Concrete Decor's Current Articles

In the heart of northern Michigan wine country near Traverse City, Mari Vineyards opened for business in May 2016. The 31,000-square-foot facility was equipped with the usual amenities of a first-rate winery as well as an extensive underground barrel-aging area that has the qualities of a cave.

About 25 years ago, Cindee Lundin took a leave of absence from her job as a preschool teacher and enrolled at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota to work on her bachelor’s degree in early childhood education. She already had two associate degrees — one in art and the other in child development — but state laws were changing back then and she needed a more advanced degree to continue to teach in public schools.

I’m not a fan of overlays unless they’re necessary, I continually compete against knockdown finish companies that prefer them. Most of my competition uses overlays on pool decks and patios no matter what. This gives me a unique spin to compete against them.

As a polishing consultant I get to wear several different hats, but by far the largest amount of my time is spent managing polished concrete programs for retailers. Polished concrete is an aesthetically beautiful and valuable flooring solution, but it is fairly specialized.

Here’s a design truth retailers understand: before customers make the decision to purchase, they make the decision to enter the store. This showroom floor has proven irresistible to shoppers, with show-stopping color from QC Construction Products.

When it comes to working with metallics, there few ways you can make the job a better experience. And getting advice from of of the best is a step up.

A high school teaching students the finer points of polishing? Compass High School has added pouring, finishing and polishing concrete to its vocational programming.

LesCoat is a concrete stain block with a surprise ending — it’s peelable.

At the Robusta Espresso Bar in Manhattan’s financial district, the dynamism of the high-voltage, high-visibility counter design concept is no caffeine-induced illusion.

The Crack-Chaser Blade from Pearl Abrasive Company was designed for more efficient cleaning, routing and repairing of cracks in concrete. The diamond segments are sintered to the core in a V-shaped pattern, leaving a clean groove for filling.

After painstakingly laying out a grout pattern for your acrylic overlay, meticulously masking and re-masking surrounding areas, and then spraying or troweling in just the right color and texture scheme, you stand back and admire your handiwork, and the job looks great.

Concrete countertops are countertops. They just happen to be made out of concrete.

This should affect your marketing and selling techniques. If you understand how countertops are most commonly and most effectively marketed and sold, you will be much more successful at marketing and selling concrete countertops.

The owner of Dallas’s Dave and Buster’s sports bar wanted the look of a contemporary football field for the floor. After the floor was polished to an 800 grit, Chris Post of Elite Concrete Solutions delivered that and more.

Almost all manufacturers of decorative concrete systems and equipment offer some sort of training on their products. Whether it is a one-hour watch-and-learn or a three-day hands-on class that people pay to attend, these programs have become mainstream in our industry.

Skinner Butte Park's 45-foot-tall basalt columns have attracted rock climbers for decades. So when the city of Eugene, Ore., decided to build Riverplay, an innovative playground in another area of the park, a replica of the columns, sized just for kids, was part of the plan.

What if there was a way to take the leftover concrete from a job site and turn it into a moneymaker instead of throwing it away? Thanks to Proline Concrete Tools’ Compass Rose Medallion Table Top Mold, there is.

How long is a set of diamonds supposed to last? Or more to the point, what kind of square footage can I expect out of a set of diamonds?

As you look at some of the more commonly used overlay products, you can get a better sense of what might work best for your project. Lee Tizard, vice president of Floric Polytech Inc., offers this snapshot look at some overlay options.