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There are few things more frustrating about making concrete countertops than dealing with bug holes. They seem to always show up and are seemingly just about impossible to fill completely. You think you’ve got them all filled, only to have bug holes show up after final polishing.
It’s that time of year again – the time when I review the hundreds of questions and situations I dealt with in 2010 looking for those special few that made me pause and just think, "Really?"
This column has little to do with discussions of intuitive freestyle art versus disciplined mechanical graphics, or with criticism of superfluous decoration as contrasted with really spare concrete – my normal "literary" territory. It’s a column about me and a museum. It’s a tale of two topping slabs.
Information has become the currency of the 21st century. Just look at how fast and easy obtaining information has become. Most of us can access the world from a hand-held phone or PDA. In contrast, it seems like providing basic information when you’re the one asking the question can be like pulling teeth.
Having an opportunity to see the sealing part of our business from a manufacturer’s point of view is priceless. So when Doug Carlton sat down with Bert Adams of Glaze ‘N Seal to ask him his point of view on sealing concrete, the results were better than he could have dreamed.
The world we live and work in moves so fast, just going through the motions seems to have become the norm. Taking time to really understand how or why a product works is not even on the radar screen.
When you’ve just created art on 256 square feet of concrete entryway, you do not want to have it described as a "horse with a rash" two days before the opening of your client’s new retail establishment. But that’s what Tony Victor and partner Ben Washburn were up against in October 2007.
Fixing Another Contractor’s Mistake Whether it’s your own work or someone else’s, you may be called upon to fix a decorative concrete project gone awry. Trowel & Error is a new column that celebrates the fact that there’s always a solution to every decorative concrete problem.
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).
Is thinning a sealer recommended? The obvious answer is “no.” Anytime you alter a sealer’s formulation you risk affecting its performance — not to mention voiding any stated warranty.
