Concrete Overlays & Toppings

Passion, precision, artistry and creativity were all on display at the L. M. Scofield Co. ninth annual Decorative Concrete Awards ceremony. Scofield enlists professionals from the concrete industry to judge submissions based on skill of installation, artistic expression and integration with the overall design intent.

There is no shortage of information, or opinion, when it comes to surface preparation for applying coatings or overlays. Read any technical data sheet for a topping or coating and it’s almost always the first thing discussed. Words like critical, must, essential and required are often found in the guidelines dealing with surface preparation.

Condo owners in a gated community dreaded getting their pool up to snuff. Decorative concrete contractor Julio Hallack showed them they had nothing to worry about.

A baker knows when there’s a disaster in the kitchen, sometimes a little bit of icing can go a long way toward redemption. Concrete contractors have a similar option with overlays and an unsightly slab: The overlaid section not only looks better but the chemistry behind today’s overlay offerings often creates a much more durable surface than what was already there.

An review of Elephant Armor as told by concrete contractors in the field.

The decorative overlay industry has grown exponentially over the last 10 years, and so has the number of failures and problems related to overlay installations.

Last fall, Architectural Concrete and Design Inc. was tasked with retrofitting the concourse of nearby Valley Fair Mall with a stampable overlay system. The specifications dictated that the selected concrete system was to be installed over existing ceramic tile without any demolition.

As part of a public kindergarten renovation project in Villemomble, France, the town approached Eqiom Bétons to present samples of finishing possibilities for the Joseph Gallieni School’s outside pathways. And, in the end, the project turned out just ducky.

A thin-set topping or microtopping is sort of like icing on a cake. It can go on thick or thin and be colored all the way through or just on the surface. The topping can be shaped to resemble decorative items. And, aesthetics aside, it can protect the surface beneath it.

Built in Missouri in 1927, the First Presbyterian Church of St. Louis’ sanctuary was recently renovated to modernize its look and feel, while preserving its historic Gothic style. Improvements to the sanctuary’s floor, specifically two rectangular sections under the pews, were vital to this upgrade.

Nailing the gold in the O that is the official logo of University of Oregon sports couldn’t have been easy. But here it is, on a dyed and polished cement overlay floor at The Duck Store in the Clackamas Town Center shopping mall, near Portland, Ore.

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.

Let’s get the question out of the way that you undoubtedly are itching to ask: Is it a jungle out there for California transplant Steve Kroo and Concrete Jungle, his Northridge decorative concrete business?

A five-star resort will often go the extra mile to achieve the perfect ambiance. But a resort in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, actually went an extra 2,500 miles to Sundek headquarters in Arlington, Texas, to get the decorative concrete deck it wanted for its outdoor restaurant and lounge.

The issue of blisters and pin holes occurring on the surface of cast-in-place concrete and resin-based coatings and sealers is well documented, but surprisingly very little is published regarding the same issues in decorative overlays.

The historical structure that now houses the Nashville Dinner Theatre has always attracted attention. During Prohibition times, people slyly used a tunnel in the building to transport alcohol to area nightclubs. Today, it attracts crowds for its dinner shows and performances by local vocalists.

Creating a flagstone pattern on concrete has long been a tedious job even for the most skilled technicians. But thanks to a product by Westcoat called Stone Strips, making custom flagstone patterns on a decorative concrete overlay just got a whole lot easier.

Potbelly Sandwich Works had been searching for a flooring system where they could produce the same consistent look store after store. One of their general contractors looked around online and told the Potbelly project manager he thought the Düraamen overlay products would be a good fit.

In the decorative concrete world, that can’t happen as easily. You get one shot at doing everything right. The interior and exterior must match, have the right scale and the right detail. While the daily work gets done, a part of you dreams to find that one client who changes your portfolio forever.

An overlay installation starts with the product in powder form being mixed with a specific amount of cold water. Right after it’s poured or pumped onto the floor you use a gauge rake to set the thickness you want the self-leveling overlay to be.

When Ray Anger, owner of Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Decorative Concrete Staining & Scoring Inc., came on board as the decorative concrete contractor for the Scottsdale location of Diane’s Beachwear, he took plans for the store’s floor from simple to spectacular.

Metallic floor coatings are a very exotic-looking flooring option. Unlike with solid-color pigment or chips, no two metallic floors are alike.