Wild Mustangs Stamp from Proline Concrete Tools.

Concrete Border Tools & Designs, Decorative Concrete Stamps

The decorative concrete business has given home and property owners the opportunity to develop an aesthetically pleasing, yet durable, look outside their buildings. Steve Cook, sales and marketing manager at Kraft Tool Co., knows border tools are a big part of that look.

“A lot of people are looking for a nice border around a driveway or patio with a color concrete,” Cook says. “That’s what I find most people are looking for. Think of wallpaper with a border. It’s the same type of thought.”

In the mid-1980s, Matcrete was one of the first companies to offer soldier-course border tools for straights. A soldier course is a row of bricks or cobblestones laid long side against long side or in a stacked fashion. “Border tools have evolved from banding tools like our brick, stone and cobblestone designs into imprinting ballerinas or cowboys and Indians into a surface,” says Kris Kaitanjian, senior vice president of Matcrete.

One of Matcrete’s most popular and well-known border tools is the Classic Stone, which comes in a 9-inch by 36-inch or 18-inch by 36-inch tool. “The Classic Stone is a consortium of broken pieces of earth and rock,” says Kaitanjian. ”It has a unique appearance that only a border can get away with. It works very well as a detectable warning for vehicular traffic and maintains an organic look.”