Plain Concrete Pavers With Imprints?

[W]

Does anyone know of a vendor in the Western US that makes a plain concrete paver from industrial concrete that has artistic patterns or imprints on the surface?

I want a real 3" or thicker paver made from industrial concrete, not the cheap stepping stones sold at places like Home Depot that are actually made from a very cheap and brittle sand-based mortar.

I need an uncolored concrete that would hold an acid stain, since I want to color them myself and I want to make sure that no colors were mixed into the concrete that might affect the chemistry of the acid staining process.

If the paver had interesting floral or other objects embedded that would highlight the acid stain, this would be even better.

I know the main paver companies like Calstone will make their standard patterns in plain concrete, but they charge a fortune for this and call it a special product run. They also don't have very interesting imprint patterns.

[songbird]

sorry, no, i'm not out west. you might be better cost wise to make them yourself. both forms and imprints are not that hard to do and you can get premix by the bag for about $5/80lbs that should make a half dozen to a dozen squares.

then you can also add your own colors.

we've used all sorts of things and have not had problems with cracking. i think if you set them correctly they won't crack easily.

good luck, :)

songbird

[Brooklyn1]

Agreed, will cost far less making your own imprinted pavers. Plain pavers cost a lot less to buy ready made but imprinted can be pricey. Personally I don't see the point of imprinted pavers.

[Tim R]

I just looked it up. An 80 pound bag of premix will make 1 paver 18 inches square by 3 inches thick, and cost $3.90. A plain paver of the same size is about $3.50. It's a lot of work to mix concrete.

[Brooklyn1]

I don't see the point of imprinted pavers either. I think one can create a nice texture by how the pavers are laid out, there are many patterns; basket weave, diagonals, checker board, many more. Next month I'm going to install an outdoor 275 gallon fuel tank for diesel so I needed four concrete blocks to set it on. I bought them two days ago, my local lumber yard had 8" X 16" X 4" thick solid concrete blocks for $1.40 each. They had two colors, grey/beige... I chose grey. They also had larger blocks; 16" X 16" X 4", I didn't ask the price but imagine maybe $2.80 each. They are actually closer to 4

1/2" thick. They also had fancy pavers with textured and imprinted tops, they were between $12 & $20 each, but those were only 2 1/2" thick. I don't think it pays to bother making them from scratch. The best price I found for a new fuel tank was Home Depot, vertical or horizontal are the same price., I decided on horizontal for fueling tractors or I'd need to stand on a stool to reach the pump: Amazon had the best deal on the pump: I probably should have been buying AG bulk diesel many years ago but the Sunoco station in town sold diesel and it was nearby so very handy, but last summer it closed for good, in fact all that's left is an empty graveled lot. The next nearest place to buy diesel meant a 30 mile round trip. However I'll break even on the cost of the tank, etc. in two years as AG diesel is about $1 a gallon less, and I average about ten gallons a week for 26 weeks.