Modern homes with their sleek unadorned lines and textures need surrounding landscaping and driveways that reflect the same simplicity.
An exposed aggregate concrete driveway, with the right combination of pebbles and pigments can complement your home’s design as well as being functional, ensuring a safe surface to drive, ride and walk on in all weather conditions.
There are many combinations of exposed aggregate to choose from and we enjoy the process of helping our clients get creative when designing their exposed aggregate concrete driveways which we want to share with you.
Here are some of our top concrete design tips to think about during your planning phase.
Concrete Design Tips for an Exposed Aggregate Concrete Driveway
1. Driveway scope and layout – the width and layout of your driveway will impact how accessible your home is. Take a long-term view of the how the driveway might be used in the future and allow for extra width for another carpark space. An extra piece of concrete added to the side of a driveway down the track will usually always look like an add on.
2. Think about the shape – a concrete driveway does not need to be installed in a straight, rectangular shape. We can design an exposed aggregate concrete driveway with curves or a full circular driveway if you have the room.
3. Add lighting – add some lighting to bring your driveway entrance to life at night time. Solar lighting or glow stones can be added down each side of a driveway to highlight the driveway at night or purely for decoration.
4. Purpose of the driveway – exposed aggregate concrete driveways can come with different amounts of aggregate exposure. If children are going to be playing on the driveway, less exposure might be a good idea to ensure a smoother surface for example, rounded river pebbles add an extra design feature but are easier on the knees of kids. If your driveway is on a slope, more aggregate exposure will provide extra grip in wet conditions.
5. Cross-over approval – some Adelaide councils will allow you to extend your exposed aggregate driveway over the council verge to the road. Some Councils may want you to have a plain concrete cross over to match the rest of the street. You will need to sort this matter out with your council well ahead of time.
6. Contrasting borders – exposed aggregate driveways can be laid with contrasting pebbles down each side to create a border, or concrete can be more heavily troweled along the edge to create a smooth border in contrast to the pebbles in the middle. Exposed aggregate concrete driveways with tiled borders look great with contemporary homes.
Whatever style you decide on, a well-designed, durable exposed aggregate concrete driveway will add many thousands of dollars to the value of your modern home.
Call Panorama Concrete today on (08) 8297 9611 or visit our showroom at 1 Maple Avenue, Forestville to start getting creative with ideas for your exposed aggregate concrete driveway!