Concrete can boost a home or property’s resale value by enhancing both functionality and curb appeal. Durable and low-maintenance, concrete surfaces like driveways, patios, and walkways provide long-term value to potential buyers. A well-poured concrete driveway, for example, gives a clean, solid first impression that adds to the home’s overall aesthetic and structural appeal. Concrete patios and outdoor living areas increase usable space, making homes more attractive to modern buyers who prioritize outdoor entertainment and relaxation areas.
When properly installed and maintained, concrete features require fewer repairs over time, reducing future costs for buyers. All of these benefits contribute to a higher perceived value, making homes with concrete upgrades more competitive in the real estate market.
Below we’ve outline some of our favorite concrete utilizations to improve your home’s curb appeal, and generally increase resale value.
Photo Above: Interior concrete floors don’t have to be boring! Consider adding unique concrete sealers, hardeners, and color/stains to totally transform the look and feel of any variety of interior concrete floors.
1. Unique Concrete Finishes
One of the best ways to totally make your home or property stand out from the neighbors and adjacent properties is to introduce unique concrete finishes.
From exposed aggregate concrete to stamped concrete, sealed concrete, stained concrete, and colored concrete, unique concrete finishes can add resale to a home beyond what is typical for lets say, the typical broom finish concrete slab, patio, or other structure.
Stamped concretes and exposed concretes often or by default are sealed. Sealed concrete is generally going to give more durability.
The added touch that unique concrete finishes give to a property are integral to the overall look and feel landscape designs. A potential buyer for a home or property is often looking for impressionable stand out memories of a property, whether they know it or not! Concrete finished with custom features is the perfect way to tie in your exterior living outdoor spaces with your home interior. Not only that, it shows that any concrete work that was done was undertaken by a true professional. Most home buyers are looking for something unique and special in their home, and having hardscaping surfaces designed to last the test of time are just one of the ways you can add serious value to your home.
Photos Above: Two wonderful concrete finishes: stamped concrete on the left, and exposed aggregate concrete on the right. From a cost perspective, stamped concrete is going to run you a bit higher cost per square foot than exposed aggregate.
2. Permanent Fencing (Concrete Post Work)
The utilization of concrete bases and posts for fencing not only can dramatically increase the durability & strength of a fence, but also improve the resale of a home.
If a potential buyer sees quality fencing around a yard or for a home, and the posts are set in concrete, and the materials are high quality, that is a reason in itself for an increase in the resale value of a home! Everyone likes nice fencing, but you know what, nice fencing, mixed with permanent concrete posts and bases, makes for a totally irresistible yard/landscape for buyers with a keen eye for quality and long term usability of backyard spaces and general property aesthetics!
Some people just dig quality landscape, including fences, decks, and other wood structures which may rely on solid concrete foundations. Working with a landscape contractor, or custom fence building company, take the time to outline desired designs, and make longevity and sturdiness a priority. This sort of attention to detail does not go unnoticed!
Photos Above: More permanent structures like pergolas, and fences, supported posts, may require permanent concrete bases to remain structurally intact and/or increase general aesthetics of the fence.
3. Utilize Concrete for Steps to the Front Entrance
While pavers and stone work is nice for entrances to the front of a home, nothing says quality, and lasting reliable safe path of travel, like concrete stairs. Professionally installed concrete stairs, with the right sealers and the correct subgrade preparation are more durable than your average patio stone / paver walkway.
We’ve all seen those drastic changes in slope and shifting of pavers or masonry stones on walkways.
With concrete, you don’t have to worry about these conditions. Concrete stays in place, where it’s at, and can be provided with a multitude of designs, that if you must see a paver stone or cobblestone finish, you can always imitate the look. Plus, for really high precipitation areas, you will probably get better drainage with concrete as opposed to masonry or patio stone.
