Pattern Imprinted Concrete Colours and Patterns

Pattern Imprinted Concrete Colours and Patterns

One of the advantages of pattern imprinted concrete is the extremely wide choice of colours and patterns which are available.

As with concrete block paving, just a few designs will account for the bulk of pattern imprinted concrete installations but as long as a printing mat exists which reflects the exact surface of a natural paving product, it can be reproduced in pattern imprinted concrete.

Some of the most popular designs include reproductions of York Stone or cobbles, old style bricks in a basket weave or herringbone style, ashlar slate or timber decking.

Occasionally two or more pattern imprinted concrete patterns can be included in the same driveway or patio area to identify different areas of use such as for car parking and footpaths, though this can equally be achieved by using different colours.

Some patterns are more suited for pedestrian access than others and care should be taken when choosing a pattern that it is not too uneven to make walking on it a hazard. For example, wearers of high heels would find the relatively smooth surface of a driveway finished with a slate pattern much easier to walk on than that of a deep jointed cobble stone.

Pattern Imprinted Concrete Colours and Patterns

The final colour of a pattern imprinted concrete driveway or patio area is achieved by applying two different colour pigments during the installation process.

The first one is a colour surface hardener which is the chosen pigment and cement, supplied in a drum, most commonly as a powder mixture. This is scattered onto the trowelled surface of the concrete and (as its name suggests), both colours the top surface of the concrete and hardens it due to the cement content. This powder is trowelled into the surface and prior to the printing part the installation process a further powdered pigment is added to create a more realistic antiqued effect.

The second is antique release agent which also has two jobs to do. One is to enhance the appearance of the coloured concrete and the other to make it easier to lift the printing mats from the surface of the newly pressed concrete without spoiling the pattern.

Without antique release agent the suction effect of the printing mats would distort the intended pattern as the mats are lifted.

Pattern Imprinted Concrete Colours and Patterns

Antique release agent colours are designed to complement the colour surface hardener pigments and a typical driveway imprinted with a cobblestone pattern may have a platinum grey colour surface hardener with highlights of charcoal antique release agent.

The darker antique release agent pigment will stain the concrete in the joints and creases of the cobblestone surface to create a more realistic and natural effect. When initially applied however, it appears that there has been too much antique release agent applied and the driveway surface is much darker than required.

Several days after the installation, the driveway is washed off prior to a sealant applied and the surface takes on the colour it was intended to be. There is a major caveat here though, as colours from brochures and photographs can only be taken as an approximation to the final result.

Pattern Imprinted Concrete Colours and Patterns

There are 26 different colour surface hardeners (CSH) and 10 antique release agent colours – this alone suggests up to 250 combinations of final surface colouring, and that’s without including multi-blends where more than one CSH colour is mixed together.

Add to that the choice of almost 30 common styles of printing mat and you have 7,500 different combinations of colour surface hardener, antique release agent and imprinted pattern. Include multi-blended colour surface hardeners and there are a practically infinite number of colour and pattern combinations.