Creative Uses for Decorative Concrete in Home Construction Featured In recent years, hard surfaces such as stonework have become extremely popular in home building and renovating. The reason is pretty simple: these types of surfaces are extremely aesthetically pleasing, as they offer modern takes in myriad different areas of the home. Hard surfaces are svelte and sexy, and also extremely secure. However, implementing stonework into your home can be extremely expensive. Stonework is undeniably beautiful, but as expensive as it is attractive. Thankfully, there’s a cheap alternative: concrete. The creation of decorative concrete has provided the perfect option for people building a home who want the aesthetic beauty of stonework, without the hefty price tag. So if you’re in the midst of designing your home – or simply remodeling an already built house – and you need an affordable alternative to stonework, then look no further. Here are some of the many great things that you can do with decorative concrete. 
Photo Credit: Artevia
Pool patio
One of the great things about decorative concrete is that it can be incorporated seamlessly into regular concrete. Nowhere does this work better than in a pool patio. If you have a concrete pool, you can make the patio surrounding it gorgeous and artistic, without it looking awkward or detached. Decorative concrete instantly makes your poolside far more classy and attractive, without costing you an arm and a leg to build. You can extend the concrete across the entire patio, and you can even do cool designs like a faux floor cloth. 
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Driveway
Building a driveway out of decorative concrete has many purposes. Not only is it a cheap alternative, but it’s also a safer and smarter choice, as concrete holds weight and shifts less than its stonework brethren. Brick or stone will slowly shift in place over years, as weight is placed on it, but concrete is much more sturdy, meaning that your concrete will last longer than the alternative, especially in a driveway where heavy weight is prevalent. In addition, decorative concrete handles the visual wear, tear, and stains that a car leaves on a driveway better than stonework does. Add that all up, and factor in the cost difference, it should be clear that when it comes to building a driveway, decorative concrete is the way to go. 
Photo Credit: Dorie Roth
Small Patio
A small patio is an ideal use for decorative concrete as well. The main reason is that people often don’t keep small patios for long. Many people build small patios as a holdover until they have the time and resources to build a large patio. Other people build a small patio to occupy a space where a deck or a home extension will go. In any of these circumstances, stonework is a large waste of money; why get the most expensive material for a part-time patio? Using decorative concrete for a small patio gives you all of the benefits, but when it’s time to upgrade, you won’t feel bad about tearing it apart. These are
just some of the many great things you can do with decorative concrete, to maximize the beauty of a hard surface, without spending too much money.
You can see more home improvement ideas at Elite Concrete Restoration and see what the community of concrete aficionados is doing on Google+ and Facebook.