The patio has been poured.

Well, after an extended time of planning and choosing colors, textures and patterns the patio off the back of the house is in place. We had a friend help us contract the concrete company, the pumper and the artist who did the stamped texture and coloring. It took eleven yards of concrete to cover the 600 square foot area. The base color of the slab is "Dune" and the contrasting accent color is "Gunpowder". We decided to color the entire pour so that if the slab ever gets chipped the color will still be the same base color.

I prepped the site as best I could to save on labor costs and speed up the process for the pour and stamping. I drilled into the existing house foundation and installed rebar to help anchor the patio slab to the house foundation, then placed a mesh to support the actual slab. I followed our builders idea and installed three cast-iron grates above the house crawlspace vents, building a box to support them flush with the patio.

I arrived home from work and missed the actual pumping, bummer, but did get to see the application of the contrasting color and the stamping of the pattern.

After the pour they covered the top with a black powder and pounded the mats to set the

pattern. This created quite the dust cloud, forming a layer of black dust over everything outside. after the powder sat overnight they returned and removed most of the surface powder and sealed the entire slab. We were away for a short trip and didn't get to see this process. But when we returned home we arrived to a wonderfully beautiful patio.

Here is an up close image of the edge, hopefully the colors will come through. We tried to complement/match the basalt used for the wall. Tony