Before the big day, we spent a fair bit of time digging in some drain tile, removing some clay, and repositioning the base to a consistent thickness. Daddy put up forms as usual & set up stakes for a pipe down the middle of the patio with overall dimensions of 20 x 21.
After pouring plain 'ol grey concrete (it was a slightly special mix for texturing with lots of portland and 1/2" aggregate), we threw the color down onto the concrete surface. We had a few issues that day because of the wind & the leaves that were blowing in it. You'll see later how much of a mess that very fine powder can make as it gets blown around in your face. We put approximately 2/3 of it down the first pass & floated it in to the concrete after about 5 minutes where it absorbed moisture from the concrete itself. Once floated in, we sprinkled the remaining color down & floated once again.
I mentioned the leaves...we had some problems where we just couldn't reach all the leaves to get them back out. I found out later that we had floated & stamped quite a few more leaves into the concrete than I had thought.
Once we had the color all worked into the concrete & the top 1/2" or so of concrete is now colored, grandpa Mike used a texture skin to go around the outside edges near the forms to get some stone texture into the concrete. This was done because the rigid mats are likely to rest on the form & "bridge" over some of the concrete near the edges.
The stamps themselves were "L" shaped & fit together very nicely. Here Chris is setting the next stamp in place. We had 9 rigid mats total - 3 each of 3 different patterns to create the random look. We also had one "floppy" mat that we used around the 4-season footings and along the house where the rigid mats could not get to because we could not bend them.
Next, Flotty would tamp the mat into the concrete to transfer the grout line & stone detail into the concrete. It was very important to use the very fine release agent to help prevent the concrete from sticking to the mat. We thought the color was fine, but the release agent was like throwing baby powder into the wind. The release agent itself does not absorb water, and thereby provides a barrier between the wet concrete & the concrete stamps.
Finally, daddy would follow up with a small roller to touch up the grout lines where needed. This helps to ensure a more realistic pattern. Here you can see the progress we've made half-way across the patio. We tried to work over row by row, leaving one row in place while we leap-frogged the mats to the next row to keep everything aligned and square.
Not only was the wind challenging because it caused the concrete to cure unevenly. As you may be able to tell, the patio closest to the house is much more sheltered from the wind. Flotty had to stamp pretty hard in some spots to get the texture to transfer to the concrete. There are a few spots we could have gone even harder, but the surface was starting to dry out and crack with the significant deformation.
You can see here that Chris & I received the bulk of the color & release powder that was blowing around. We all seem to have pretty white teeth when the rest of us is so brown. Also notice the retaining wall boulders in the photo above & how brown they are! That's not the camera playing tricks - we had that darn powder everywhere & it proved time consuming to clean up!
After finishing up all the texture, we called it a day on the patio. We had to clean up the mats quickly so we could return them to Cemstone that afternoon. Remember how I said that the release agent did not absorb water? It proved to be very time consuming to get the mats clean & all that release off them so the next users would start with a clean set.
The next day, Alice & I vacuumed as much release powder off the patio as we could. We followed up with a broom & finally scrubbed with soap and water to remove the release agent from the surface of the stones. After blowing it off with the air hose to remove the moisture & dry it off, we used a cure and seal to help reduce moisture loss and bring out the color of the concrete. We let that dry out overnight & then covered with silo bag (extremely useful product right behind duct tape;) to help prevent any freezing with the cooler than average temperatures we've been having.
The main color we used for the patio was a "terra cotta" color with a slightly lighter color sprinkled in for some variation. We also used a darker brown release agent, which was embedded primarily in the grout lines for some additional contrast. This is a small sample of the larger patio, but was taken at approximately 8:30 Saturday night as we were trying to finish up the cure and seal application. You can sure see the color come alive with the sealer & even a little of the color variation as well.
As much as I'd like to post photos of the finished product, we've had it covered now for the past week and a half for curing & freeze prevention. Alice & I planted a half-dozen rose shrubs at the end & a number of hostas along each side between the patio and the boulder walls. The plan is to uncover it on Saturday and put down some pine bark mulch on all sides this Saturday to finish it up. Oh yeah, we still need to get the steps back up the deck. Not sure how that's going to work yet, but we'll work that out later...
