Stamped Concrete

Installing Coloured, Stamped Concrete With Limitless Design Options

At Benco Concrete Inc., we offer visually appealing concrete at a reasonable price. You can choose from a nearly unlimited array of designs and colours with all of our different decorative concrete systems stamped concrete. Why settle for interlocking brick slate, or other natural stone when you have so many other options? Get the style of concrete you want at Benco Concrete Inc.

Advantages of Stamped Concrete

Experience the look of distinction with a quality concrete installation by Benco Concrete Inc. You can get the look of slate, various types of natural stone, and other higher-end materials with our stamped concrete. Our coloured, stamped concrete is also more affordable and easier to maintain compared to interlocking bricks. Regardless of your chosen pattern, you can enjoy any of our decorative concrete styles at a fraction of the cost of brick, stone or slate, while taking advantage of the durability that concrete offers!

Spaces Ideal For Stamped Concrete

Decorative stamped concrete is a great choice for a diverse range of applications, including:

Residential Properties
Commercial Properties
Retail Spaces
Apartments and Condominiums
Pool Areas
Patios
Decks
Driveways
Sidewalks

Accessibility to the Site

Customers in residential areas usually want work done in either the back yard, front yard, side yard, or all three. Our service rate depends on how inaccessible or easily accessible the site is.

For instance, installing a backyard patio way at the back corner of the backyard while accessing it through a small, 3 feet gate opening is probably the worst-case scenario. We have to hand dig the area and use a wheelbarrow or use far smaller equipment to get the excavated material out and the new concrete in. Not only is this very laborious, but it also takes longer to do.

Better Site Access Means Better Results

Time is essential when pouring fresh concrete, especially in hot weather. When the concrete takes too long to get into the work area, it hardens before it has a chance to be levelled and finished properly, which can lead to disappointing results. Concrete must be somewhat soft when you work with it to get your desired finish. Workability will be consumed and quality cannot be maintained if it takes too long for the concrete to be installed. Sometimes the use of a concrete pump is the only logical choice to relay the concrete to a backyard in a timely manner in order to ensure a good, quality installation.

Concrete Pumping

We often need to use a concrete pump to efficiently discharge the concrete directly into the work area. To save money, instead of getting a concrete pump service, customers will have us take out a fence post and a section of a fence to facilitate a wider opening for travel to and from the backyard. It may cost the customer a little bit of money for a new fence post but it is nothing compared to the price of a pump or the price of having us do a job with a shovel and a wheelbarrow. Although pumps work well to ensure timely placement and quality control, they typically cost anywhere between $800 and $1500 to rent one with an operator.

Material to Be Excavated and/or Removed

Many people think that removing old concrete, asphalt, or interlocking brick brings about extra labour expense and dumping fees compared to removing grass and dirt. This simply isn’t true.

Asphalt, concrete, and interlocking brick are usually quicker to remove by using a skid steer or backhoe. They can also be brought to a recycling or crusher yard, where they will be crushed into gravel, which the crusher will sell as a base material for under asphalt roads, concrete, and other applications. Some crushers charge a small amount while others accept it for free.

Dirt, grass, and other organic material have no such use. Crushers usually sift or screen dirt to become fine topsoil that they sell. However, environmental regulations create expenses that have to be covered by customers. This handling and testing of the materials create additional expense for the recycling yards to handle, and dumping dirt can cost up to $40.00 per ton.

Size of the Area

Large jobs have a lower cost per square foot than smaller ones. When a job is smaller, the unit price is raised for an installer to cover the fixed expenses that every contractor faces. But when a job is larger, there are more square feet to offset these expenses, allowing a lower unit price to be offered.

Using Gravel to Prepare a Base

Existing gravel can be graded, compacted, and used as a base for under the new concrete, but sometimes, when existing gravel is removed to put the concrete in place, the amount of gravel left might be inadequate to act as a sufficient base. In this case, some of the natural ground (dirt, clay) that was under the gravel will have to be removed to make room for a minimum of 6 inches of gravel necessary for a proper base.

When this happens, you can still use the old gravel if it hasn’t been mixed with the dirt or clay during the excavating. You must still add new gravel in with it to have the necessary amount to constitute an adequate base.

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Four Main Factors in Determining Price

Type of Concrete Finishing to Be Installed

We offer various concrete products to choose from. These include white and coloured brush finished concrete, exposed aggregate (pebble look), power troweled concrete, polished concrete, sandblasted concrete and stamped concrete.

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Pricing

Generally speaking, stamped concrete and exposed aggregate concrete are of the same price. They both cost approximately $3-$4 more than a white broom finished driveway. They are more expensive because the concrete is coloured all the way through, additional pigments are used for accent colouring and special finishing, additional special chemistry is applied, and they are sealed with a non-slip sealer.

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Pricing a Concrete Installation

Larger driveways at the front of the house in a highly accessible area will cost less money per square foot than with smaller, inaccessible backyard projects. It takes far less labour and time than transporting the concrete back to a backyard area. Let us share an example:

It is more expensive per sq ft to install a small (size) patio at the far end of the backyard where grass (material to be excavated and/or removed) currently exists and we need to travel through a 3 feet wide gate opening (accessibility) with a wheelbarrow than it is to do a large driveway in the front yard of a house where there may already be an adequate amount, or at least, some gravel in place.

Gravel is usually present in these areas either because the homeowners have an existing gravel driveway or an old one was removed. The gravel, which acted as a base material for that old driveway will still be present, and can usually be regraded, compacted, and reused. Remember, there’s really no such thing as “new gravel”. It’s all been around since the beginning of time. The notion of removing “old” gravel that has had the opportunity to settle over many years, only to replace it with “new gravel” that has not, is working against yourself. WE certainly don’t have an argument about concrete driveways needing an adequate base under them of no less than 6 inches, but to put take out new” gravel base which truly isn’t new anyway, just for the sake of doing it, when you already have an adequate base, really doesn’t accomplish anything. Since the driveway area can be directly accessed by equipment and trucks, it makes it easier and faster to discharge concrete from the truck and into the area where it can be spread, screeded, and finished.

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Stamped Concrete vs. Brick Pavers or Stone

Our climate in Ontario makes interlocking brick pavers to rise and fall due to the frost cycle. This leaves bumps and depressions that need to be reset at a cost that’s usually somewhere between $5 to $7 per sq ft. How many times have you seen an interlocking brick driveway with two rows of sunken brick where the automobile tires drive up and down every day? Aside from this, pavers fade through time, are a haven for ants, and grass and weeds tend to grow between them.

Cost Comparison

Pavers – to $30.00 per Square Foot
Stamped Concrete – $10.00 – $20.00 Range

Inquire Today

We hope that we have helped explain the various factors affecting installation rates. Should you have any additional questions, contact us today, and we will do our best to provide you with further explanation.