Best Concrete Design For Your New Home

Best Concrete Design For Your New Home

Everyone wants to have a beautiful home. One of the best ways to make your home beautiful is by using a concrete design. Using a concrete design for your new home is cost-saving and aesthetically improves your home. 

You can use concert designs in your kitchen, bedroom, sinks, and even the floor of your home. Concrete homes become more durable over time and also cost less to maintain. Nowadays, concrete homes have become very popular and are used by many people. 

Best Concrete Designs

There are different types of concrete designs that you can use for your new home. However, you must know the best to use so that you can get a wonderful result. 

Block Systems: Concrete block system is a type of insulated concrete form. Most block systems are between 8 to 16 inches tall and 16 to 4 inches long. The block system is a popular concrete design for homes. It is very easy to assemble; it interlocks and stacks like Lego bricks. Concrete Blocks are hollow cores made from sand, concrete, water, cement, and other additives. When using a block system for your home, you can use concrete bricks, solid concrete blocks, or lintel blocks. 

Panel Systems: There are two types of panel systems; tilt-up concrete and precast concrete. When using tilt-up concrete, the wall panels are cast; however, the casting is done on-site. This panel system is used in a wide-open site where you can easily tilt the walls into place. On the other hand, precast concrete is when the home’s exterior walls have rough openings and are produced at this concrete plant. This system requires foam insulation, electric wiring, and steel reinforcing.

Concrete Walls:  Using finished concrete for any part of your home makes it more attractive and aesthetically pleasing to the eyes. The beauty of having a concrete wall is that you do not have to paint it for it to be beautiful. The markings on the finished concrete during construction also serve as decoration for your home. You can have concrete walls in a portion of your home, and you will see how quickly it will garner attention.

Pros Of Having Concrete Design In Your Home

Cost-Effective: Concrete is a very cost-effective building material that you can use for various purposes. If you can get a good artisan to deliver quality finishing, you will get a beautiful design for your home. Concrete is a very durable material, and you will not incur maintenance costs during the lifetime of the building.

Maintenance: Concrete is a porous material, making it easy to maintain. You do not have to spend a lot of money maintaining it like you would with other materials. However, you should ensure all joints are sealed to prevent water penetration, and if there are cracks, you should repair them quickly.

Selecting The Best Concrete Design

There are some factors you should consider when selecting the best concrete design for your home. If you ignore these factors, you could end up with a design that will not beautify your home. You should consider the size of your home, your budget, design costs, future costs, and maintenance.

Conclusion

Concrete design is one of the best home design choices you can make. They do not only beautify and improve the ambiance of your home, but they are also cost-effective and require low maintenance.

Adding Concrete To Your Landscaping Design

Adding Concrete To Your Landscaping Design

Landscaping majorly involves gardening. Usually, a landscaping design is filled with plants, trees, shrubs, and flowers. Concrete is mostly used in building and construction, mostly for foundations, beams, columns, and slabs. 

How To Use Concrete In A Landscaping Design?

Steps: In your landscaping design, you can use concrete for the steps. It does not matter how large or small your garden area is; concrete can be altered to produce different aesthetic designs. You can use either smooth or textured, patterned or colored concrete for your steps. 

Concrete Patio: If you have always wanted a patio in your garden, where you can get relaxed without entering your garden. This is the time for you to create it. You can install a concrete patio; it is easy to install and will not take much of your time. To install a concrete patio, you must pour the concrete in the design you want and leave it to dry.

Concrete Furniture: Rather than having wooden furniture that can be damaged by rain, insects, and other natural factors, you can have concrete furniture instead. Concrete is a safe material even when in contact with elements like fire and water. It is also environmentally friendly.

Concrete Planters: Another alternative to plastic plant pots is to use concrete planters. This is one of the easiest and best uses of concrete in landscaping design. You can create planters of various shapes and sizes.

Is Concrete Safe In Gardens?

When you hear that you can incorporate concrete into your landscaping design, you would ask if it is safe for the plants in the garden as a newbie. The safety of concrete to plants is relative to the type of plants you have in your garden. Some plants thrive well in acidic soil; you should never put them in concrete planters.

Concrete contains lime, and lime has a high pH level, making any soil it contacts alkaline. Other plants like orchids, mums, morning glory, begonias, Easter lilies, and begonias thrive well in alkaline soil. So, they will do great in concrete planters. Herbs and vegetables like arugula, broccoli, oregano, and cabbage chives also do great in alkaline soil.

How To Make Concrete Planters Safe

There are different ways of making concrete planters safe for plants. You can alter the soil’s pH level in the planter by adding organic mulches, iron sulfate, or sphagnum moss. This method is not always effective, so you can try the other methods.

The other way to make concrete planters safe for plants is by soaking the planter in water for at least three days. This will drain out the alkalinity from the planter, making it safe for both acidic and alkaline thriving plants.

Conclusion

Concrete has a lot of uses in landscape design. You should not assume that it is bad for the garden and the plants because it has a high pH. Get informed, and you will have fun.