Benefits of Exposed Aggregate in Concrete
This coming summer season, our company is going to take a look at several different types of designs of decks and patios, here on our blog. Looking at these different types of decks amd patios, from simple yet effective, to elaborate and ornate, will help to provide design ideas that our clients can use to develop their own ideas. For example, when our clients look at our blogs about decks and patios, here on our website, they can learn several things.
- It can give them ideas for design options and details that might apply to their own deck and patio projects.
- Similar to ideas for design, it also can provide creative inspiration, to take a look at some of the other things that people have done with their decks and patios.
- Reading the blogs and learning about the options for decks and patios can also help develop a shared vernacular that you can use to communicate your design interests.
- Since our company strives for quality, we will also, here in our website blog, be talking a lot about best practices and common pitfalls that can be avoided.
The patio shown in the picture below has a visual sharpness from almost any angle, it simply looks interesting. It’s mostly just concrete though. Concrete generally isn’t considered to be a particularly pretty type of building material. Generally, concrete is considered to be a type of utility grade product that is used for structural elements and rarely for anything intended to be aesthetically pleasing.
Here though a couple things have been done to make this concrete look different than the average basic and boring walkway or floor slab. Firstly, the concrete elements are broken up into interesting geometric patterns. They’ve also interspersed elements of the concrete with crushed stone.
The crushed stone essentially is exposed at the borders for each of the individual slabs of concrete, as well as the walkway surface. Also, the surface of the concrete has been intentionally washed away, before it was fully cured, to expose the granite aggregate which is an integral part of the concrete, but normally covered in cement where you cannot see it. Here it’s completely exposed at the surface and you can see all the individual stones.
The suppressed edges create a channel that the smooth river rock can set inside of like a tray. Often, in paving, loose stones can be an annoyance. it’s no not quite as bad as a typical loose stone paving here though because each area of the loose stone areas is set into these recessed areas which contain the stone.
These recessed stone areas also happen to work as drains that allow water to be diverted and funneled through the channels and then through a weep which passes the water below. We wouldn’t recommend this type of layout of configuration in all climates. Here in Washington DC, with our typical freeze-thaw cycles, this type of design might not work very well and actually might be problematic. Nonetheless, they aesthetic layout and configuration of the deck aside from these drain ports is still notable and interesting.
There’s several details about this particular layout that make it look really sharp. One of those details is subtle. In the picture above, you can see that like a typical set of steps, the successive treads are set back farther as the stairway progresses upwards. That’s common, that basically describes every stairway. Here though, there’s a subtle nuance that makes it look better. As the stairway runs downward, the treads below, both serving as treads and landings in some cases, increase in width. That graduated differentiation adds weight to the architectural configuration of the lower treads and landings.
The next several pictures show some of the details that we discussed above, more closely. The first picture below shows the exposed aggregate at the surface of the concrete. It’s not like some exposed aggregate surfaces, where all you see is small pieces of aggregate. Instead here, the aggregate is speckled throughout an area of the exposed sand-cement mixture. It’s like a dusting or peppering of the dark granite color within the otherwise more typical concrete surface which adds a high degree of visual interest.
The nosings and edges of the landings have not been smooth and rounded with typical concave or convex tools used in concrete finishing. This particular aesthetic is actually more difficult to achieve because it requires removal of the formwork early in the stage of casting and continued work without typical concrete vibration and later form release.
The next picture shows the river rock set into the recessed pockets that we described above.
The next picture below shows a up-close view of the weep that we described above. Each one of these recessed pockets includes one of these weep tubes which allow water to drain from the pocket, by gravity alone, passively.
Use a contractor, like us, who understands and cares about doing things right. Always, feel free to reach out to us here at Dupont Decks and Patios. We are happy to help with almost all steps of the deck and patio building and design process. Let us know about your ideas and talk to us if you have questions about possibilities. You can call us at (202) 774-9128. You can find us online at https://dupontdeckspatiosdc.com and you can email us there as well at https://dupontdeckspatiosdc.com
