Creating A Functional Home

Concrete is said to be used twice as much, globally, as the other building materials combined. It lends itself to a wide range of applications both indoor and outdoor. These include flooring, walls and ceilings as well kitchen countertops, tabletops, garden pathways and furniture and pool construction. Concrete is cheap, at a low end cost of about $2 per square foot, and easy to get.

These attributes are probably why it may be just as economical (and fun) to use concrete on some other unusual applications in your home than just the regular ones. Here are two unusual ways to make use of this eco-friendly material.

What's in a game?

Concrete can be a way of providing hours of fun for you and your family. It can be used to make board games that can be a permanent addition to your patio, backyard or garden. Board games such as chess, scrabble and monopoly can be fashioned from concrete and made into portable or stationary additions to your home. The colors for your game can be attained by dying the concrete and adding stain can increase its durability and resistance to the effects of the elements.

It is possible to get a custom made game (which can be found online) or you can contact a cement company and make it a do-it-yourself project. The game pieces can also be made from concrete or other lightweight materials such as wood for easy movement and storage. 

Hark the sound

Another interesting idea of a concrete project is that of making concrete speakers. While concrete is heavy and is not very receptive to vibrating and resonating, it has been determined that it gives a specific quality to the sound—especially the bass. This could be an interesting addition to your home as the design and finish can be done in decorative concrete to give it a unique aesthetic appearance to add to your home design. The speakers themselves are better utilized with a horn loudspeaker technology which uses a driver to send sound through a megaphone-like bass. 

While there does not appear to be any commercialized availability of concrete speakers, and it may not be applicable for use in watching movies or playing music (for the surround sound or stereo effect), concrete speakers are said to give a unique feel to sound that cannot be attained through the use of any other material.

If you need concrete for your project, visit Robert R. Andreas & Sons Inc.