Concrete Decor's Current Articles

Audiences in France loved the comedy of Jerry Lewis in his Hollywood heyday. Go figure. So, should it be a baffling head-scratcher to learn about a billionaire Italian jewelry and luxury goods magnate being smitten with vintage Buicks?

Looks are just about everything when it comes to a decorative concrete company’s website, so make sure you have quality images that will help drum up business.

World of Concrete 2018 exceeded everyone’s expectations in January by attracting more than 58,000 registered professionals and nearly 1,600 participating companies, including about 300 brand-new exhibitors.

We are just at the tip of a big green iceberg that your company’s ship is sailing toward at full speed. As the IGCC becomes more recognized, many states, counties and cities are sure to adopt it as part of their building code.

The material has crushed recycled concrete for aggregate and fly ash waste from coal mills for the base. Other industrial byproducts provide nanofibers for crack reduction and nanoparticles for surface density to reduce water penetration.

Education, imagination, and lots of experimentation have given George Lacker the right to say he makes some Great Looking Concrete.

Contractors and manufacturers share tips for buying and maintaining these essential tools.

Masks, gloves and goggles protect your body from the damaging effects of concrete dust and chemicals used in beautifying concrete.

Stenciling and coloring go hand-in-hand to create works of art in concrete. Acid- or water-based stains are the most widely used — and most versatile — materials for coloring stenciled projects. Acid stains tend to produce muted, earthy colors, while water-based stains are available in brighter, more vibrant colors.

In Los Angeles, and in particular the Beverly Hills area of the city, there are many OMG backyards. This one, though, created by Scott Cohen’s company, Green Scene Landscaping & Swimming Pools, was over-the-top enough to have been featured last summer on the television show “OMG Backyards” on ReelzChannel. Cohen worked with the Zahabian family to create a tranquil backyard fit for entertaining with a full outdoor kitchen, while also carving out space for a basketball court for their children.

In Las Vegas the tendency might be to look up at all the bright lights. But if that's all you do, you're likely to miss some exceptional magic right under your feet. In the glitzy theme world of Las Vegas, concrete is everywhere.

Quick-Imprint creates a reusable form liners — for tilt-up, downcast, and vertical precast pours — enabling an imprint finish on both sides of the walls.

Let’s face it. People who go into the trades aren’t the types who want to spend time sitting in an office in front of a computer. It’s no surprise that construction, along with agriculture, has been one of the slowest segments to adopt technological innovations into the workplace.

When trying to come up with designs, “Don’t be afraid to look at artwork and transfer that design onto a floor,” suggests Gary Jones of Colormaker Floors. “It can be part of a picture, as little as one square inch.”

Are you asking why green matters? To answer that question, this article takes a look at the benefits that are encouraging property owners and designers to choose finished concrete floors instead of other floor coverings.

Benjamin Bobinac, a Phoenix, Ariz., foreman who has worked at Fisher Shotcrete Inc. for a dozen years, is one of those guys who messes around at the end of a job, shaping little statues - mostly heads, in his case - out of the leftover concrete.

This top-to-bottom (well, really bottom-to-top) overlay recipe is great for putting down a distinctive design, such as this swordfish.

 Nailing this balance project after project takes great effort, but the reward is far more than monetary. Concrete hardscapes last decades, and so do the reputation of the concrete artisans who successfully pave their way into decorative history.

If I were a contractor I would take “preexisting” projects over new projects every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

This represents the last column in my design-focused series, “The Elements of Style for Contractors.” Before I bid you all good-bye, I’ll summarize the main points. Concrete Decor posts complete archives of past issues, so you can check out the topics of the previous 10 articles. The series kicked off in January 2015 when I described the five composition ‘tools’ concrete artisans should have in their tool kits — Line, Shape, Value, Color and Texture.

In 2011, the city of Carmel, Indiana, revamped its major roadway, the Keystone Parkway, as part of a multiphase project to lower the grade under six major intersections. This created new interchanges and no traffic lights for north-south traffic over a five-mile stretch, while six new roundabouts managed east-west traffic.