volvo said:
I always wondered could one just add color mix to the concrete and be done with it. Less cost, no other prep or lift worries, nearly damage free color surface ??? Possible or am I living in a dream world??? In the olden days, 50's I used to see allot of colored cement porches, (green/red/off white) even older homes of the 30's-40's..H
There are a few different options for coloring concrete. Using the manufacturer Schofield as an example:
Lithichrome Chemstain is a concrete stain that is applied to either an old or new slab. It penetrates and stains only the top protion of the slab. If you chip the slab, you'll get down past the color layer but this is really the only option for and existing slab.
Chromix is an integral concrete colorant added to the concrete batch. This gives you consistant color through the whole slab. This is the most expensive of the three options IIRC.
Lithichrome color hardener is a dry shake material scattered over a freshly poured slab. As stated it adds color as well as acting as a surface hardener. As with the chemstain, the color only penetrates the top portion of the concrete.
The chemstain can be combined with either the chromix or the color hardener to achieve mottled color patterns.