The world's foremost resource on decorative concrete
Laticrete expanded its Spartacote line of resinous floor coatings for decorative and protective applications with an all-new, industry-first Spartacote Universal Pigment System. The revolutionary, first-of-its-kind color system is compatible with all clear Spartacote epoxy, urethane and polyaspartic products. Also, it’s formulated with highly concentrated pigments, providing improved color customization, vibrant […]
Work on Globe Life Field — the Texas Rangers’ brand-new retractable-roof baseball ballpark in Arlington, Texas — was nearing completion when BEAM Concrete Construction, the decorative concrete subcontractor, hit a snag, color-matching concrete. Try as it might, the company couldn’t produce integrally colored concrete that would match the expanse placed […]
Repair contractors, architects and building owners now have a safer, more consistent option to integrally add color to concrete flooring overlays. Prosoco’s new Integral Color for Overlays is a pre-measured, concentrated liquid. Prosoco designed it to integrally color cement mixtures for overlays and polishable overlays. Available in nine colors, Integral […]
When choosing to use colored concrete on a project, there is very often a discrepancy between the owner’s expectations and the reality of the finished job. Two major reasons for this are that manufacturers’ color charts cannot possibly show the true color, and most contractors fail to adequately explain this to the customer.
Placing and finishing concrete to maximize the visual appeal of integral coloring starts at the bottom— with a well-draining, compacted aggregate and consistent subgrade. It’s well worth the time and effort to get it right and give decorative concrete a great start to standing up to the elements.
Integral colors are calculated by loadings based on total cementitious materials used per yard of concrete. Common loadings are 1 percent, 2 percent, 3 percent and 4 percent.
Greg Hurst still recalls the first time he used integral color for a concrete installation project. It was 2010 and the founder/owner of Alabama Decorative Concrete in Birmingham had been hired to install a 12,000-square-foot driveway that would be stamped throughout.
The concrete in a skate park must be completely smooth to accommodate a skateboard’s small, hard 40 to 55 mm urethane wheels, yet also be nonslippery.
We just had a large stamped concrete patio completed, and we chose a light buff integral color with dark tan release powder. The resulting color of the concrete surface looks entirely different from the color we chose — it’s more like an antique rose color.
Maintaining consistent color in integrally colored concrete is crucial during a project using multiple truckloads.
