Providence Decorative Concrete Finishes

Stained Concrete Floors

Stained concrete floors let the slab you already own do most of the work. I use acid stain, which reacts with the lime in the concrete and leaves a mottled, marbled color no two floors ever share, or a water-based dye when you want something more even and predictable. Prep is the whole job. We grind off carpet glue, old paint and dried drywall mud first, because stain sinks in and shows every splatter somebody rolled over.

Then we neutralize, rinse, let it dry, and put down two coats of sealer.

A basement in an old triple-decker is usually three or four days with cure time.

Unlike colored epoxy floor paint, stain has no film to peel off in sheets. It's the finish our local concrete contractors service gets asked for most once the carpet comes up. Square footage, old coatings and the number of colors move the price.

Colored Concrete

Colored concrete gets its pigment dosed into the mix at the batch plant, so the color runs right through the slab and a chipped corner still looks like the rest of the patio. Plenty of stamped concrete patio companies color only with release powder, which lives in the top skin and walks off the traffic path in a few seasons.

What moves the price on a pigmented pour is the shade, mostly: deep charcoals and reds take a lot more pigment than a soft tan.

The thing that ruins these slabs is water. A driver adds a few gallons on site to make the pour easier, that load comes out pale, and you own a stripe forever. We order it on one ticket, one plant, one day. Same pigment goes into decorative concrete curbing so the yard matches.

Colored Cement

Colored cement is pigment blended right into the mix at the plant, so the color shows up on the truck instead of getting brushed on afterward. We order every yard for your pour from one plant and one batch, because two loads mixed on different days can land a shade apart, and that line down your patio is permanent.

Water is the other troublemaker. If a few extra gallons go in on site to make the mud easier to place, that section cures lighter than the rest. So we keep the slump where it belongs and move quicker instead.

Expect a little efflorescence, that chalky white bloom, in the first season. It washes off.

Of all the decorative concrete finishes, this one ages the most gracefully, since a chip doesn't expose a gray slab underneath.

Colored Stamped Concrete

Colored stamped concrete is really one pour doing two jobs: the color goes in the truck, and the mats go down while the slab is at that leathery stage where your thumb leaves a print but not a hole. On a warm afternoon that window is short, and it doesn't wait for anyone. Stamp late and you get a ghost of a pattern with no real grout lines.

Stamp early and the mats sink, the edges slump, and you've bought yourself a patio that looks melted.

We float an antiquing release over the top for depth, then wash and seal once it has cured. That seal is where a lot of stamped concrete contractors get lazy, and it's why some decorative concrete finishes look tired by their third summer.

Size, pattern, border work and how far we wheel it from the truck all move the price.

Concrete Floor Repair

Concrete floor repair is the unglamorous half of this trade, and it's the half that decides whether the good looking part lasts. We grind out the failed area, saw a clean edge rather than feathering the patch thin (feathered edges chip off inside a season), then fill with a polymer modified mortar or an epoxy patch depending on how deep the spall goes. Cracks that are still moving get a flexible polyurea joint fill, never caulk.

On a typical two car garage slab we're patching in a day and you're walking on it in about 24 hours.

Skip that prep and the old crack telegraphs right through whatever goes on top, whether that's colored epoxy floor paint or one of the decorative concrete finishes we'd otherwise be proud of. Depth, square footage, old coating to strip and grinder access are what move the number.

Honeycombing Concrete

Honeycombing concrete is what you get when the mix never worked its way in around the stone and steel, so a wall or a set of steps cures with open pockets of bare aggregate that look like a wasp nest. Usually it's a stiff pour, a vibrator that never reached, or a form that leaked paste out the seam.

We chip back to sound material with square edges instead of feathered ones, soak the substrate, brush in a bond coat, then hand pack a polymer modified mortar and keep it damp while it sets. Patch over the void without chipping and you've sealed in something that drinks water and rusts the rebar behind it. On decorative concrete finishes it matters double, because stain and colored concrete telegraph every repair.

