Manteca, Calif.

Although Diacon Decorative Polished Concrete is only six years old, polishing contractor Adrian C. Henry’s years of experience, not to mention his infectious enthusiasm for both installing and teaching polished concrete, have made him something of a rising star in the polishing world.

Part one of a three-part series on designing, casting and installing concrete oven hoods

Decorative concrete precasters have the ability to make a greater variety of products from their one primary material than their stone or solid-surface fabricator counterparts do.

Your product is valuable. You know it. You hope your customers know it. But how can you be sure?

Contractor: Stone Care of Texas,  San Antonio, Texas

Stone Care of Texas, based in San Antonio, was called upon to restore the flooring to its original state and provide a low-maintenance solution.

Work by: Volunteers, various cities

In preparation for the 2012 Concrete Decor Show in San Antonio, Texas, show coordinators and trainers met at SAY Sí, an award-winning nonprofit youth arts organization, last September to brainstorm ideas for hands-on workshop possibilities. They saw potential for overhauling the building’s front entrance.

Contractor: All Ready Services, San Antonio

Wanting attractive outdoor concrete that would hold up to heavy use, San Antonio’s brand new Mission Trail Baptist Hospital called upon Ramiro Chavez and San Antonio-based All Ready Services.

“I want a floor that’s slip-resistant, but I also want it to be easy to clean.”

For some in the decorative concrete industry, this spring can’t come too early. The doldrums of winter take a toll not only on the pocketbook, but also on our creative juices as artists and promoters.

Some 25 or more years ago, when my father would tell me he needed help making a rubber mold, he meant only one thing - using latex. Liquid rubbers for making production-quality molds have come a long way since then. Science has continued to perfect specialty compounds for mold-making. These compounds are designed to address the very specific challenges associated with very different mold applications, including architectural and decorative precasting.

Self-consolidating concrete (SCC), also known as self-compacting concrete, is an amazing and special type of concrete that is highly flowable and resists segregation. It combines specialized mix designs with advanced chemical admixtures to achieve a concrete mixture that, under its own weight, can spread through and around dense reinforcements to adequately fill voids without segregation or excessive bleeding and without the need for significant vibration. In the decorative concrete arena, it has been used to produce castings with a high surface quality, often with few or no pinholes. Less labor, quicker casting times, better surface finish and increased concrete densities are common reasons for choosing SCC.

It’s doubtful that any homeowner has found a more elegant way of decorating a neglected piece of land whose main feature is a septic tank field than the owners of the “Hidden Oasis,” a tropical-themed project that blossomed in a residential backyard in Stafford, Va. 

The new worship center at the Family Christian Center in Clermont, Fla., isn’t your grandfather’s church. It boasts sleek lines and contemporary design. So when pastor Rick VanWagner and his wife, Beckee, contacted decorative concrete contractor Jim Price and his Longwood, Fla., company American Concrete Coatings, style was a consideration for them.

Densifier is a underutilized, misunderstood and overlooked key to producing a beautiful and durable polished concrete floor.

Construction of the National September 11 Memorial was progressing on schedule to meet its target Sept. 11, 2011, grand opening date, when a big problem emerged concerning the twin fountains and reflecting pools built within the footprints where the North and South towers once stood.

There are two common polymer types used by most decorative overlay manufacturers: ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) and acrylic.

Complex and intricate designs can be applied to concrete surfaces very accurately using adhesive-backed vinyl stencils. They offer control, precision and, if needed, repeatability. Stenciling is a very old technique from the world of paint, but as it evolves in the concrete world, it’s becoming very modern, thanks to people like Rachel Knigge-Bruce.

When Bob McDaid began making plans to build iPlay America, his 115,000-square-foot indoor family amusement park in Freehold, N.J., he envisioned flooring to complement two very different settings.