Once a slab is thick enough and falling the right way, people start talking about how it should look. This hub is the domestic half of the journal: stamped courtyards, polished floors in coastal houses, oxides and stains, and the entertaining area that has to survive a January afternoon in Merewether.

Finishes fail for structural reasons more often than for aesthetic ones. If the slab is moving, no stamp will save it — read coastal durability and slabs before you pick a colour chart. Sealing sits here because it is the last decision that still belongs to the pour.