Stamping & Texturing Concrete

Color selection for stamped and textured concrete is always at the top of the list of issues people question me about. My goal when answering questions like this has always been to try and provide good advice on color selection so no one has to come back and ask about color correction.

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.

“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.

ConScape Inc., a commercial, architectural and decorative concrete firm in Fort Worth, Texas, seemed like a godsend to the parishioners. With decorative concrete as its intervention, the company transformed part of the church’s landscape from a tired terrain into a radiant and peaceful panorama.

Have you ever been in the process of completing or had just completed what to you was an amazing architectural concrete project only to be told by your client:
“It’s not what I was expecting.”
“Meh! It looks kind of ‘blah.’ I thought the color would ‘pop’ more.”
“I don’t like it.”

Three unique looks achieved by seasoned veterans with stamping and texturing tools - an authentic travertine tile look, a cobblestone finish and a patio with hand-tooled brick.

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!

The 34,000-square-foot colored and stamped concrete courtyard that Allied Concrete Applicators poured at Saint Martin’s University in Lacey, Wash., presented a laundry list of challenges that had to be dealt with during installation.

Decorative concrete wizard Tom Ralston is a familiar name to Concrete Decor readers for his elaborate, multifaceted homes and backyards. But there’s another side to Ralston’s work: the wildly creative stuff that’s almost pure fun.

Unique Concrete, a family-run business out of West Milford, N.J., stamps concrete without the stamp and texture mats of today. Instead, they use old-fashioned tools to create a layer of what they call “cast-in-place concrete tile or stone.”

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.

Pool deck solutions are discussed, involving sealers, anti-slip additives and deck drains. All three of these items are important for your clients’ overall satisfaction, as well as the eventual success of your installation.

Bob Harris of the Decorative Concrete Institute was asked about his experience training and working at the Children's Museum of Phoenix as part of the Concrete Decor Show & Decorative Concrete Spring Training.

Achieving a realistic and "one-of-a-kind" look with stamped concrete requires a knowledge of colors and some help from the experts. Included are several exciting formulas.

Your Stamping Concrete Toolkit needs to contain basic concrete finishing tools as well as tools for stamping concrete. Look at what you should have on hand when doing a stamping concrete job.

Proline Concrete Tools receives a lot of requests for custom stamps, but rarely do the patterns end up turning into a nationwide trend.

Back in early 1990s, the San Diego Zoo’s Safari Park wanted to emulate cracked mud found in the Serengeti Desert and Proline was up to the task.

Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue under the flag of Spain, a country ruled in the 15th century by the Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella. But do you know what nation Columbus called home?

Not that tough on the scale of trivia challenges, right? Columbus hailed from Genoa, now part of Italy.

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.

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.

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.

Jason Geiser, owner of Deco-Crete Supply in Orrville, Ohio, thought a broad, sloping hill at his three children’s new school needed something to transform it from a virtually unusable space to an inviting outdoor classroom. He and the school officials came up with a project that revolved around Geiser building an amphitheater.

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.

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.