Colored concrete is concrete with pigment carried through it, not paint laid over the top, and that difference decides how it ages. We pour it as driveways, patios, walkways and sidewalk runs across Marietta. Some of it is plain color on a broom finish. Some is stamped concrete, where the color and the texture work together to read as stone or plank. As a concrete contractor, we treat the color as part of the mix design rather than a finishing touch applied at the end.
On site, most of the hours go to preparation. Grading, forms, base, rebar or wire mesh where the slab needs it. The pour itself runs a few hours, and the finishing window inside those hours is short. Color goes in during that window, so the crew works the whole surface at one pace instead of chasing it in sections. After that, the slab cures on its own schedule. We stay off it, you stay off it, and the color settles into what it will be.
Most colored concrete failures are visible from the street. Blotchy patches where the surface set unevenly. A hard line where one batch met another after too long a wait. Efflorescence, the white haze that comes up through a slab poured over a base that holds water. Cracks wandering across a driveway because the control joints were cut late or cut shallow. None of this is exotic. It comes from rushing a pour that had one good window and treating color as decoration.
Getting it right costs time more than anything else. Enough hands on the pour to finish the whole slab before it goes off. Batches ordered together so the color runs consistent from one end to the other. A base compacted properly, because color does nothing for a slab that settles under it. Sealer chosen for what the surface actually takes: foot traffic on a sidewalk, tires and summer heat on a driveway. We would rather move a date than pour short-handed.
We work throughout Marietta, residential drives and walks along with commercial frontage. Around Marietta Square, the historic downtown core, storefronts and restaurants sit on walkways that carry people all day, and colored flatwork there has to look right and hold up under that traffic. The commuter corridors running toward Atlanta shape when we can get trucks in and out, so we plan access and pour times around them. Call for a free estimate on colored concrete.
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Pigment goes into the mix at the plant, so color runs the full depth of the slab instead of sitting on the surface. A chipped sidewalk edge shows the same shade as the top. Water content is the thing a concrete contractor watches here: a wet load cures lighter, and one panel ends up blotchy next to the one poured before it. Mesh or rebar rides on chairs near mid slab, and joints get cut early so cracking follows a line we choose.
Color arrives three ways: integral pigment, a dry shake hardener broadcast and troweled into the fresh surface, or a stain applied after cure. Hardener leaves the densest wearing surface, which is why it goes under stamped concrete and on commercial concrete along the retail frontage at Marietta Square, where a concrete sidewalk takes foot traffic all day. Work in the public right of way is permitted through the City of Marietta. Efflorescence, a white haze, rises as the slab dries and washes off.
We walk the area with you and look at what is already there. Slope, drainage, where water sits after a storm, how thick the existing slab is, whether tree roots have lifted it. We measure the space and check access for a truck and a wheelbarrow route. Color choice starts here too, since integral color and release powders read differently in full sun than under shade from a mature oak.
You get the scope in writing: square footage, slab thickness, reinforcement, the color and finish, and what we haul away. No verbal-only work. We handle the permit paperwork where the job needs it, which is common on anything touching the right of way or changing how water leaves the lot. Sidewalks near a street usually fall in that category. We tell you before we start, not after.
Old concrete comes out in sections and gets loaded, not buried on site. Then we get to the part that decides whether the job lasts: the base. We cut back soft ground, bring in compactable gravel, and run a plate compactor over it in lifts. Most cracked driveways we replace failed here first, on a base that was never compacted or was poured over loose fill after a wet week.
Forms get set to grade and staked tight so nothing bows when the concrete pushes against them. Driveways get rebar on chairs, typically at four inches thick or more where vehicles turn. Lighter flatwork may take wire mesh instead. Color goes in the mix at the plant for integral work, so every truck matches. We pour continuously and screed to the forms rather than chasing grade later.
