Vol. 12 No. 4 - May/June 2012

When Steve Moore, a retired escape artist and Harry Houdini historian, went looking for someone to help restore a damaged bust from Houdini’s grave, Bart Sacco’s was the first name to come up.

There are many molding compounds available, so it’s important to get one that’s appropriate for the application at hand.

Almost all manufacturers of decorative concrete systems and equipment offer some sort of training on their products. Whether it is a one-hour watch-and-learn or a three-day hands-on class that people pay to attend, these programs have become mainstream in our industry.

Close your eyes. Think of your business. Imagine you operate in a world without competitors. Imagine you’re the only one that customers can hire to install decorative concrete. Visualize yourself winning bid after bid without anything or anyone to stand in your way. Now, open your eyes. Welcome back to reality.

Look through Amedeo Cilli’s decorative concrete project photos and you’ll find stone patterns with color complexity and rugged texture that look straight out of nature. Actually, they’re the result of several decades of technique fine-tuning.

A How To feature that offers step-by-step instructions for casting statuary and other fine-featured pieces.

Once you have successfully cast your parts and finished them completely, you are ready to install your cast concrete range hood.

Industry experts predict that the demand for environmentally friendly, “green” building materials and methods will be the most significant driver in construction growth for the next five years and in the foreseeable future.

If you work with concrete you already know how abrasive, alkaline and caustic it is.

To put it simply, as portland cement dries, it will absorb water from any source in order to harden. That means it will suck the moisture from your skin as well.

The decorative concrete industry is driven by fascination. Inspiring this fascination in customers is only possible when you connect first and foremost. Unfortunately, this is the number one aspect I see missing within our talented artisans today. Just like your ability to create with color and concrete, there is an art to connecting with architects, designers and owners.

ick Fischer’s technical knowledge and artistic abilities make him a double threat in the decorative concrete world. He began his career in custom automobile painting and restoration, then moved into decorative paint finishes in commercial and residential spaces.

A very noticeable trend with decorative concrete over the last decade is that the end users and the design community have become much better educated, not only on the types of finishes and products available, but also on how they are installed and what to expect in terms of long-term performance.

The popularity of glass-fiber reinforced concrete (GFRC) has grown in the past few years as more and more people discover its versatility, strength and relative ease of manufacture. GFRC makes it possible to create stronger and lighter elements and complex 3-D pieces easily.

The new Exploration Center at the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Santa Cruz, Calif., invites visitors to interact with exhibits that explore issues impacting the marine ecosystem.

There are two types of F-numbers, which measure floor flatness and levelness respectively. Industry expert Allen Face is the creator of the F-number system, as well as the inventor of several measurement instruments and a principal inventor of superflat floor technology.

I went through this transition as a polishing contractor, so I thought that I would give you a few helpful tips and things to think about before you embark on this journey.

When your country calls you to do a job, how much should you charge? That was the predicament Dick Krach, CEO of Sundek of Washington, came face to face with when his secretary fielded a call from someone at a “white house” concerning a pool deck that needed repair and some sprucing up.

In fact, it was recommended that we avoid promoting this product and, if we had to sell it, that the variegated results should be disguised by buffing with a colored wax.

It’s a fact we have to face — everything ages. And colored concrete is not immune. Sometimes it fades to a soft, mellow color, but often it just becomes dull and lifeless. Or worse, later repairs and additions don’t match.

The job’s biggest challenge was figuring out a way to texture the surface without burying or breaking the fibers, Denny says. “The customer was intent on having stamped concrete, so not stamping wasn’t an option.”