20 mm decorative cuts in a patio area
A plain outdoor pad turned into a tiled look, cut 20 mm wide to take a darker grout, set out and cut in one visit.
This was a plain concrete pad off the back of a new house. Poured well, finished well, and still one flat grey rectangle. The owners wanted it to read as tiles.
So we set the pattern out across the pad and cut it, step by step, at 20 mm wide. Twenty millimetres is much wider than a normal control cut, and that is the point: a wide cut takes a darker grout, and the grout line is what makes the eye see tiles instead of concrete.
The blade is a 20 mm decorative blade from Holer Diamond Tools and it cuts an absolute dream. Setting out is the slow part. Once the lines are right the cutting is the easy half.
The same wide cuts are useful for things that are not decorative at all: running small wires and pipes through a slab, which is micro trenching, and cutting shallow drains to move water off a flat area.
It is still one of the most enjoyable jobs we have done. If you have an outdoor area that would look better with a tiled or patterned finish, it is a day, not a rebuild.
What it looked like
Photographed on the job at the time, on a phone, in the state the site was actually in.
The saw at the edge of the pad with the first cuts run through. 
The pattern squared off the house, not off the edge of the pad. 
Cuts run right to the edge so no half tile appears at the boundary. Twenty millimetres wide, ready to take a darker grout. 
The pattern carried around the corner of the house. 
Finished cuts, and one grey rectangle less.
The three things a job like this is judged on
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Speed
Set out and cut in one visit, on a pad that was already poured and finished.
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Quality
The pattern is set out square to the house before a blade touches it, because a crooked line is permanent.
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Compliance
Cut wet, slurry caught, and nothing tracked through the house.
Where this one fits
This job is floor and slab sawing work, and the service page has the depths, diameters and kit behind it. Timaru is on our normal run, so if you have something similar there we are not making a special trip.
More recent work
Slot drain network extension on a live factory floor
Cutting, breaking out and rebuilding a slot drain network while the factory kept running, tying into live drains under a fixed handover date.
Doorway cut out of an interior concrete wall
Vertical and horizontal pre cuts with the hand saw, then the hydraulic saw to finish, inside an occupied building with the area sheeted and cleaned.
Attic window cut through 400 mm heritage stone
A new attic window and lintel slot cut through 400 mm of heritage stone, with the interior protected from water and debris throughout.
Timaru out to the Mackenzie
- Timaru Our base
- Temuka 15 min from Timaru
- Geraldine 35 min from Timaru
- Ashburton 75 min from Timaru
- Twizel 150 min from Timaru
We also work across Canterbury, North Otago and the Mackenzie. If the job is worth the drive, we will drive it.
Got one like this?
Tell us what you have got, where it is and when you need it done. Matt answers the phone, and if he is under a saw he will text you back.