Depth, exposed steel and how high up the work sits move the price.

Mud Jacking Concrete

Mud jacking concrete is how we lift a sunken slab back to level instead of breaking it out, and around here that job shows up every spring, after the ground has spent a Rhode Island winter freezing, swelling and settling back down again. We drill a few holes about the size of a quarter, pump a cement slurry underneath until the slab rises where we want it, then patch the holes.

A driveway apron or a front walk is usually a couple of hours, and you can walk on it the same day.

It's worth doing where you'd hate to lose the surface. A stamped patio, colored concrete you waited on, painted concrete around pool edges that would never match if we poured one fresh section next to fifteen year old slabs.

Lift it too fast and you crack it across the middle. Patience is the whole trick.

Colored Concrete Floors

Colored concrete floors get their color mixed into the load before the truck ever backs up to your door, so the pigment runs all the way through the slab instead of sitting on top waiting to scuff off.

We pour them in mill lofts, shop floors, sunrooms and garages, and honestly the whole look is decided in the last couple of hours: water kept consistent from load to load, the trowel timed right, then a slow cure so the color sets even. Trowel a wet pour too early and you get cloudy blotches and burn marks that no sealer will ever hide.

Size drives what colored concrete costs, along with how much grinding a tired old floor needs first, pigment load, and whether you want a matte or a wet-look finish. We do these decorative concrete finishes inside and work as stamped concrete contractors out back, same mix discipline either way.

Pool Deck Color

Pool deck color is the one decorative choice you actually feel through your feet. Charcoal looks sharp in photos and turns into a griddle by two in the afternoon, so I usually steer people toward sand, buff and light gray, cool deck colors for pools that stay walkable when the sun's been on them all day.

On a sound slab we broom in a color hardener or work an acid stain into it, then finish with a textured sealer so nobody goes skating when the kids climb out dripping. Painted concrete around pool decks is what gets me called out most. Latex over a slab that wicks moisture from underneath peels in sheets by its second season, and chlorine and salt systems speed that along.

Strip it, etch it, color it right, and you stop repainting every spring.

Pool Deck Paint Colors

Pool deck paint colors are a heat decision before they're a taste decision. Charcoal looks sharp against blue water and will cook bare feet by two in the afternoon, so most people land on sand, oyster, buff or a pale gray, and we mix a textured acrylic so the surface still has grip when somebody climbs out dripping. Prep is where these go wrong.

We wash, etch and fill any pinholes or honeycombing concrete along the slab edges first, because coating straight over a void just bridges it and flakes off in sheets by August. Two coats, rolled and knocked down, and nobody swims that afternoon.

Square footage, how many coats it takes to bury the old pool deck color, and whether the coping and steps get done with it are what shift the number on this kind of decorative concrete finish.

Decorative Concrete Edging

Decorative concrete edging is the border we extrude along your beds, walks and driveway apron, one continuous strip with no joints for weeds to creep through. We snap the line, cut the sod and roots out, tamp the ground under it, then run the mix through the curb machine and hand-tool the profile while it's still green. Then we tool in control joints so it cracks where we chose instead of wherever it feels like.

Decorative concrete curbing set straight onto soft topsoil is the stuff that tilts and gaps after a winter or two, and once a run lifts on you, it doesn't get straightened, it gets replaced. We can tint and texture the border to sit with the rest of your decorative concrete finishes. Total length, how tight the curves get, and whether the machine can reach the back yard all push the cost around.

Dyco Pool Deck Paint Colors

Dyco pool deck paint colors are the water based acrylics I reach for when a deck is sound but tired, and the shade matters more than people expect: the pale sands and soft grays stay walkable on bare feet while a deep blue turns into a griddle by noon. Prep is where these jobs live or die.

We pressure wash, acid etch so the coating grabs the surface instead of sitting on it, fill the divots, then wait for the slab to dry all the way through. Roll paint onto damp concrete and it peels off in sheets by the following summer, usually around the ladder where the splash lands.

