give concrete. A leaf finish is certainly distinctive. After floating and troweling (go to one of the two mentioned info sites for help with troweling) just press some leaves into the surface immediately after troweling. They should be embedded completely, but not covered. Leave them in place until the concrete is set. Other items can be pressed into concrete for patterns too. You can make round impressions in the surface by using cans. Anything you believe will leave an attractive mark on the surface is worth considering. Give it a try.
One finish I didn’t discuss is exposed aggregate. I believe it would be too difficult for someone with no previous experience working with concrete.
That’s it. Good luck with your project.
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