There are very coarse broom finishes like what you might see done by city workers using a plastic bristle broom. And there are light horsehair broom finishes done by aficionados of finer finishes. The latter would work for you. Steel trowel finish was the standard finish seen in the 50's, before lawyers started designing paving. With one exception, it was actually no problem and much nicer to walk on than broomed finishes. The exception was if it was wet and someone had on leather sole shoes. It was real slick then. Seems like we could get rid of the broom finish since barely anyone wears leather soles anymore. (But don't tell any lawyers I said that.)

I have a patio floor (which was made to be a dance floor) ground flat with 60 grit carborundum stones and it is great for walking on and not slippery. However, if it is wet and clean, it is slick. Especially with leather shoes.

Personally, I would rule out salt finish for bare feet. It can hurt.

Some plain concrete can be patterned with scoring for some nice effects that don't add a lot of cost. It can also be combined with colored sections if that is desired. A favorite of mine is a 12" band scored all around the outer edges ... like piping. It can look quite nice. If you want suggestions for anything like that, show a plan of the layout.

Here - where winters tend to be very wet and slippery - the typical approach is an exposed aggregate finish. Easy to do, easy to walk on (without slipping) and blends well with other hardscaping materials. The aggregates are already in the concrete mix - they are the small stones the cement binds to create the concrete. Just pour the concrete, apply a surface retarder (spray on), allow it to set up as required, then pressure wash the concrete. Coke or sugar will have the same effect. The finished look is just a rough textured (rather than smooth) concrete. Same color as standard concrete unless you specify colored stone aggregates to the pour.

This is SOP here for concrete walkways, steps, patio pads and pool decks. I find it far more attractve than stamped or even dyed concrete and more efficient than a brushed finish

Thanks, y'all!

Yes, I do think the original was something slick. There's a patch on the covered patio that is still pretty glossy. My kids' feet are tough enough that the salt finish wouldn't register but I suppose I should be considerate of others. :)

We did see something at a landscaper that was the exposed aggregate and we liked it. It had a different name of course--apparently in the SF area, you have to add tiny "pami pebble" to the mix for what they call exposed aggregate. (It gives a really nice surface but darn is it PINK!)

Thanks, Mrs. S.

I don't have to yell at kids running around my pool either. Once they hit that slick bit, they wipe out and don't need to be reminded! :)

But I think that may be the look I want.

People, concrete is a combination of Portland cement and aggregates......it always comes with aggregates (pebbles, fine gravel, sand) mixed in as that is what gives the cement substance and something to bind to. Cement is just the 'paste' that holds the aggregate particulates together :-)

If your concrete surface has experienced an acid wash, then it is now an exposed aggregate finish :-))

Yup. Got it. Will have to be sure to get the lingo correct with landscaper. Around here when someone refers to exposed aggregate, they mean with the extra pebble sprinkles on top. (Well, I'm sure it's a little more involved than that!)

Is any concrete process more likely than others to kill my nearby plants? About 60 years ago someone planted a tree very close to the pool and we are working around it. I'd hate to poison it.

I hear ya, Gardengal, it's always good to get our details correct. I am no cement person, but around here, it's common to hear the term "exposed aggregate" to refer to a kind of driveway finish with smooth pebbles the size of marbles and larger, even (no good for basketball or rollerskating in the driveway). I don't know how nomenclature changes depending on the area, but what I'm talking about for a pool deck is regular side-walk type cement, but then they put some chemicals on it (which they told me was an "acid wash"). That resulted in a smooth-looking (great for roller-skating or basketball dribbling) uniform appearance concrete (our is colored), but that looks grainy if you look closely, but "grainy" meaning like coarse sand, not what anyone would call pebbles.

Same here in the San Francisco area, Mrs. S. "Exposed aggregate" locally means adding extra, decorative aggregate. The really small smooth ones are all over my neighborhood and they do give a nice finish, but the colors weren't right unless I went for the larger, rougher pebbles which give me uneasy childhood flashbacks. That would have probably been period-appropriate though!

In fact, I talked to our landscaper today and he didn't know what to call the washed finish. He had to talk with his finishing team to see if they knew what we were talking about. They did! :)

I think it is just a strong water wash and not acid that they use for unstained concrete. Perhaps acid wash is used for the neat effects in colored concrete?

We have an acid washed patio and it's definitely not exposed aggregate. The acid just roughed up the surface texture making it like sandpaper. It looks just like standard concrete in color, you can't tell it's different from a few feet away by looking at it.

What region are you in, Kentc? I think it might make a difference.

Anyway, I pointed at a part of my patio that has had a downspout draining onto it for 60 years and said, "I want that!".

I'm in southern CA, LA area. Yes, a concrete surface that has had water running on it gets rough as the fine cement particles are worn away leaving the sand particles behind which were brought to the surface in the finishing process. That is what our patio looks and feels like. Our concrete guy was familiar with the term acid washed surface. One thing we discovered, while they were finishing it my wife was cooking something on our stovetop with the exhaust fan running. Enough of the fumes were drawn into the fan inside the house that it corroded some of the metal. Luckily it was minor and we were able to rub it out.