The world's foremost resource on decorative concrete
Industry veterans, entrepreneurs and decorative concrete artisans reveal findings, divulge lessons learned and outline methods used to help advance the industry as a whole.
The first step to creating and processing a scratch-free polished concrete floor is to start by cleaning the floor you’re about to grind, hone and polish. Make sure the grinder is clean. This includes the bottom of the machine, the skirt and the diamonds. Inspect the surfaces of the diamonds […]
Proper diamond tools for polishing concrete is essential to getting it right. Choose the starting diamond grit and tooling segment configuration based on what’s best to achieve the job’s appearance objective. If there wasn’t one given, go with the random aggregate configuration. Objective # 1 Random aggregate (doesn’t matter what […]
Before using an auto-scrubber to clean a polished concrete floor, make sure everything that will touch the surface is clean. This includes tires, brushes, pads, squeegees, your shoes and an empty dirty water tank. Completely fill the clean water tank, noting how many gallons it holds. Add your choice of […]
To get the look, Ralston scattered rock salt here and there on the fresh pour, along with drops of retardant. Photo courtesy of Simple Solutions/Salt Roller Inc. Tom Ralston, president of Tom Ralston Concrete, Santa Cruz, Calif., has a client who requested worn, craggy-looking concrete for his bathroom, fireplace and […]
In recent years the decorative concrete and coatings market has made its way over to the retail market. Retailers have unique needs that they have to address, and decorative concrete and coatings are becoming a more and more popular method for filling those needs. Five of the biggest issues facing […]
Photo courtesy of Sheila Wyne A floor at an Alaskan elementary school honored the natural environment and became art that kids can walk on, thanks to Mapei’s Ultratop PC polishable concrete topping. Girdwood, Alaska, 36 miles southeast of Anchorage, is a picturesque year-around resort town with a five-star skiing mountain, […]
Forms serve many functions beyond simply containing the concrete. The formwork defines the precision and, to some extent, the quality of the casting. Well-made forms create straight lines, fair curves and right angles and lead to easy, effortless installation.
If you’re new to sawing concrete, or if your business only requires you to do the work occasionally, you might want to acquaint yourself with the Blade Application Code for Diamond Saw Blades from the Concrete Sawing and Drilling Association based in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The trick is to let the material set with an open (mag trowelled) surface for about one hour for a standard one and one half inch thick top (Temp. dependent), this allows the Polymer to tighten up and lose some of its stickiness.
The creation of a high quality concrete job starts with proper sub-base compaction. Generally speaking, a minimum of 4-inch rock sub-base is required to support the concrete slab cast on grade. The rock sub-base should provide uniform support to the slab without any soft spots.
