Staining & Coloring Concrete

Today’s contractors who love the look of acid stains but loathe the labor and time required to get the job done have more ways than ever before to bypass the troublesome application using safer-for-all water routes.

Only a couple of years old, this upstart is already attracting attention to its colorful work in the Cornhusker State.

The sixth annual Decorative Concrete Awards were announced recently by sponsor L. M. Scofield Co. The contest honors contractors and designers who use Scofield decorative concrete materials.

This year, for the first time, the contest was divided into six categories.

Tamryn Doolan, owner of Surface Gel Tek, has long been in the business of turning simple concrete surfaces into striking works of art. Continuing in that tradition, Doolan’s new endeavor, Caribou Art Studios, brings her talents to a whole new venue — exterior walls.

To enhance newly-poured 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.

Steven Ochs and Gerald Taylor, hoping to inspire others to lend a helping hand to tsunami victims, created this concrete composition that shows the power and determination of children everywhere.

Contractors have relied on acrylic sealers for decades to protect concrete flooring systems, and for good reason. In the right conditions, these sealers offer optimal durability, stain resistance and a desirable “wet look” finish. However, they have their limitations too and aren’t always the ideal option for high-traffic areas and environments with extreme hazards.

Even a tropical storm couldn’t stop these master craftsmen from lending their artistic touch to the entryway of a new courthouse.

Learn about the four ways to add color to slabs that are intended for polishing: Integral Color, Dry Shake Hardener, Acid Stain and Dyes

Light reflects off surfaces, and what an object looks like depends upon the material's surface characteristics. Some of the light is reflected, some is scattered and the rest is absorbed, so we see different things depending upon how much light is reflected from the surface and how much is scattered. The color depends upon what is absorbed.

This top-to-bottom (well, really bottom-to-top) overlay recipe is great for putting down a distinctive design, such as this swordfish.

Conference attendees got a once in a lifetime opportunity to participate one on one with concrete artist and build the concrete version of the Alamo they would never forget.

Maintenance is something that torments most decorative concrete contractors, unless, that is, there is a significant maintenance profit center to their business. In the case of The Concretist, there is not.

There was plenty of flooring to do before Alfalfa’s Market, a new natural foods store, could open on Earth Day in a former Whole Foods space in Boulder, Colo.

It’s more dainty, more elegant, like between silk and cloth with hard-eners. The grays and browns last forever. He also likes to sprinkle color on top of the concrete with a brush to create freckles, just like real stones offer.

Traditionally, dyes weren't UV-stable and, therefore, could only be used on interior applications. No longer.

SS DYE-namic from The Stamp Store helps bring dyes into the 21st century.

Randall Klassen, of Winnipeg, Manitoba, sent us these photos of a monolithically poured concrete "bridge" over concrete "water" he constructed for Seven Oaks School Division, in northwest Winnipeg.

After listening to suggestions from contractors and distributors, Brickform, a division of Solomon Colors Inc., has redeveloped its popular Pro-Dye as a liquid formula.

Polishing 52,000 square feet of floor is never an easy task, but some jobs can be more demanding than others. This was one of them. It took contractor Darryl White and a crew of five 11 weeks to prep, polish and finesse the artwork for the floors of Alabama Robotics Technology Park.

Southern Arkansas University art professor prefers water-based stains when creating public murals on concrete.

Step-by-step instructions and useful tips from people in the industry who have experimented enough to know what works.

Designing decorative concrete is no different from any other process that has endless options. The first step is to ask the questions that define the project and guide the design.

The go-cart track at the Legoland Discovery Center was another challenging, yet fun, job for Chris Post of Elite Concrete Solutions LLC. The roadway hash marks required him to make a 2-by-4 jig to lay them in an evenly spaced manner all the way around the track.