Doospunk,
I have been in the concrete business for 23. Working part time as a welder/fabricator in the truck repair shop for a large family business that owns numerous ready mix concrete companies and sand pits. I know alot of concrete contractors in the north western illinois area. As a matter of fact me and my wife just complete a large stamped/stained concrete patio project at our home. We poured the last 3 yards yesterday after noon. All in total our patio is 56 ft. by 24 ft. at the max. numerous curves and radius. We used a total of 18 yards of concrete. When you work for a ready mix company the employee pricing allowes you to go WAYYYYYY overboard on the size of your patio. Anyways. in my part of Illinois stamped and stained concrete ranges from $10-$22 sq. ft. Depending on how elaborate the project is. The problem with pricing this stuff by the sq. foot is that the liquid base intergral color as well as the suface release agent and stain (water based vs. acid) range from a couple bucks to a$100 per cubic yard in price. We used coloring products from both Brickform corporation as well as Solomon Concrete products. I suggest you check out their websites for ideas. The bottom line with coloring and staining is the more complicate the color (pigmentation requirements) the more expensive they get to make. The brickform product we used cost $22 per bucket/one bucket per cubic yard. We went with a intergarl color called Phenix Tan. We also used a Solomon liquid color called Taupe on some of the pours, that was $16 per bucket. I will tell you again depending on the pigmentation in the color recipe we looked at colors that were $75 per bucket. Crazy!!!!!! We then used a Medium grey powder release agent over the top before the stamping process. Staining highlights were done by using Brickform Artisen water based staining products. As far as the stamps we used rough cut ashular slate 2 ft by 2 ft tiles to border and cut the larger sections of the patio into large slabs. We then used whats called texturing "skins" to texture the area in between the stamped area. Gave the look of large slabs of stone that were bordered ashular slate. Once the concrete is poured and cured in 7 days you will need to sealed with a good solvent based high gloss sealer. This stuff isnt cheap either. We used a concrete sealer called Pro Super Seal. The employee price on a 5 gallon bucket of that stuff was somewhere around $110.
Bottom line, im a concrete guy. Stamp your patio you will love it. If you want let me know and I would be happy to take some pictures tonight and post them on here.
Besides the concrete, color and stains you also have to consider the amount of labor that goes into some of these stamping jobs depending on what stamp is used. Some of the patterns are VERY complicated and require alot of planning and layout work. The contractor only gets one chance once he starts stamping.
My project broke down like this:
Concrete- $100 per cubic yard (retail, not my price)
Liquid intergal color- $16-$22 per cubic yard (ranging from $12-$75 per cubic yard)
Color release agent- $40 per 5 gallon bucket of powder (ranging from $35-$90 per bucket)
Artisen Water Based Stain- $25-$40 per gallon (ranging from $25-$120 per gallon)
Sealer- $150 per 5 gallons
Contractor labor- Very good friends with the contractor, did is for $4 per sq. ft. he only did the stamping. I did all the tear out, grade work, forming, stripping of forms, saw cutting, ect.
Stamp rental- $200
Here is a small paver patio i just did. This cost me nothing except for a day and a half of labor.