Outdoor Spaces

Complementing all the glitter and glam are concrete creations that make heads turn. A 144-foot-tall mountain peaks above the resort’s sprawling 192 acres.

Pebble-Flex Synthetic Rubber Surfacing System. When it comes to putting a soft, springy surface on top of a craggy concrete floor, Pebble-Flex is where the rubber hits the road.

Honoring the beauty and grace of a Latter-day Saints church and making the work site respectable for a wedding was just another job well done for a Florida contractor.

CTS Cement Manufacturing Corp. sent us a story about an enormous waterscape at Cypress Breeze Plantation, a private gated development in north Florida. The job was done by Muud Concrete Design (Multiple Use Unlimited Design), a Los Angeles outfit formed by artisans Adrian Gascon and Neil Hughes.

Looking for a way to expand your business’ offerings or add a little more creativity to your life? Either way, the vertical surfaces market may be for you.

Four decorative concrete projects were among the winners in the 2013 American Residential Design Awards, announced in July by the American Institute of Building Design.

Troy Lemon, founder and president of Cornerstone Decorative Concrete in Holland, Mich., starts his story with a familiar admission. “I was a concrete guy way before I was a decorative concrete guy,” he says.

The newly overhauled project took a decade of planning and is a destination that is exceptionally walkable and livable. Designed by landscape architects at James Corner Field Operations, this sleek and modern project includes more than 2 million pounds of custom precast concrete from Tectura Designs.

Contractors are increasingly using shotcrete for making artificial rock. The equipment is expensive, but the results are spectacular.

“It was back-breaking work,” says the owner of Brailsford Public Art in San Diego about placing colored aggregate piece by piece into wet concrete on a job site. She was working with Shaw & Sons’ Lithocrete system which incorporates a means to create a scattered aggregate pattern on a concrete surface.

Last year, a homeowner in Augusta, New Jersey, went into a masons’ supply store looking for a fix for his pool deck. The pavers installed 15 years ago had settled. The deck wasn’t draining properly, and his homeowner’s insurance company had identified the paver portion of the pool deck as a hazard.

Nailing this balance project after project takes great effort, but the reward is far more than monetary. Concrete hardscapes last decades, and so do the reputation of the concrete artisans who successfully pave their way into decorative history.

This working Roman aqueduct, completed in the fall of 2005 for a home in Dove Canyon, Calif., wasn't built in a day.

Located at 6020 East 82nd St. in Indianapolis, the Castleton Square Mall had a lifestyle addition completed in 2008 that featured decorative concrete.

No, it’s not built into the fork of a tree. It’s the grown-up version, with a breathtaking mountain view and lots of decorative concrete.

Although aesthetics are certainly a key component in any decorative concrete project, that doesn’t mean function should take a back seat. When a Joplin, Mo., homeowner was experiencing drainage and erosion problems, Jim Snodgrass installed a series of walls and stairways that not only controlled water flow, but was visually pleasing to the rest of the high-end subdivision.

Structurally unbeatable, decorative forms and form-liners are creating a timely and profitable advantage on more and more jobsites, big and small.

For Scott Cohen, owner of The Green Scene Landscaping and Pools in Northridge, Calif., creating spectacular, outdoor entertainment and leisure spaces is second nature, but many of his jobs require much more than bringing a vision to life.