Two coats, with real drying time between them, and we don't paint when the humidity is sitting on the city.

Deck size, how much old coating has to come off, and the amount of patching needed are what move the price. Badly cracked decks want structural attention first, the kind of work concrete repair companies handle, before any of my decorative concrete finishes go down.

What the job involves

Most decorative concrete finishes are two days of prep and a couple of hours of the part you actually see. I start out tapping the slab with a hammer and listening for hollow spots, because color sits on whatever is underneath and tells the truth about it. Then the surface gets opened up with a diamond grinder, dust shrouded and vacuumed, so a stain or an overlay has something to bite into.

If you have painted concrete around pool coping that's flaking off in sheets, every bit of that comes off first, and stripping old coating usually moves the price further than square footage does. Access counts too, since a fenced backyard means wheelbarrows instead of a hose from the truck.

Plenty of concrete repair companies price the finish and quietly leave the grinding off the sheet. That's why those jobs peel.

What it costs

What it costs on this kind of work comes down to three things: square footage, the condition of the slab I'm starting with, and how much of the detail has to be cut in by hand. Decorative concrete finishes over a clean, flat garage floor move fast.

A back patio with old paint flaking off it, spalled edges and a hose bib in the middle takes hours of grinding and patching before any color goes down, and that time is real. Colored epoxy floor paint needs a moisture test first, because on a slab that's still giving up water it peels off in sheets by the second summer. Painted concrete around pool work runs higher, since coping, skimmer lids and drains all get edged by hand.

Call me at (401) 394-6425 with your measurements and a couple of photos and I can get close before I'm standing on it. Late fall bookings sometimes wait a week on weather, since color work wants a dry slab.

When decorative concrete finishes are the wrong fix

Sometimes decorative concrete finishes are the wrong fix, and I will say so standing right there on the slab with you. If the trouble is coming from underneath, a can of Behr decorative concrete stain or a kit of Rust Oleum decorative chips just puts color on a moving problem.

Cracks tracking out of a settling concrete foundation, a concrete retaining wall leaning into the yard, a concrete patio that has dropped toward the house: fix the structure and the water first, then concrete floor repair or resurfacing, then the good-looking part.

Same story around a pool. Picking concrete pool deck colors for a slab that sounds hollow under your heel buys you one summer. On commercial concrete taking forklift traffic, a thin topping shells off fast. Depth, access and how far gone it is change the repair side long before color enters the conversation.

Why choose us for this

You've got a patio, a pool deck or a garage floor that's gone dull and blotchy, and decorative concrete finishes are what you want on it, not artistry. You want it handled once so the slab stops being on your mind.

A word about the cheaper quote, since you'll get one. Plenty of stamped concrete patio companies price the job as a tinted coating rolled over your existing concrete. It photographs beautifully and it starts lifting at the corners by the second summer, worst on painted concrete around pool edges where wet feet and chlorine live.

Color run through the mix, a release powder worked into the stamp, a proper cure and a sealer afterward takes days longer and it stays put.

An estimate costs you nothing and commits you to nothing. Size, access, the state of the existing slab and the month we pour all change how the work goes.

Frequently asked questions

Contact The Providence Concrete Company now

If you want decorative concrete finishes on a patio, a basement floor or a front walk, call the Providence concrete company at (401) 394-6425 and we will come stand on the slab with you. Somebody is here nine to five, Monday through Friday, and messages left outside those hours get returned.

Tell me what is on the concrete now: old paint, carpet mastic, a glossy sealer, a surface that has started flaking. That decides whether color goes straight on or the top has to be ground off first, and it moves the price more than square footage does. Access moves it too. A backyard we can only reach through a three foot gate gets mixed and hauled by bucket, and that stretches the day.

Decorative concrete work is easier to quote well after ten minutes on site than after ten minutes on the phone.