Concrete Decor's Current Articles

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.

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.

Most decorative concrete contractors know that consolidating concrete is as essential to a quality finished product as mix ratio or proper finishing and curing. Consolidating forces air out of the concrete and encourages aggregate to rotate and fit together tighter, creating stronger concrete.

Thanks to new products and growing consumer interest, metallic-infused concrete coatings have everyone’s attention

When a landscape architecture firm  drafted a plan to create playground trails and basketball courts for a Park California, it turned to one of the largest decorative concrete companies in the country, T.B. Penick & Sons Inc. of San Diego, to bring a wide range of cutting-edge decorative concrete systems to the project.

Reliable. Multifaceted. Maintainable. Portable concrete mixers are all that and more, says Warren Faler, mixer product manager for Multiquip in Carson, Calif. “They can be productive in a wide variety of applications.”

Tips for putting a polymer-modified cementitious overlay on top of a wood surface.

Interesting explanation for why ancient mortar has lasted long.

Concrete Decor salutes artisans nationwide for their ingenuity and creativity in designing tables and countertops. Here are 10 of our discoveries.

Just because a slab requires control joints doesn't mean the joints have to be straight. Here's how to bend them to your will.

Integral colors are calculated by loadings based on total cementitious materials used per yard of concrete. Common loadings are 1 percent, 2 percent, 3 percent and 4 percent.

Michael Day of Day's Concrete Floors Inc., North Monmouth, Maine, was hired in 2011 to do some serious makeover work at the Sugarloaf Mountain Ski Resort Hotel in Carrabasset Valley, Maine.

Proline Concrete Tools receives a lot of requests for custom stamps, but rarely do the patterns end up turning into a nationwide trend.

Back in early 1990s, the San Diego Zoo’s Safari Park wanted to emulate cracked mud found in the Serengeti Desert and Proline was up to the task.

You will need a few basics to create your own color wheel - an artist's acrylic paint in yellow, blue, red, black and white, several, 3/4 inch wide, flat bristle brushes, 2 14 x 14 inch poster boards, a compass, a pencil, paper plates, scap paper and glue.

The Museum of Art/Fort Lauderdale likes to say “there is always something new and different at the Museum,” but until recently, that claim did not apply to the building’s exterior. 

Standing alone, a color is amoral — entirely relative to what surrounds it. This extends not only to the colored border around your design, but also to the walls and ceilings in your peripheral vision when you glance at the floor.

The winners of the American Concrete Institute’s 2017 Excellence in Concrete Construction Awards were lauded during ACI’s convention in October in Anaheim, California.