Staining & Coloring Concrete

The moment you step through the doors of the Children’s Discovery Museum in central Las Vegas, you know you are in for a treat. The museum promises in its mission a “vibrant and engaging experience” for children from all walks of life.

Stain remains a popular finish, and while the number of problems or complaints has decreased over the last few decades, the problems remain the same, and they don’t discriminate between professionals and DIY homeowners.

At first glance, the dock looks like it’s floating just above the water. “It turned out exactly how I wanted it,” says Reuben Keim, co-owner of Keim Concrete in Wooster, Ohio, about his concrete platform. The pier and dock, which sit about a foot above the surface of a 2-acre pond in Keim’s backyard, was fashioned with Proline form liners.

Decorative concrete overlays, stampings, fountains and countertops created from scratch. And the best part of all was that the majority of the work the artisans created are to become a permanent working part of Walla Walla County Fairgrounds.

There’s more than one way to stain a slab, and Newlook International Inc. has found a way that is unique. Its products are modified polymer stains that require no sealer and are easy to maintain.

For a greener alternative to acid staining, SoyCrete Architectural Concrete Stain from Eco Safety Products offers the same variegated look in a product that's environmentally friendly in virtually every sense of the word.

Sisters Cindee Lundin and Chenoa Pickrain were raised on a dairy farm near Perham, Minnesota. Lundin is an expert in faux finishing and horizontal and vertical carved concrete. Pickrain is a graphic designer and photographer.

This “Sidewalk Textbook” was the first phase of a public art project funded by “Project WILD,” a Schoolyard Habitat Grant through the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

After three years of spilled milkshakes, splattered ketchup and oversquirted mustard, the carpet in the dining area of the Fuddruckers in Modesto, Calif., had to go. Franchise owner Kevin Bidlack considered replacing it but knew the fix would be temporary. Three years later, he’d have to do it again.

Not everyone prefers white cement products over run-of-the-mill gray concrete when it comes to coloring.

Some say avoid this combination altogether. But others say it can be done well — as long as contractors are aware of potential pitfalls.

There is an increase in complaints about the final color not matching the sample or mock-up. In all cases, a small mock-up was created, finished and cured as specified, and eventually accepted by the client. Fast forward to the actual job placement, and all of a sudden the color no longer matched the mock-up sample.

Nine finalists were selected to receive Scofield awards out of 37 entries. For each of three regions of the United States, there was one commercial finalist, one residential and one selected for "Unique Application." The Eastern Region/Commercial winner J.L. Marshall & Sons Inc., of Pawtucket, R.I. took home the Grand Prize.

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.

Longtime artist and acid stain master Gaye Goodman, 66, wasn’t always a guru of colored concrete.

She spent the early part of her career creating batiks and abstract paintings. Forms found in nature often served as her inspiration. She finally landed in the decorative concrete industry and truly blossomed.

Cheryl and Ralph Burgess, of Mackintosh on the Lake, a development in Burlington, N.C., wanted a design in their sunroom. As you can see, they got a pretty spectacular one.

RicoRock Inc., a leading manufacturer of residential pool waterfalls in the U.S., has hundreds of dealers, but Margaritaville’s owners wanted to work directly with RicoRock because of the scope of the project and the company’s more than 30-year history of creating waterfalls.

Along the Willamette River's eastern shore, where it cuts through the heart of Portland, Ore., there stretches a long walkway, a favorite spot for locals to run or ride along the riverfront.

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

Super Dye is a liquid concentrate, not a powder dye. The Super product is packaged as an 8-ounce concentrated liquid that is mixed with a gallon of water or acetone. Give the mixture a quick stir, and it's ready to apply to the concrete floor without having to wait for the dye to sweat in.

Ryan Neal of SBR Concrete was hired by a former client to create a basement floor that had to be not only easy to clean, but also unique. The end result was a floor made with hand-shaped rectangular "stones," each individually colored so that no two would look exactly the same.

There is a famous paperback called “The Elements of Style” by Strunk and White. Many writers treasure it as a guide to writing clearly and succinctly while avoiding common grammatical errors. The handbook itself is a model of clarity.

Mexico's decorative concrete construction industy lags behind the decorative industry in the United States, but staining and other techniques for coloring concrete are helping this contractor flourish south of the border.