The Wonderful World of Decorative Concrete

JOHN GRANT, PICS LTD

When lifetime costs and maintenance issues are considered, decorative concrete becomes an increasingly interesting option. The recently opened Disney Theme Park in Hong Kong has used thousands of square metres comprising a range of decorative concrete finishes, a trend which has developed for external paving within the hotel and leisure sector around the world and particularly in the USA, Europe and the Middle East.

There are many options for decorative concrete finishes and some of these are:

• pattern imprinted concrete – various stone, slate, brick, cobble, granite, timber, and a selection of texture-only designs
• surface colour hardened areas hand-laid to suit design; these can be textured or flat trowelled
• acid stained – plain concrete or coloured surfaces can be stained in a variety of tones to recreate natural variation and preferred shades
• exposed aggregate – plain concrete or coloured surfaces can have the natural or hand-seeded aggregate exposed by removing the surface cementitious matrix
• stencilled finishes – sprayed overlays or coloured surfaces can use a range of stencilled designs to create external paving finishes.

Options available
The options of pattern imprinted, coloured, textured or stained concrete finishes allow the designer to create a vast array of colour and shape combinations. Examples of projects in the UK where individually crafted features have been designed and successfully undertaken include animal
footprints of a beach scene at the Princess Diana Memorial Garden, Kensington, London and shot-blasted text at Possil Park in Glasgow. These finishes allow the designer to transfer ideas into permanent and easy-to-maintain practical external paving. These applications have been used on
many ‘drive-thru’ restaurants, where regular high traffic volumes are experienced, and internal floors in shopping centres, hotels and museums where high levels of pedestrian traffic necessitate durable, easy maintenance paving.

The skills required to carry out these high-quality installations have been readily available in the US for many years and the UK market has embraced the experiences of commercial contractors there. Leading UK product manufacturers now provide equivalent materials, training and advice to contractors and architects alike.

The introduction of an NVQ for Decorative Concrete in the UK will help to attract quality contractors to the industry and raise skill levels for the future. Many examples of external paving applications around the UK highlight the versatility and durability of decorative concrete, which has become naturally accepted by many designers and engineers alike.

Disney Hong Kong
The scale of the new Disney project in Hong Kong is aweinspiring and the planning and organisation required from the Disney team is phenomenal. The total land requirement has been reclaimed from the sea and when the project began, the area was just a huge sandy desert. The topsoil for planting the trees and plants was shipped in from Canada. Quickly,
buildings began to appear and connecting roadways were built. After meetings with Disney in Los Angeles in early 2003, and subsequent trial areas on-site in Hong Kong later that year, UK-based PICS, and Hong Kong contractor, Winview Building Supplies & Services, having pooled resources, won the contract for the supply and installation of decorative concrete for the external paving element of the project, despite keen international competition.

PICS worked closely with Winview and Disney Imagineering, the design team responsible for all the paving works throughout the site, to produce quality work to Disney’s high technical and design standards. External paving work commenced in June 2004 and is now complete.

Many thousands of square metres have been installed, both externally and internally. Concluding remarks Las Vegas, USA probably boasts the largest volume of decorative concrete in any one city; most hotel complexes use it extensively, both internally and externally. The 2005 World of Concrete exhibition took place in Las Vegas during January and the range of design options and installation methods for decorative concrete on display at the show continue to push back the barriers to creating durable and exciting concrete finishes.