Concrete Overlays & Toppings

Cheryl and Ralph Burgess, of Mackintosh on the Lake, a development in Burlington, N.C., wanted a design in their sunroom. As you can see, they got a pretty spectacular one.

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.

If you think that converting 22,000 square feet of flooring from heavily pitted ceramic tile to sleek, glossy, stylish concrete isn’t hard enough, try completing your mission in a “live” supermarket. Take on the added challenge of racing the clock in the middle of the night to get one section completed before the daily load of feet and shopping-cart wheels travels over its still-unfinished and barely dry surface.

Have you seen interior concrete floors in such bad shape that your first thought was to rip them out and start over? It can be your immediate reaction, but there’s an easier approach. Self-leveling toppings or self-leveling overlays can be poured over concrete surfaces you didn’t think were salvageable, saving time and money.

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

Concrete finishes are typically intended to be smooth — polished even. There are polishing machines and sealants aplenty to achieve that flawless look. Careful selection and use of plywood concrete forms can also influence the finished appearance and texture. Various specialty and textured panels are available.

Today's trend has less to do with any certain product and more to do with a weak economy and saving money. Just like people are finding ways to make their cars go another year to save money, so too are they are looking for ways to make their existing concrete work another year.

Everything about the Brawl in the Fall at the 2016 Concrete Decor Show in San Diego was hot, hot, hot— from the record-breaking 100+ degree heat to the sizzling entries that shaped up in the outside lot during show time.

Ever notice the broad range of opinions that exist regarding concrete overlays and how they work? Take color hardener, for example — not everyone uses the product, but most agree that it is good and provides excellent results. Why then with overlays does such a spectrum of opinion and emotion exist?

Michael Day of Day's Concrete Floors Inc., North Monmouth, Maine, was hired in 2011 to do some serious makeover work at the Sugarloaf Mountain Ski Resort Hotel in Carrabasset Valley, Maine.

Decorative concrete has become increasingly popular with every passing year, and has evolved from primarily flooring products to use in walls, showers and countertops. Because of the increased popularity in decorative concrete, the used of overlays has grown as well and they have a lot of advantages.

When applying overlays over overlays, certain tools and techniques can make the job easier.

When Productivity Inc. built a new showroom in Minneapolis, Minn., more than three years ago, the company chose to top the floor with Artera, a polishable polymer-modified fiber-reinforced cementitious overlayment made by LifeTime Floors.

Polymers aren’t as colorful as pigments, acids and other raw materials used in decorative concrete. But because they help thin cemetitious toppings hold together, they are just as important.

A little-known fact about New Castle, Indiana, (for everyone not a Hoosier) is that it’s home to the world’s largest high school gymnasium. Basketball fever is so rampant in this small town of 18,000 that the community raised the money needed to build a high school gym that seats 9,325 spectators.

Concrete Re-Surfacing Technologies Inc. of Palos Park, Ill., was brought in to finish 8,000 square feet of plain concrete floor at the new Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center, one of the nation's largest memorials to the loss of millions of innocent lives during some of Europe's darkest hours.

Pablo Aviles, who heads Bomanite’s Mexico franchise, testifies to the value of the exchange that takes place between corporation and franchise. “Support from Bomanite has been crucial. It keeps us on the cutting edge and informed,” says Aviles, CEO of Concretos y Pigmentos S.A. de C.V., Mexico City.

One Day Stain from iCoat eliminates down time with a quick turnaround from start to finish.

A knockdown finish on horizontal concrete is not dissimilar to the knockdown finishes common on drywall. It involves a cementitious material that is dispensed by hopper gun, applied with spatter brush, or in some cases screeded, troweled and textured with rollers or stamping tools.

You can bet your boots that it wasn’t easy to overlay the three glittering, aggregate-spiked ramps that lead down from the VIP lounge to the dance floor in the nightclub of the Wild Horse Pass Casino.

Concrete patios and pool decks have long set a standard for basic backyards. But today’s consumers want much more than the basics and the industry is complying. Due to more efficient tools and techniques, complex designs can be installed quicker, easier and at a fraction of the cost.

These questions came from a couple who were building a new home and wanted polished concrete floors. The main floor is slab on grade, while the second level is slab on an engineered raised subfloor. There were issues during the concrete finishing, which eliminated polishing as an option.