Staining & Coloring Concrete

Mike likes his concrete the same way he likes his breads and cheeses, with every bit of the material exuding something interesting and reflecting the character of the ambient conditions and personalities that shaped it. And he's not the only one who feels like this.

When it came to installing floors at his new decorative concrete training facility, concrete guru Bob Harris chose to emulate the old ways of Venetian artists.

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

Let me start by being blunt. Almost anyone can squeegee down a couple of coats of topping. But overlays and microtoppings are handcrafted, not generic flooring you buy on a roll. How do you go from doing what anyone can do to creating your own distinctive look and giving customers exceptional projects?

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

What began as the customer’s modest plan for a concrete slab to go under a jumbo-sized hot tub morphed into a three-tier, 2,700-square-foot stamped concrete patio that integrates a spa with two other focal points: an eating area with wood pergola to house an outdoor kitchen, and a recessed fire-pit area with sitting wall.

Now that summer is here I’m in full design mode on multiple projects that mostly involve basic tile patterns. Since I’m back in major math mode, I thought I’d share a challenging design project I did a couple of years ago for a client in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

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.

When Shawn Halverson first tried his hand at concrete installation, he didn’t intend to make it his livelihood. He got into structural concrete in high school after meeting a contractor who was working on a house for Halverson’s parents, and at the time, he viewed the job as a temporary gig.

A few colors of dye, some common butcher paper and a little creativity are all it takes to get this handsome mottled finish.

As decorative concrete has become more widely used, contractors in all parts of the country have grown increasingly skilled in the craftsmanship required for high quality colored concrete work.

The Decorative Concrete Council, a specialty council of the American Society of Concrete Contractors, recognized the winners of its ninth annual Decorative Concrete Awards competition Jan. 17 at the World of Concrete in Las Vegas.

In his 68 years, Jim Vermillion has mastered many skills: military officer, airline pilot, inventor, seagoing kayak adventurer, business owner.

But he hasn’t been able to get the hang of retirement.

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

There have always been ways to make new projects blend into their older surroundings, but Sophisticated Finishes by Triangle Coatings Inc. offers a truly aged look.

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.

Welcome to the new age of antiquing stamped concrete. When it comes to antiquing and/or providing accent colors on stamped concrete, installers today have more options than ever.

Not any pigment can be used in concrete. The chemistry of portland cement plus exposure to sunlight and weather can cause most integral concrete colors to fade.

Understanding pigments is the foundation for successful decorative concrete.

There is no question that applicators can achieve a wider and brighter range of colors with acrylic stains than can be achieved with chemical stains.

One of the most influential theories of math is called the Cartesian coordinates. The adjective, Cartesian, refers to the French mathematician and philosopher René Descartes who published this idea in 1637. Cartesian coordinates are the foundation of analytic geometry.

Ready mix executives from coast to coast agree that the color dispensing machines on the market today are a godsend.

Does the use of admixtures change the intensity of integral color?