Photo Above: Nothing says quality from the curb, like a quality set of concrete stairs. Broom finish, or even in stamped concrete finish, it doesn’t matter! Home-buyers appreciate the look and longevity of long-lasting permanent concrete stairs.
4. Concrete Pedestrian Ramp Work
While stairs and traditional access points to your home are fine for most homes, the utilization of concrete ramps can provide added benefits of increasing the usability of your home, for people with mobility issues.
Older couples, and peoples who find stairs intimidating to climb, can find allot of value if you have a well designed concrete ramp leading to the entrance of your property!
So, take into consideration the services of a professional concrete contractor, to provide a ramp, to your entrance, in addition to stairs as you see fit. This is perfect for properties with elevation changes from the street level, but not enough to absolutely necessitate architectural stairs. Even incorporating such features as handrails or guardrails is going to totally transform the look and feel of the property, but also improve the usability.
Handrails and guardrails, especially in metal, bring a totally professional look and feel to your property.
Photos Above: Custom ramp structures bring a unique fit and finish to any building or home entrance. Some prospective home-buyers make concrete ramps a must have for ease of access to their home!
5. Cast-in Place (CIP) Trench Drains
Nothing says professional high-grade landscape and property design like trench drains. A trench drain incorporated on a project provides a very interesting aesthetic, while serving a great functionality of promoting the proper drainage of runoff water and fluids from your property.
While eavestrough, and gutters, and typical methods are effective for dealing with precipitation and runoff, there is nothing quite like the look and feel of a custom trench drain cast in concrete for your property. Plus, there are so many great products on the market to choose from, for just placing into the concrete!
Either way you go, the other being custom concrete work by the contractor, trench drains can actually totally improve the aesthetic of your property, and add resale value. Why? Well, people love seeing that building drainage is sorted properly, just make sure to use corrosion/rust resistant trench drain grilles (galvanized, painted, stainless-steel etc).
While they might not understand the exact implications of the trench drain or other product, what is clear, is that serious thought was put into ensuring the property and even the home or building itself are protected from the conditions of excess rain, water, and snow-melt etc.
Photos Above: Products like prefabricated trench drains and cast-in-place concrete trench drains provide a quality way to deal with excess waste water.
6. Concrete Retaining Walls
Concrete retaining walls and retaining walls in general on properties are not always required or even necessary. Elevation changes with property and landscape are commonplace, and are often just ignored. But nothing really puts an attention to quality and detail in the minds of a potential home buyer like an extension of flat surface land/grass or even gravel by utilization of a concrete retaining wall.
A retaining wall doesn’t have to be complicated, but it has to be engineered properly if it is retaining a large amount of earth. Likewise, some retaining walls can be provided simply to segregate certain parts of a property and step elevations down. The goal with retaining walls is not necessarily to totally improve the aesthetic for the yard/property, but can be utilized to increase the total space of usable property!
Not only that, a retaining wall can be used in conjunction with systems like weeping tile drainage systems or other systems of runoff drainage to ensure that runoff from adjacent properties does not get carried into your yard!
Potential home buyers really enjoy knowing that the landscape design is customized to ensure maximum usage of all the sq-ft of real estate in the property boundaries they are paying for!
7. Clean / Fresh Driveways
Simple improvements sometimes are the best to improve the look and curb appeal of a home, especially one that is up for resale.
A residential concrete driveway or parking pad is basically the first impression that a potential home buyer gets to see when coming to the property. If you see your concrete driveway has a few cracks in it, maybe there is some grass poking through, or maybe there are discolorations, taking some time to clean that driveway up can make a major impact on the overall appearance of the home from the curb.
For instance, simple methods for cleaning up the driveway include power washing, power washing with degreasing agents, cleaners etc. which is a crucial first step.
