Permacolour: What’s ahead for the next 30 years of coloured concrete?

What’s changed in the decorative concrete industry over the past three decades? Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, Permacolour has experienced these changes first-hand and continues to grow – offering both external and internal decorative concrete solutions for Kiwi buildings and projects.

Formerly New Zealand Decorative Concrete Supplies, Permacolour was established in 1992 – giving it today’s reputation as the country’s longest standing manufacturer and supplier of concrete colourants including iron oxides, sealers, additives, decorative floor coatings, tools and other products for the decorative concrete industry.

The company’s owner and managing director, Brian O’Keeffe, says that not only has the method of creating decorative coloured concrete changed, so too has its use.

“There’s been a bit of a change with more people using a variety of colours now as they did back in the 90s, whereas in the last 15 years it was only greys and blacks,” says Brian.

“When I first started out with the company, a lot of it was imprinted concrete – that type of decorative finish. Then it moved more into exposed aggregate.”

Now, Brian says that people are moving away from exposed, to different types of finishes and patterns such as rock salt concrete and texture skins for imprinting.

“There are a lot of different ways to colour now, you don’t actually have to put it in the concrete. You can do decorative finishes, coloured finishes on top using overlay and micro topping products.”

With almost endless options available today, Brian says that it is exciting to see customers exploring this diverse range of colours and finishes. And this growing interest in coloured decorative concrete only continues to lead Permacolour.

So what’s next on the agenda? Metallics and Natural Stone Flake.

Entering more into internal finishes for floors and walls, the company is starting to explore many decorative coatings.

“Striking metallic colours,” says Brian. “We are looking at a lot of different products that we can bring or manufacture for those types of internal finishes.

“For New Zealand, a lot of the products we’ve been selling and manufacturing in the past have been external and you’re governed by the weather – where internally, you don’t need to worry about that.”

With 44 years of experience ranging from owning a concrete contracting businesses to manufacturing and distribution, Brian is knowledgeable and able to assist customers with any enquiries.

Permacolour really is a one-stop-shop for all steps in the decorative concrete colouring process.

Visit one of the Permacolour showrooms, or learn more about Permacolour here.