Anyone have a stamped concrete patio? (counter top, sand, color, door)

[Skatergirl]

We're considering one as the price is half of the patio pavers were considering. We'd do the pavers ourselves, but have the stamped concrete done professionally.

I'm wondering how stamped concrete stands up over time and if anyone has ever had theirs crack on them or any other problems you ran into. Are you happy with your patio? Appreciate all input!

[gimme it]

Go with the pavers. I grew in a place where everyone had the cement patios. They looked awful after a while. My dad had the idea to create a patio himself using bricks. He had the best patio on the street!!!! This was in a brand new development, so everyone had to make some kind of patio. Go to a DIY website and get design ideas. Concrete is never attractive.

[R&J1016]

Concrete has come a long way recently, and is a growing trend - from counter tops to floors. But, it may be just that, a trend. Whereas pavers are classic and durable. Sort of depends on your style - concrete can be dyed and take on many looks, strikes my mind as pretty contemporary these days if done right. But that's not to say the concrete facelift would change the inherent qualities that may make it crack or buckle over time especially depending on your climate.
Ultimately, I would go for pavers for myself, especially for an outdoor patio... Nice thing is you can always change it down the line unlike the permanence of concrete!

[CheyDee]

We bought a builder's spec home in 2007, which came with a stamped concrete patio. It looks just as beautiful today as it did when we bought it and we have done no maintenance to it. I have no idea what it will look like in another 5-10 years though.

We just moved from there, or else I'd take a pic for you to see. I wouldn't anticipate it being just a trend though, since it looks a lot like slate and that isn't a "trend".

I would investigate potential climate issues, as was suggested in the previous post. We're in the AZ desert; it gets brutally hot for an extended period of time, but we do not get a real winter here.

[josh u]

Brick & concrete pavers look good but during the rainy season you get tons of weeds growing inbetween them, then they look bad!! I nuked my brick patio with herbicide but it's only effective for a couple weeks, as the rain washes it away. Even those "1 year" herbicides don't last very long. (BTW this not a problem if the pavers are mortared.)

Stamped concrete doesn't have this problem as long as you keep dirt off it. I'm not saying one is better than the other, but it's something to consider

[maf763]

Make sure you don't cut corners on the concrete and that there aren't things like underground pipes or tree roots nearby that might cause cracking.

[fallingwater]

A prior neighbor of ours had a stamped concrete walkway put in along side their house that led to the side door. She loved it until it got wet or when it froze during the winter. The stain or whatever is put on the top makes the concrete slippery. In the winter the crevices in the design held water and froze. This was about 10 yrs ago now so maybe improvements have been made in the application.

[Summering]

Yes, there has to be something in the mix. The twins use to fall backwards onto the concrete. It was way too slippery. It looked beautiful, but that was not good.
They came and put something down which was more like a sand in the mix ( IMHO). That stopped the slipping.
The coloring did fade a bit as time went on and so instead of being all grey it was white"ish" and grey. I think it needs coatings every so often.

[Dollydo]

Don't have a patio that is stamped...I do have a driveway..I am very happy with it.

[jeremylaurence304]

go for decorative concrete, it has the same quality - even better, and it looks good too. good luck!