Research
Decorative Concrete

Applications

Staining Concrete

Stamped Concrete

Concrete Overlays

Concrete Resurfacing

Concrete Polishing

Concrete Dyes

Colored Concrete

Indoor Concrete

Concrete Floors

Garage Floor Coatings

Concrete Countertops

Fireplaces, Sinks & Furniture

Basement Floors

Radiant Floor Heating

Outdoor Concrete

Concrete Patios

Concrete Driveways

Concrete Pool Decks

Outdoor Kitchens & Counters

Outdoor Fireplace

Concrete Walkways

Concrete Pavers

Concrete Walls

Repair & Maintenance

Foundation Repair

Concrete Crack Repair

Basement Wall Repair

Building with Concrete

Concrete Homes

Concrete Basements

Decorative Concrete

Durability and Resource Conservation

When properly installed and sealed (see Sealing Colored Concrete), a decorative concrete floor should last a lifetime and will never need replacement. Few flooring materials can boast this same longevity. Carpet, tile and even wood floors eventually need replacement, which uses up resources and creates waste disposal problems. If you stick with a neutral color palette for your concrete floor, it will easily accommodate any future changes to your interior décor.

Another way concrete floors minimize waste: The fresh concrete that goes into a floor slab is manufactured at a local ready-mix plant in the quantities needed for each project. This also saves on the energy required to transport a factory-made product such as tile or carpet from the plant, to the distributor and eventually to your home.

Concrete floors also utilize sustainable materials. The predominant raw material for the cement in concrete is limestone, the most abundant mineral on earth. Your ready-mix supplier can also make concrete using waste byproducts, which reduces the consumption of raw materials. Fly ash, slag cement and silica fume, all waste byproducts from power plants, steel mills and other manufacturing facilities, are commonly used as partial cement replacements. Decorative concrete floors can also incorporate recycled products, such as crushed glass, bits of recycled plastic, marble chips, metal shavings and even seashells (see Beach House: An Indoor Ocean Floor).

Finally, in the highly unlikely event that your concrete floor ever needs to be replaced, the concrete itself can also be recycled at the end of its long service life (see Recycling Concrete).

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