Grouted Lines

No client we've ever served knows concrete like Ben Johnston, of Johnston Concrete. They probably pour a million cubic yards of concrete a year. They know concrete. So when Ben and Sheila needed decorative concrete work done in their poolside and outdoor living, element7concrete was engaged.

Uncolored concrete is naturally brownish and greenish. To achieve a more modern, steely grey, we use integral color. In this case, Charcoal U28 by Butterfield was added at 40% of max. loading.

The integrated pool coping detail was done much better than we normally see: most placement contractors form with lumber (not straight). It’s almost impossible to consolidate the concrete on that edge as well as it should be for pool coping though.

So, we dipped into our bag’o’tricks from the 100s of countertop projects we’ve done. We over-filled the voids with a color-matched slurry, honed that flush, and repeated until the edge felt amazing. It looked good, too.

On the deck, we cut a simple grid on diagonal, finishing the lines with engravers. We cut it deeper than normal and grouted the cuts with a driveway-resurfacing material (grout outside is not normally great).