Stamping & Texturing Concrete

The decorative concrete business often can follow a roller-coaster trajectory, with ups and downs that can challenge the stomach.

Fortunately for David Edwards and his 30-year-old company Edwards Concrete, a profitable relationship with Florida’s amusement and theme parks has played an integral role in the ride.

About four decades ago, the Watergate Complex in Washington, D.C., was the site of one of the most talked-about political scandals in American history. The hotel is also home to a newly resurfaced decorative concrete pool deck that is reportedly sometimes mistaken for real stone.

Contractors working in decorative concrete can often benefit from the use of water reducers. Here’s a look at two types of decorative concrete work and how water reducers can make the job easier and improve the finished product.

The lifestyle center addition to the Greenwood Park Mall on U.S. Highway 31 North in Greenwood was completed in spring 2008. The project, which involved more than 1,000 cubic yards of concrete, is significant because it reflects the growing use of concrete in Indiana’s public spaces.

As with most things in life, a decorative concrete installer faces many choices when it comes to the products and processes he or she uses on a job. Unfortunately, the choice is often made to take the path of least resistance or buy at low cost versus favoring long-term performance and the quality of the project.

The combination of pools and stamped concrete doesn’t necessarily spell disaster. For one thing, when a stamped concrete surface near a pool is slick, a topical sealer, not the texture, is often the culprit.

Bart Rockett, 46, began working with concrete back in 1987 after joining Patterned Concrete Industries (PCI) and working for one of its local franchises outside of Philadelphia in southern New Jersey.

Unique Concrete is true to its name. Like many decorative concrete contracting firms, it constructs pool surrounds, patios, sidewalks and driveways. However, unlike other contractors, it also specializes in laying concrete on top of decks.

Steve VandeWater, 51, was a Fine Arts major at Indiana University Bloomington, studying sculpture, drawing and printmaking. This artistic background informs his approach to concrete and also gives him skill and success with different styles and techniques.

When it comes to texture skins, flexibility is often appreciated, and Brickform LLC aims to please.

With the housing market in recovery, business is looking up for concrete contractors involved with stamping and texturing.

However, it's not just the residential market that’s driving stamping. Thanks to its low price compared with other outdoor options, more commercial developers are turning to stamped concrete.

Coloring concrete isn't just a matter of choosing pigment, sand and cement. How your concrete is finished will alter its color too.

Like any commercial building, the Charlotte Convention Center has a set of emergency exits that lead to the outside. However, the Convention Center had a unique problem in that its doors led towards the tracks for the Charlotte Light Rail.

What do you think of when you hear the term "sealer maintenance"? If you are like most in the industry, the first thing that comes to mind is waxing or buffing a previously sealed interior floor. Well, with spring upon us, it's a great time to talk about another kind of sealer maintenance - maintaining exterior stamped or textured concrete.

“Graceful Curves.” That’s what Scott Cohen and his team at Green Scene Landscaping and Swimming Pools call a recent backyard masterpiece in Malibu, California. Cohen describes it as the ultimate entertaining backyard that has everything and then some — including a pool that makes you feel like you’re in a giant lake.

The 500,000 square feet of stamped concrete pathways and patios at the new Italian theme park Rainbow MagicLand look like no place else on Earth.

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.

Texas Christian University’s football program has emerged as a national power over the past few years, and for a smallish university (enrollment under 10,000) that’s quite an accomplishment. It stands to reason that a big-time football program would want to play in a big-time stadium.

San Diego County is known far and wide for its beautiful weather, interesting people and endless summer atmosphere. So it was with great anticipation when San Diego was picked as the site for the 2016 Concrete Decor Show Sept. 25-29 that it was destined to be one showstopper of a show. And all indications point to that premonition coming true.

What is it with the San Francisco Bay area as a hotbed of technological and artistic invention and innovation? Is it the climate, the awe-inspiring Golden Gate coastal setting or the pioneer spirit that lives on in this land of dreams and promise?

If you install stamped concrete, you should be maintaining stamped concrete. You already have all the equipment you need, and you have the experience and training you need as well. Offering an annual maintenance program on your work, or any stamped concrete work for that matter, is a good source of revenue that does not require much in the way of equipment or mental gymnastics.

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.

This golf course was going to be on national TV, and its owners wanted it to look good. Decorative concrete helped get it ready for its closeup.