May/June 2020 – Online Exclusive

A person grinding concrete without the proper PPE

Safety@Work
What Concrete Contractors Should Know About Crystalline Silica

Crystalline silica refers to a naturally occurring class of minerals found in a wide variety of rock. This mineral occurs naturally in virtually all sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks including granodiorites, rhyolites and granites. Its most common form is quartz, which is the second most abundant mineral harvested from the […]

How to Create and Process
a Scratch-free Polished Concrete Floor

The first step to creating and processing a scratch-free polished concrete floor is to start by cleaning the floor you’re about to grind, hone and polish. Make sure the grinder is clean. This includes the bottom of the machine, the skirt and the diamonds. Inspect the surfaces of the diamonds […]

A person signing their digital signature on a tablet.

Adapting Your Decorative Concrete Business During COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought much more than illness to our nation. Many changes have happened throughout every state in the U.S. because of the coronavirus. Adapting your business during COVID-19 is as important as ever. Changes and adaptations can include things like masks, social distancing and permanent business closures. […]

Polished concrete troubleshooting

Polished Concrete Challenges
can be Overcome with Overlays

The aesthetics of polished concrete is often one of the primary reasons why it’s chosen as the finished flooring on many projects. The material’s natural beauty expressed through varying aggregate reveals, the color of the cement binder and the clarity of the polished surface makes it a singularly unique flooring […]

A pile of diamonds for polishing concrete

Which diamond tool should I use to start my project?

Proper diamond tools for polishing concrete is essential to getting it right. Choose the starting diamond grit and tooling segment configuration based on what’s best to achieve the job’s appearance objective. If there wasn’t one given, go with the random aggregate configuration. Objective # 1 Random aggregate (doesn’t matter what […]

A group of students gathered around blueprints on a jobsite.

Concrete Science Degree Program Aims to Fill Manager Void

The first graduating class in the Concrete Science Technology program at the Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport received their diplomas in Spring 2020. Prior to that, all seven graduates had already received great job offers, says Frank H. Reber, a construction technology instructor who heads up the two-year associate […]

A slab of concrete with sealer on it.

How To Deal with the Top 5 Concrete Sealer Issues

Throughout the course of its lifetime, concrete suffers many different forms of damage. Although concrete sealers add a protective layer to concrete floors and structures to help maximize their durability and minimize moisture permeability, concrete sealer problems can be a source of frustration among contractors. When a concrete sealer doesn’t […]