Al Carrell: I know what you're thinking, You're thinking this is a slate driveway, and very expensive. It's not. It's decorative concrete called faux brick. Less expensive than you think and very easy to do. To create a faux brick driveway we need fresh concrete. The process starts right after it's poured and before it hardens. In some parts of the country, concrete costs about $2 a square foot. The faux brick look will add another $2 to that price. About 75 cents will go for materials and about $1.25 for labor. Here to show us how it's done is Merrick Pierce (ArtCrete 214-625-2401), who is a decorative concrete specialist. Looks pretty easy Merrick. Is it?
Merrick Pierce: Sure is Al. All you have to do is roll this paper out the length of the slab. After we get it rolled out here we'll just lay it down.
A.C.: Just have to match up the lines.
M.P.: Exactly.
A.C.: Now this seems like it's some sort of a plastic or paper product. What is it Merrick?
M.P.: This is actually a liner board with a poly coating on it to give it strength.
A.C.: Now the next step is to embed this template into the concrete.
M.P.: We can use a roller that's similar to a typical paint roller, to be rolled over the template, and that embeds it into the concrete.
A.C.: Well, the next step, I guess, is to start putting the color in, right?
M.P.: Exactly, Al. That's just broadcast across the concrete.
A.C.: Okay. What is this stuff?
M.P.: This is called a dry shake color hardener. It's actually a Portland cement based product. It has Portland cement, pigment, and sand in the mix. And on a typical job we mix more than one color to give a more authentic brick appearance, rather than one single color.
A.C.: Okay. And this is going to look like slate. I can already see the gray really is going to make it look great.
M.P.: Here we're troweling the color into the concrete and putting on the final finish. This will wind up with a slick, smooth finish.
A.C.: Well all right, this is the same stuff, but a little bit different color. Tell me about what it does?
M.P.: Well, this is just a highlight color, to break up the monotonous look of a solid color job.
A.C.: It looks like this stuff is ready to be pulled up, if we can get this template off of here, we'll see what it's going to look like. Aw, man, that's going to be great. Okay, what's our next step?
M.P.: The next step would be just to blow it off with an ordinary leaf blower and then apply a coat of cure and seal compound.
A.C.: Let's get going. For the last step, we apply a cure and seal compound, which will protect the driveway for years to come. Well, Merrick, this turned out to be a beautiful job. It looks just like real slate.
M.P.: Sure does Al. And it only took about a day to do this job.
A.C.: And one of the things people are going to really be impressed with is the cost factor.
M.P.: Exactly. This is a slate pattern, actual slate would cost 3 or 4 times what this would run and it's only a little bit more than plain concrete.
A.C.: And looks fantastic.
M.P.: Thank you, Al.
Episode 30 1996 - 97 Season
| Closet Make-over | Finding Toilet Leaks | Roofing | Cedar Closet | Faux Brick Driveway | Vinegar Weed Killer | How Do I Lock in The Interest Rate? |