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Concrete Stencils, Secrets of Better Concrete Stenciling
Stenciling newly poured concrete takes a little finesse. Once the slab is poured, finish the concrete with a bull float and edge it. Then lay the stencil on the wet concrete, unrolling it from the top of the roll so that it will lie flat.
by Gail Elber
concrete or to rejuvenate existing concrete, stenciling is a decorative application worth considering. It may seem like a simple process, but a few fine points separate nice-looking, profitable stencil jobs from the rest. We've asked some experienced stencilers for tips to elevate your stenciling jobs from so-so to spectacular.
First, when you're planning your pours, consider where your crew will walk and stand during the job. If you're doing an indoor floor with walls all around, you'll need to break it up into two pours, first doing a strip all around the edge so that you'll have someplace to stand when you do the center. For an outside patio that abuts a fence or wall, perhaps the client will agree to strategic placement of a flower bed. Or you may be able to erect a scaffold to stand on.
As with all decorative work, you and the client must agree on the final effect. Sample boards let you fine-tune which shades of color hardener to use and show the client exactly how deep the grout joints will be and what the texture will be like, avoiding unpleasant surprises. But, "don't make your mock-ups look better than what you'll be able to do out on the job," warns Frank Piccolo of the stencil manufacturer Art Crete. "When you're doing a little 4-by-4 board, you can always do detail work that's difficult to do when you're out there doing hundreds of thousands of square feet of the stuff."
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