Staining & Coloring Concrete

If you think clear sealers won’t affect the color of concrete, you’re right in some instances and wrong in others.

Designed as an easier-to-use, more controllable color system, Construcolor B01 integral pigment is a liquid gel that has been winning over skeptics for the last decade.

Unfortunately, complaints about how color turns out are an all-too-familiar topic of conversation. Complaints can involve but are not limited to integrally colored concrete, color-hardened concrete, stamped and textured concrete and stained concrete. People claim the wrong color, inconsistent color, blotchy color, color that is too light, color that’s too dark, and the list goes on and on. When you really think about it, it does make sense. What is the biggest difference that separates decorative concrete from regular concrete? Color!

How is a puddle of water like a colored concrete slab?

The project originally given Kevin Baltz, president of Memphis, Tenn., company Baltz & Sons Concrete Services, was a lot simpler than the one he ended up with. “I was first approached to do some hardscape and subbase for a network of brick or paver stone terraces,” he recalls. “The connecting walkways were going to be asphalt.” He can’t hide the disdain in his voice when he makes that last statement.

Any time you’re dealing with integral color, the key to success is getting a nice, even distribution of pigment. The key to that, in turn, is managing the water-to-cement ratio in your mix.

I was once a much younger concretist, really impetuous and passionate. I was working for L.M. Scofield Co., and as my wife told me, I worked way too much. So she left me. To be more accurate, she left me in charge of the kids for 10 days while she and her best girlfriend toured a bit of England and Scotland.

Take an older home on the beach in need of radical change. Add a designer and a concrete contractor, both of whom are comfortable thinking outside the box. Give them carte blanche and as much time as they need. Allow their creative juices to simmer. What do you get? A dramatic award-winning remodel project that screams individuality.