Timing is everything on stamped and colored work. Bull float, then wait for the bleed water to leave, then stamp before the slab firms past taking a clean impression. Rush it and the pattern smears; wait too long and you get shallow, muddy texture. Control joints go in the same day. We come back to wash off release and seal once the concrete has cured, then walk the finished concrete installation with you.
Price on colored concrete follows the site more than the square footage. Identical areas can land far apart because one is bare ground a mixer can back up to and the other is a cracked slab that has to come out first. We do this work in Marietta and across metro Atlanta, including Atlanta, Smyrna, Kennesaw and Roswell. Here is what we walk and measure before quoting, and most of it you can check yourself.
| What changes the price | Which way | Why |
|---|---|---|
| What is already in the ground | costs more | An old slab, asphalt or buried irrigation line gets broken out, loaded and hauled off before any forming starts. |
| How close a mixer truck can park | costs less | Concrete runs down the chute straight into the forms. A narrow side yard or fixed gate means every load moves by wheelbarrow or pump. |
| Slab thickness the use calls for | costs more | A driveway carrying vehicles takes a thicker section than a walkway, and that thickness runs through the stone base as well as the concrete. |
| Rebar instead of wire mesh | costs more | Rebar is cut, tied and set on chairs by hand. Mesh goes faster, but vehicle loads and long spans call for bar. |
| Subgrade that is soft or holds water | costs more | Ground that pumps under a boot gets cut out and replaced with compacted stone, or the flatwork cracks no matter how well it is finished. |
| How the site drains today | costs more when flat | Water has to leave the slab. A patio sitting level or falling toward the house needs regrading, a thickened edge or a drain line. |
| Tree roots and stumps at the edge | costs more | Roots under the forms get chased out and cut so they do not lift the concrete later. |
| Curves, steps and border bands | costs more | Radius forms and risers get built by hand, and a border in a second color is its own pour and its own finishing pass. |
Compare bids on what is written, not on the bottom line. Ask each contractor for slab thickness, whether the reinforcement is rebar or mesh, how deep the stone base goes, whether demolition and haul off are included, how the control joints are laid out, and which sealer goes on at the end. Get the measured area in writing too, since two quotes often cover different footprints. Call us for a free estimate and we will walk the site with you.
Yes, close. We photograph the existing slab in daylight, take a sample where we can, then pour small test panels and let them cure before you commit to a color. Exact matches are rare, since old concrete has weathered, been sealed, and taken years of traffic. What we aim for is a pour that reads as belonging beside the driveway or sidewalk it meets.
No, not the way paint fades. Integral color runs through the whole slab, so sun exposure softens the tone gradually instead of stripping anything off. Color hardeners, stains and dyes sit shallower and change faster, particularly on a driveway that takes sun all day. Sealer slows it down and deepens the tone. Expect a mature color a few years on, quieter than the day we finished.
Yes. Pigment is material you are buying by the bag, and colored flatwork is slower to place, finish and protect than plain gray concrete. How much more depends on the color you pick, how deep the tone runs, and whether stamped or exposed aggregate work is part of the job. We do not quote a rate sight unseen. Call for a free estimate and we will walk the site.
Both, depending on what the slab has to do. Integral color goes into the truck and runs through the full depth, which holds up where the surface will take wear or chipping. Color hardener is broadcast onto fresh concrete for a denser, brighter finish, common under stamped patterns. Stains and dyes go onto cured concrete. We tell you which method your slab is getting before we pour.
Consistent within a normal range, not uniform like tile. Concrete is a wet mix, and tone shifts with water content, cement batch, conditions during placement, and how long a truck sits before it discharges. On a long commercial walk behind the retail and restaurant frontage at Marietta Square, we order the full pour from one supplier, hold the mix steady, and cure the whole slab the same way. Variation reads as texture.
Yes, at the surface. Cured concrete accepts stain, dye or a colored overlay, which can shift a tone you have tired of or blend a patch into an older sidewalk. Integral color cannot be undone once it is in the slab. Surface recoloring wears under traffic and sun, so treat it as maintenance you will repeat rather than a permanent change.