Decorative Concrete Home

“When my wife Madge and I set out to design and build a new home, I wanted to incorporate as many concrete design features as I could get away with!” writes Higginson in an e-mail to Concrete Decor. “Although Madge was somewhat skeptical at first, she soon was won over by the almost infinite possibilities of concrete inside!”

Higginson, sales manager for Valley Rite Mix Ltd., a division of Lafarge, was eager to work Lafarge materials into his new home, a four-bedroom, 6,000-square-foot house recently completed in Abbotsford, B.C., near Vancouver. “This project was a great way for me to showcase a couple of Lafarge products that I am very near and dear to,” he writes. “I decided to marry two of Lafarge North America's popular new products, Agilia, Lafarge's successful self-consolidating concrete brand, and Artevia, our decorative concrete line. Having sold Agilia for many different applications around the Greater Vancouver area for many years now, I wanted to prove what I always suspected, Agilia's capability in decorative applications.”

The self-leveling Agilia was used for all interior concrete work, while Artevia colors tinted the interiors and stamped exteriors. As part of the process of installing in-floor hot-water heat under the hardwood on the main level, a 1.5-inch radiant topping mix was poured using Agilia Horizontal 5 mm, and wood “sleepers” were placed so the workers could nail down the hardwood boards.

Higginson's colleagues at Lafarge Canada Inc. hope the new home will turn some heads. “Lafarge is actively promoting color and decorative concrete work in Canada as well as the United States,” says Ian Paine, ready-mix marketing director for Lafarge Canada's Western Canada Region. “In western Canada, this is one of the more progressive houses when it comes to decorative concrete.”

The Higginson home is located on a former “Street of Dreams” street in the desirable Eagle Mountain residential community, and the sidewalks in front of the house sport stamped patterns as well.

Decorative concrete will become more common throughout Canada in the next few years, according to Paine. “The trends we've seen in the last four, five and six years, in the southwestern U.S. and spreading into California, of the use of concrete as a decorative finished product, they're translating over the border finally.”