Tips & How-Tos

Industry veterans, entrepreneurs and decorative concrete artisans reveal findings, divulge lessons learned and outline methods used to help advance the industry as a whole.

How to Create and Process
a Scratch-free Polished Concrete Floor

The first step to creating and processing a scratch-free polished concrete floor is to start by cleaning the floor you’re about to grind, hone and polish. Make sure the grinder is clean. This includes the bottom of the machine, the skirt and the diamonds. Inspect the surfaces of the diamonds […]

A pile of diamonds for polishing concrete

Which diamond tool should I use to start my project?

Proper diamond tools for polishing concrete is essential to getting it right. Choose the starting diamond grit and tooling segment configuration based on what’s best to achieve the job’s appearance objective. If there wasn’t one given, go with the random aggregate configuration. Objective # 1 Random aggregate (doesn’t matter what […]

Five hands holding up one two three four five fingers

Five Pieces of Advice on Working with Retailers and Decorative Concrete

In recent years the decorative concrete and coatings market has made its way over to the retail market. Retailers have unique needs that they have to address, and decorative concrete and coatings are becoming a more and more popular method for filling those needs. Five of the biggest issues facing […]

snowshoe tracks on floor at an Alaskan elementary school

Polished Concrete and Epoxy Floor Shimmers with Aluminum Shapes

Photo courtesy of Sheila Wyne A floor at an Alaskan elementary school honored the natural environment and became art that kids can walk on, thanks to Mapei’s Ultratop PC polishable concrete topping. Girdwood, Alaska, 36 miles southeast of Anchorage, is a picturesque year-around resort town with a five-star skiing mountain, […]