Vol. 12 No. 3 - April 2012

Desperate to get away from the corporate rat race, Greg Hyde Hryniewicz started a concrete coatings company, and in the seven intervening years, he’s turned it into a decorative concrete firm that’s garnered numerous awards.

Transforming more than 5,500 square feet of flooring surfaces, creating a vertical sculpture and constructing a waterfall is no small task, especially when the majority of the work is done over just two days. However, that’s exactly what happened at SAY Sí, a teen art center in San Antonio, Texas.

The finish of the hood needs to coincide with the complexity of this application. The expectation of the final outcome, and how you will accommodate errors in the finish, holes, sags, and other blemishes especially considering the mold is assembled as you spray, make it difficult to make a perfect crème finish.

The value to your business is best determined on a per-unit basis. However, many contractors don’t exactly make widgets for their customers. So if your primary business is something like concrete staining, polishing or stamping, I recommend you calculate your margins on a per-square-foot or per-project basis.

Spanning 480 feet across Interstate 520 in Redmond, Wash., the NE 36th Street Bridge is not your average overpass.

If you install stamped concrete, you should be maintaining stamped concrete. You already have all the equipment you need, and you have the experience and training you need as well. Offering an annual maintenance program on your work, or any stamped concrete work for that matter, is a good source of revenue that does not require much in the way of equipment or mental gymnastics.

Decorative concrete product manufacturer L. M. Scofield Co. has announced the winners of its Fourth Annual Decorative Concrete Awards contest. This contest was open to any contractor, architect or designer who uses or specifies Scofield Systems.

A concrete contractor working with acid stain enjoys the challenge of layering colors when there is only one shot at the job and a limited color palette. Learn how to achieve more color variations than clients expect.

The vast majority of return customers usually flow straight into the project’s objective, colors, design, etc., but this conversation was anything but typical. Each time when asked about designs or expectations the customer brought up price and budget.

Acknowledging that the project was a logistical challenge — beginning with an eight-hour time difference between Texas and Bahrain — Sundek personnel also saw it as an opportunity to show their patriotism and support for the men and women fighting for our country.

I would bet that when you think about concrete, humor is not the first word that comes to mind. Then again, you aren’t Gordon Young.

At the 2012 Concrete Decor Show, three companies went head-to-head to compete for the bragging rights of being the winner in this year's Demonstration Pavillion. The contest was designed to show off the polishing products of the three competitors: WerkMaster, AmeriPolish and Xtreme Polishing.

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.

Self-consolidating concrete is a highly technical mix. It is not an easy mix to create, since it requires an understanding of how all the ingredients work together. What’s more, specialized testing is required to characterize and optimize the mix.

A Chicago sports lover’s paradise opened in January 2012: the Chicago Sports Depot, a two-story, 12,000-square-foot retail facility located adjacent to U.S. Cellular Field (home of the Chicago White Sox baseball team) that offers fans an extensive collection of merchandise and they enjoy decorative concrete in the process.