Micro concrete is a building material that has made a name for itself in our homes.
Its smooth, homogeneous and clean appearance adds a modern, uncluttered touch to our interiors.
But what about outdoor use?
Micro concrete for your outdoor floors
Marius Aurenti offers you
micro concrete for terraces and exteriors
such as patios, courtyards, balconies and walkways.
Micro concrete isn’t just for your kitchen or bathroom.
Beautiful, hard-wearing and durable, it can be used to cover outdoor floors exposed to sun and weather:
Micro concrete terrace
A micro concrete terrace bridges the gap between the outside and inside of your home, bringing sunshine and life inside the house and indoor comfort to the outside.
Spaces are getting bigger, and it’s becoming so good to connect with the surrounding nature.
Texture, color and ease of maintenance are the main advantages of this concrete cladding.
Micro concrete balcony
The balcony doesn’t occupy a large surface area, but it’s nonetheless so important to urban living.
Waterproofing permitting, micro concrete will turn it into a cosy space, a true decorative extension of your house or apartment.
Patio in micro concrete
If you’ve created a patio in your home, you can use micro concrete to create a link between the outside and the inside of the house, bringing it face to face with a world of vegetation and humidity that’s almost tropical…
Or, on the contrary, a minimalist, mineral space as found in Spanish, Mexican or Japanese architecture.
Micro concrete courtyard
The courtyard is an arrival on your property, a first contact that sets the tone.
If you build a concrete slab in accordance with the rules of the trade and the DTU, you can lay a Marius millimetric micro concrete finish on top, perfectly suited to pedestrian and light vehicle traffic…
Garden path in micro concrete
A walk in the garden, whether on prefabricated, paved concrete slabs, solid paving or Japanese steps…
There are many ways to integrate micro concrete into your landscaping project. This can be done in situ or in a ready-to-install workshop.
Micro concrete gazebo
It is laid like a terrace on a concrete slab that complies with DTU standards.
Micro concrete will provide a high-end finish that will resonate with this graphic element in the garden and the wealth of 71 colors available.
Outdoor micro concrete, a sensory experience
Compared to other materials – wood, tile, gravel, stone – a micro concrete terrace has characteristics that create a unique sensory experience, while being practical:
Spatial continuity
Micro concrete creates absolutely continuous surfaces, without joints or breaks, linking spaces, inside and outside, terrace and living room, flowerbed and garden paths, summer kitchen and pool deck, and creating an impression of visual immensity.
Sensuality
Micro concrete stores and releases heat in moderation, creating a pleasant, temperate feel that’s neither too hot nor too cold.
Under bare feet in summer, it is soft and silky.
The color
Colored in the mass or on the surface with a varnish or stain, micro concrete lends itself to any harmony with other materials in the home – light or dark, bright or neutral.
That’s why it’s so popular with architects and interior designers.
Ease of maintenance
Smooth and homogeneous, with no crevices and therefore very hygienic, micro concrete is easy to clean with ordinary tools such as a broom, or more sophisticated ones such as a high-pressure cleaner.
How to create your outdoor floor in micro concrete
Terrace in decorative concrete and coloured concrete
A terrace that extends a living room or kitchen, whose colors won’t fade in the sun and that stays beautiful for a long time. This is the challenge met by Marius Aurenti micro concrete, whose mineral pigmentation ensures perfect U.V. resistance.
Marius Aurenti’s hard-wearing 2mm-thick exterior micro concrete can be laid directly on a concrete slab, or on top of existing tiles.
This requires a certain amount of technical expertise, so we recommend that you call in a professional craftsman for your work.
The application process will involve 3 or 4 steps:
- If the floor is bare, a slab is poured first
- If screed, slab or tiles already exist: preparing the substrate
- Concrete application
- Joint finishing (very important along a driveway) and waterproofing. It is finished with a water- and oil-repellent treatment that facilitates maintenance and protects it from the elements.
Driveway, patio, courtyard…
The application of micro concrete on these types of floor will be no different, and each surface can extend another.
It’s easy to imagine creating an entire pathway, from a concrete terrace to a network of paths, one leading to a kiosk with swings, the other to a patio, courtyard or garage.
Micro concrete balcony
In the same way, you can lay a thin layer of millimetric micro concrete on a balcony, extending the interior floor in perfect continuity with the exterior floor, and of course creating the entire balcony from a single block, floor and structure.
How much does a micro concrete terrace cost?
The price of a micro concrete terrace depends on a number of factors: the initial state of the floor, the surface area to be covered, the complexity of the project, the type of finish chosen, and so on.
On average, the price per m² of an outdoor floor with Marius Aurenti is between €90 and €130.
For a precise quotation, don’t hesitate to contact us free of charge: a Marius Aurenti professional will be able to answer all your questions about your project.
Advantages of micro concrete for terraces, balconies and other outdoor areas
Durable, resistant flooring
Micro concrete is shock-, scratch- and stain-resistant, provided it has been properly installed with the right finishing products. This makes it a durable choice for terraces, driveways and courtyards that are subject to constant traffic.
Waterproof
Originally, concrete is porous, but its waterproofing can be improved with a variety of finishes. It protects the soil from rain and snow. Laying outdoor floors with a slight slope can also help them to drain away water.
Practice
On a day-to-day basis, an outdoor concrete floor is easy to live with: a smooth surface that can be swept and cleaned in the blink of an eye, without allowing dust, pollen, plant debris, pebbles etc. to accumulate in crevices.
Visual continuity floor / wall / facade
Thanks to the pigments in colored concrete, you can ensure perfect visual continuity between your outdoor flooring and, for example, your micro concrete facade, or your micro concrete outdoor furniture, all in exactly the same shade.
Anti-slip
Smooth, almost too smooth, concrete can become dangerous in icy or damp conditions. Fortunately, exterior concrete can be treated in various ways to make it slip-resistant:
- or by adding silica, which makes the texture more granular and therefore “grippy”.
- or with varnishes and woodstains
Maintenance and cleaning tips for outdoor micro concrete floors
A terrace, balcony or any other type of outdoor floor in micro concrete is easy to maintain.
Simply use a pH-neutral cleanser. Marius Aurenti offers a range of maintenance products for micro concrete.
For routine maintenance of your micro concrete terrace or balcony, you can use a broom, mop, soft brush or sponge.
Avoid all aggressive products with acidic or basic pH, as well as very hard brushes likely to damage the micro concrete topcoat.
Béton Terrasse 71 color chart
Coloured concrete: a vast choice of colors
Originally gray, micro concrete can be colored in the mass thanks to a rich range of natural mineral and vegetable colorants, added to the plaster made from sand, cement and water.
Marius Aurenti offers a rich palette of colors in its Iris color chart. Micro concrete can be white or beige, two great classics, or sober black or gray, or even a bright blue, red or pastel color.
The choice of color for your outdoor micro concrete obviously depends on your tastes and the ambience you wish to create in your outdoor space.
