Concrete Coatings

From commercial kitchens, fire stations, spas and salons to basements, garages, veterinarian clinics and airport hangars, epoxy materials are being applied to concrete floor surfaces.

It’s no secret that most people think sealers are the Achilles’ heel of decorative concrete. You can do nearly everything perfectly while installing your concrete masterpiece only to have something like a sealer decimate all your good efforts.

Audiences in France loved the comedy of Jerry Lewis in his Hollywood heyday. Go figure. So, should it be a baffling head-scratcher to learn about a billionaire Italian jewelry and luxury goods magnate being smitten with vintage Buicks?

Heat is the universal catalyst. Apply heat and things tend to happen faster. Consider what happened the last time you accidentally grabbed a hot plate. I am sure your speed increased dramatically as you looked for a place to put the plate down. The same thing happens with sealers at the molecular level when the temperatures go up.

In his 40 years of working in the masonry and general construction industry, Dominick Freda has never been involved with a project of the magnitude of the St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary, a traditional Roman Catholic facility situated on 1,100 acres in Dillwyn, Virginia, not far from Charlottesville.

West End Commons is a new 91-unit loft development in Oakland, Calif. The two- and three-story townhouses have office space on the ground floor, with living space in the upper levels. Pettigrew’s company, Diamond D Concrete, won the subcontract to clean and clear-coat 40,000 square feet of concrete slab floors.

Concrete artist Emily McClintick has launched a new website showcasing her work. These images are just a taste of what you'll find on the Concrete Portfolio page of the website.

The U.S. Highway 80 Corridor in southwest Jackson, Miss., is one of those aging main drags that could use some aesthetic improvements. To the relief of many locals, much-needed changes are being made.

Happenstance led Tyson Long, president of Calgary-based Hardscapes Inc., to the new location of Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame museum in Calgary’s Canada Olympic Park, where he used white and clear epoxy coatings to transform the floor of the museum’s ice-hockey exhibit room into a virtual ice rink.

According to Paul Koury, president of Westcoat Specialty Coating Systems, one of the company’s recent projects was the green rooms of the Ascend Amphitheater in Nashville, Tennessee.

Through what Laticrete channel manager Jeff Bonkiewicz labels “connections,” a diverse group of Spartacote resinous flooring and Laticrete salesmen, company representatives and contractors teamed up to install a 13,000-square-foot floor for a new craft beer facility in Ogden, Utah.

UpStream Art, a project of the University Of Arkansas Division Of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service, has been using Seal-Krete products to protect murals on storm drains. The murals are being used to communicate the function and importance of storm drains.

Many decorative jobs require cleaning up an existing slab. Here’s a look at products that remove paint, rust, adhesives or grease.

The big national chain needed a ritzy floor for one of its new high-end home furnishing stores. A San Diego contactor brought the glamour, including metallics and a pearl finish.

Contractors have relied on acrylic sealers for decades to protect concrete flooring systems, and for good reason. In the right conditions, these sealers offer optimal durability, stain resistance and a desirable “wet look” finish. However, they have their limitations too and aren’t always the ideal option for high-traffic areas and environments with extreme hazards.

Brian Oberman, who has been in the concrete industry for 25 years, merged his company with Life Deck Coating Installations about three and a half years ago. Today, as general manager, he’s had the chance to work on projects such as Coasterra, the Beach Terrace Inn and Westroot Tavern.

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.

One of concrete's few downsides is the amount of waiting a contractor, and customer, must do while the concrete sets or coatings dry. Some of that waiting time is now significantly reduced, thanks to RapidShield from Epmar Corp., a subsidiary of Quaker Chemical Corp.

An engineer for a manufacturer of machines that use ultraviolet light to cure coatings explains equipment options for contractors.

As high-performance coatings become more commonplace in decorative applications, so do the problems associated with using them. Unlike acrylic sealers, high-performance coatings (polyurethane, epoxy, polyaspartic and polyurea) are not as forgiving when it comes to application, or more specifically, reapplication.

Second-story decks are popular outdoor spaces in both residential and commercial buildings, In order to help combat moisture problems below these decks, Westcoat Specialty Coating Systems offers two popular and proven waterproofing coating systems: ALX and MACoat.

When it comes to decorative concrete on floors, sometimes you have to take it off before you lay it down. Take a closer look at your two basic options when clearing the way for new work.