The world's foremost resource on decorative concrete
Jeremy French doesn’t sound like a big fan of delayed gratification.
"I never finished high school," he admits, before explaining his transition from landscape designer to the owner of Mandala Design, the high-end concrete design firm he founded in 2004 in Asheville, N.C.
No one’s more passionate about their art than the hard-working members of your typical undiscovered garage band. They can put in a full day at work before jamming all night whether or not there’s a remote possibility of a paycheck.
As Bob Chatterton, co-owner of Surface 519, puts it, "Countertops are just a sealing nightmare. It’s asked that they be resistant to everything under the sun."
So it seems a natural correlation to make a stain- and scratch-resistant coating that uses the sun – or at least the sun’s ultraviolet rays.
Many concrete countertops are plain slabs with square corners. This solid farmhouse look is simple to achieve by pouring a concrete countertop mix into a simple form. Wood forms lend themselves to shaping square corners, but it is difficult to use wood to achieve rounded corners and curved edges.
A small sampling of helpful hints shared at demonstrations sponsored by the Decorative Concrete Council during the recent annual meeting of the American Society of Concrete Contractors.
Most cracks in a substrate will telegraph through overlays if not prepared properly, so spend the extra time and dollars to prep the area correctly. If you repair problem areas prior to installing an overlay you will minimize the chances of cracks in your overlay.
As new concrete hydrates, it creates calcium hydroxide. When the calcium hydroxide comes in contact with carbon dioxide in the air, it creates calcium carbonate (free salts).
For many years, customers have been asking SealSource LLC for a densifier with color. As company CEO Kym Nelson reports, they may be the first company to offer a densifier that includes coloring pigments: SS ColorSystem, a penetrating, chemical densifier available in a wide range of colors.
It happens often: A concrete contractor is faced with a project that requires adaptations to an existing form or tool to shape the concrete during that critical hour before it turns hard.
Custom Concrete Creations Inc., which sells interlocking, swiveling stamps to fit curved borders, plans to corner a whole new market.