From there, another great option is to move towards a concrete driveway sealer. Once your concrete has been repaired as necessary, of cracks, or of chips, and larger architectural aesthetics like that, a concrete sealer could bring back the uniform appearance of the driveway. For more critical structural repairs to concrete elements like driveways, total removal and replacement of certain concrete portions of a driveway may be warranted. In any case, ensuring the uniformity of the finish, and cleanliness of the finish, is integral to the first impression of a potential home buyer. You don’t have to have the fanciest driveway, but you want it to look clean, and professional.
Photos Above: Concrete driveways, in plain broom finish concrete, or even custom designs like the one on the right, make for a great first impression for prospective home buyers.
8. Concrete Edge Curbs
Concrete edging work around items like planters, garden beds, trees, and other landscape items make for a professional utilization of concrete that totally transforms the look and feel of a yard. While products like plastic edging, and even wood edging, can provide a good distinction between planters, flower beds, grass, and concrete elements, in addition to other soft scaping and hardscaping, the utilization of concrete edge curbs is probably a more superior method.
Concrete edge curbs can be formed in a variety of designs and styles.
The utilization of concrete means that the edge of distinct landscape features is totally clean! That means, a prospective home buyer, will understand that landscape design, even if not the most elaborate design in the world, has been done with care and thought for longevity.
Edges around planting beds and flower beds are often the first to lose distinction from the remaining landscape, meaning, the visual impact of a landscape design diminishes over the years. Concrete edge curbs provide that hard distinct transition from one surface to the next.
Photo Above: Landscape curbs make for one of the best ways to distinguish planting beds from other parts of a landscape design.
9. Embedded Elements (lights, outlets, & more)
Nothing provides a total increase in wow factor more than an embedded element in concrete.
By embedded elements, we mean things like lights, plug-ins, even adjacent surface transitions, flooring transitions, pedi-mats, and things of that nature. Certain items, especially lights, when embedded in concrete, just give a feeling of solidarity and quality to a landscape or property design.
Embedded items take careful thought and consideration to properly utilize throughout a yard or landscape. The permanency of embedded items provides a more premium feel to any property or landscape design and realistically can totally transform a yard from boring, to interesting, even with the simplest item. Careful planning is required to ensure your embedded items are in the right spot, and concrete reinforcement is not affected.
Some typical embedded items include lights, outlets, switches, and even for the purpose of hiding lines (gas / electrical / plumbing etc).
Photo Above: Electrical outlets embedded in concrete elements give a truly premium feel to any property or landscape design.
10. Polished Concrete Floors
A polished concrete floor makes for a great way to totally improve the usability of concrete. Polished concrete floors are great ways to utilize concrete for the interior spaces of your home. While not everyone likes polished concrete floors, some potential home buyers will appreciate the longevity and durability of polished concrete floors, especially with sealers.
In lieu of getting an expensive floor finish, a polished concrete floor can be utilized with implementations like radiant heating to totally transform the livability and comfort of the space.
Not only that, concrete slabs are durable and resistant to cracks, damage etc. Nothing is easier to maintain. If you really want to impress your potential homebuyers, the utilization of epoxy coatings is another great option.
Due to the nature of concrete, it has the ability to be resurfaced or refinished in the future. This means that concrete’s longevity extends both to the durability of the surface, but means and methods that can be used in the future, such as concrete grinding or concrete polishing to restore interior concrete floors.
Photo Above: Look at that shine! Polished concrete floors make more great multi-purpose surfaces, in warehouses, but also in finished basements.
Conclusion
Ultimately there are so many wonderful ways to use concrete in unique and innovative ways to improve the prospective value of a home or property. When designing or envisioning your next concrete project, keep in mind that more permanent concrete elements have the ability to truly wow prospective buyers. From concrete ramps, to simple interior polished floors, concrete is not only durable, but cost-effective in its ability to transform properties and homes, both for the interior and the exterior.
In some cases, taking on a variety of concrete scopes with one project can actually bring about a more cost effective project as a whole. The more work on one project, the more likely you are to get a competitive price on all the work! Trust the services of a qualified professional concrete contractor with all your concrete services, in and around the greater Calgary area.
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