Stamping & Texturing Concrete

Outdoor kitchens are a popular request no matter where you live, but typically when you read a book or see a television show featuring outdoor kitchens, the contractor is doing them in a warm climate.

This simple recipe uses Proline’s Sand Canyon Dura-Color Hardener and their Seamless Designs Carpet Stamp. Two colors of EZ Tique were used to give the finish its mottled look.

Stamped concrete can be a beautiful addition to any property. However, poorly textured concrete can be an eyesore for the owner and a headache for the contractor.

When Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Florida wanted to create a new ride inspired by the popular Disney-Pixar movie “A Bug’s Life,” the theme park called on Brickform, a division of Solomon Colors Inc., to create a seamless texture skin representative of a dry lakebed. That was nearly one decade ago.

Many concrete professionals who are asked how they got into the business of concrete say they sort of “fell into it.”

After 100 years in the decorative concrete industry, L. M. Scofield Co. knows a thing or two about beautiful, standout projects. As it marks its centennial, the company also marks its seventh annual Decorative Concrete Awards, given to contractors, architects or designers doing exceptional work using Scofield systems.

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

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.

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

Behind every successful slab of stamped concrete is an accumulation of effort by you (the decorative concrete artist) and your local ready-mix provider. If one participant falls short the project becomes compromised, maybe not to the point of being unsalvageable but still to where it does not meet the goal of most professionals.

At first glance, you’d think you were looking at a distinguished upholstered bar done in a style that many attribute to a sofa designed for the fourth earl of Chesterfield, Philip Stanhope (1694-1773), that featured the now iconic buttoned leather look.

Why would anyone spend thousands of dollars on Parisian cobblestone stamps? A flight to Paris and a hotel for the weekend, for both concrete contractor and client to share mutual experiences and gather ideas, would’ve been cheaper and the real deal!

Stamped concrete is the very foundation of decorative concrete industry. The ability to take concrete and add pattern and color separates you from your competition. This ability also increases a customer’s expectations. Simply put, most customers will not accept a random crack running through patterned concrete, nor should they.

Surface preparation is a commonly used term in the decorative concrete industry. An argument can be made that it might even just be the most used term in the industry. We hear or read about it most often when dealing with overlays and stains. Grind, scarify, acid etch, etc.

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.

This gorgeous interior finish echoes the classic look of Belgium stonework by combining a handful of texture skins with a variety of innovative touches that add to the concrete floor's natural look.

A total of 42 awards were presented at the 2017 Sundek Awards Banquet during the company’s 33rd annual convention in Hilton Fort Worth earlier this year.

Paul Schneider is one of the lucky people in this world whose hobby and occupation are one and the same: decorative concrete. “Most people don’t think of a hobby as something you make money off of,” he says. But he does it.

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.

With its 1,149-foot “space needle,” the Stratosphere Casino, Hotel & Tower is a Las Vegas landmark. When its owners, American Casino & Entertainment Properties LLC, remodeled it inside and out in fall 2012, they asked Owen Ondrisko, of Stampco Concrete, Henderson, Nevada, to design landscaping and concrete for the approaches to the building.

Decorative concrete doesn’t come on a bigger scale than this. Developer Geoff Palmer has built more apartments in downtown Los Angeles than anyone else — more than 3,000 — all in the same faux-Italian style.

Michael Day of Day's Concrete Floors Inc., North Monmouth, Maine, was hired in 2011 to do some serious makeover work at the Sugarloaf Mountain Ski Resort Hotel in Carrabasset Valley, Maine.

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.