Archive for the ‘polished concrete’ Category
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Methods And Types Of Decorative Concrete
Thursday, October 29th, 2009Looking for a new style for your walkway? Maybe for your house or just in general? Well concrete has come a long way from its natural intended use. Many have perfected the art of decorative concrete. There are varying forms of decoration for concrete. In order to perfect this art it takes a lot of patience and an eye for the design.
Integral colorants are fairly easy to achieve, as it’s just a color material that is combined with the actual concrete. What it does is it mixes the color, cement and the sand all together and produces a color other than the usual gray. You can pretty much make any color you want but the most popular colors would be black, yellow, red, and even green. With Integral colorants you want to make sure you add the correct amount of the color, if you do your concrete is going to come out a different color altogether be it darker or even a lighter shade than what you’re trying to achieve.
Stamping in concrete is another popular form of decorative concrete. Basically all you need for this type of decoration is a rubber stamp and wet concrete. Make sure you don’t press your stamp too deep into the concrete that you end up with deep grooves. You will want to push with even pressure and to a depth that will leave your concrete looking like it was professionally done. You can create simple stone or brick textures, or if you want you can even create a quaint forest scene onto a stamp and apply that to your concrete. The possibilities are endless.
Installing the above decorative concrete is pretty self-explanatory, however a concrete dye is a different installation process. Concrete dyes can be used on pretty much any surface. To get a simple concrete dye you’ll want to have your color base mixed in with the concrete and if your using your concrete outside you’ll want to use a base of acetone or thinner. This will keep your color from becoming faded over the years. If you’re using your concrete indoors it will be all right to use a solution of alcohol. Don’t use the alcohol base outside, as over time it will diminish your color significantly.
The last decorative concrete may very well be water based staining for your concrete. With water based stain you can pretty much achieve a see through look or an opaque color. With a water based stain it is more of a coating than anything else, but it will bond with your concrete better than say an acid based stain. The best water based stains in the market today are acrylic and epoxy. These will not change your concrete at all it will be able to keep the whole physical make up.
Last you will want to make sure that your concrete is well placed, and that you have everything out and ready to go before you even begin mixing your concrete. Make sure you take your time and you achieve what you want the first time out rather than having to do the project over and over. Getting it done right the first time will save you a lot of money later down the line.
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Polished Concrete Floors: As Maintenance-Free As It Gets
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009That glisten of the concrete flooring that looks like marble or terrazzo or tile might not be that at all. Polished concrete is becoming the flooring of choice, not only in commercial buildings, but in private homes as well. People have discovered the glossy no-maintenance benefits of polished concrete are a great alternative to other more expensive types of flooring. Not only can concrete be polished to a high gloss, but it may be stained or dyed to look like other materials; Venetian marble, assorted types of tile, terrazzo or a variety of other much more expensive products.
Polished concrete floors may also be etched or stenciled with a plethora of designs, limited only by the designer’s imagination. They may be emblazoned with company logos, crests or a coat-of-arms in a permanent display of company or family fealty.
The polishing of concrete is accomplished with varying grits of abrasives until the desired gloss is achieved. The polishing process leaves a very dense, stable and durable floor that is very attractive. This flooring will stand up to forklift traffic in a warehouse and heavy foot traffic in office building entries and corridors. It leaves a stain free floor in residences, warehouses and offices. Another plus is that a polished concrete floor is very sanitary and will not harbor any molds, mildews or other biological or insect infestation.
Polished concrete floors may be the ultimate no-wax flooring. Once polished, the sheen will remain for a long time. Maintenance is relatively simple; just a dusting with a dry dust mop or wet mopping with a mild solvent followed by clean water is usually all that is required to clean the floor. Commercial floor cleaning machines may also be used. Any dulling of the sheen is usually from contaminants, not wear, and there are a variety of cleansers that may be used to restore the gloss. These are easily applied with a mop, buffer or commercial cleaning machine.
Eventually, the gloss may begin to fade in high traffic areas, but this may be successfully reversed by buffing with a commercial buffer using a polishing compound. When some wear does begin to show, the floor may be polished anew by using a very fine grit material on a commercial buffer. Polished concrete floors may never need replacement, unlike other types of flooring; carpeting, hardwood, tile, linoleum, natural stone, laminates and other materials that all may stain and wear out.
Even so, there may come a time or circumstance when you need to repair cracks in your polished concrete, and that process is not as hard as it may sound.
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Repairing The Cracks In Your Polished Concrete
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009You have a beautiful polished concrete floor, a pleasure to walk on, but you notice cracks. You can repair those unsightly cracks without the need to hire expensive repair people. One factor to keep in mind is that repair products will not eliminate the crack, but minimizes the unsightliness of these cracks and prevent further cracking. Major cracking may require the services of professional concrete repair people, but save time and money on the smaller ones by completing the repairs yourself.
Repair starts by cleaning crack areas thoroughly and examining the size and width of your cracks. Once you determine the extent of repair required, you can gather the necessary repair materials. A product such as a good concrete mender is needed for repair. Choose a combination of filler products for the cracks. Suggested materials are glass, flint or silica sand and should be dry and free of other contaminating materials such as dirt.
The challenge in using such a product is to blend the color with sand that will match as close as possible to the concrete color being repaired. You may need to experiment with colors and sand blends to find the color combination that will match the overall color of the polished concrete you’re working with.
Concrete mender requires careful mixing of mending product with filler products, to the proper ratio according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Use a trowel to fill the cracks making sure the repairing material is a bit higher than the actual floor surface. Be extremely careful not to stain the area around the repair with the dye being used for repair.
You need to wait now until the repaired area is completely dry. The drying time will depend on the size of the repair, the temperature of the floor and room. Once the material is dry, you can then hone and polish the area carefully.
For re-polishing area, use a planetary polisher. Use the most coarse sandpaper grit on the repaired surface. Go over the area repaired with overlapping motions but use caution that the focus is on the repaired area. Use a finer grit of sandpaper to polish the repaired area and the overall area to the blended desired sheen. Repairs do not have to be expensive, but careful work is required to ensure your repaired areas blend into the overall beauty of your polished concrete floor.