I'm thinking of putting in a new family room floor. I was thinking of using aged or antique brick, but the contractor thinks stamped concrete that looks like aged brick will work better. How do the two compare look wise? Does stamped concrete look like the real thing?
well... stamped cocncrete is an art, like so many other trades are. It can be done poorly or really well. Ask to see stamped (in person if possible) concrete jobs that your contractor has done before... get references (and talk to them).
I've seen some really nice "natural stone" stamped concrete.
Unless lots of attention to detail is used, I would think the likelyhood of the regularity of brick and the color (which would likely be in "swaths" across several bricks) would make for a result that wouldn't look like antique brick.
in the end, you are the person who has to make the decision.... seeing examples of the work is your best option.
Stamped concrete can be done to look like everything from brick, to cobble stone, to slate. In your case, compared to real brick, it will be a lot less expensive. Properly done, it looks real good, however it will never look as good as real brick, slate, etc. It also needs to be periodically resealed, about every 2 years for outside use, I'm sure you'd get much longer inside.
I suggest you go see some areas your contractor has done to see how you like it.
My parents moved into a home in Iowa that had a stamped walls in the basement. They were painted white. Mom hated them so she painted each brick and the grout lines to a more natural color. Looked great.
It's all in the details. Get an iron clad contract based on your approval, then hold more than 50% of the money until they do it to your satisfaction. Explain to the contractor that you are unsure of the finished product. If they are sure they will be ok with the terms after all they recommend this.
When the contractor thinks it will "work better", I presume it means, "easier for him" and "cheaper for you". Fake is fake. So you want it real, or an approximation? Personally, I hate fake things. Pergo also falls into that category. But it is your house, not mine.
We're talking about concrete here, not a dress or a steak at a restaurant. No contractor is going to sign a contract that says the customer can reject a finished stamped concrete job and not pay simply because they don't like how it looks compared to real brick. The time to figure out what it will look like is before it's done, by looking at the contractors previous work and talking to previous customers.
The only way you're going to get it done over or get out of paying later is if you can prove that the job was done incorrectly, not simply because you don't like the way it looks.
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