Staining & Coloring Concrete

When a city, school or government chooses to spend a little extra money on decorative concrete, it demonstrates civic pride — and makes that lobby, city pool or roadside a little easier on the eyes.

Stain remains a popular finish, and while the number of problems or complaints has decreased over the last few decades, the problems remain the same, and they don’t discriminate between professionals and DIY homeowners.

Indiana-based C2 Products Inc. offers an environmentally friendly, durable way to seal and stain concrete with its flagship products, The Bean and The Jelly Bean.

Cary Grant — the Las Vegas decorative-concrete impresario, not the Hollywood movie icon — has crafted dramatic masterpieces through his company, Floor Seasons, that could be considered Oscar-worthy, if there was a decorative concrete category.

Borders can be used in many ways, not just to frame a room and make our engraving easier than cutting all the way to a wall. Usually 6-10 inches wide around the edge of a space, they can also be used as their own design element.

Maintenance is something that torments most decorative concrete contractors, unless, that is, there is a significant maintenance profit center to their business. In the case of The Concretist, there is not.

The idea that you can take three connected “squares,” change the color for all three and make them appear to be two walls and a floor is pretty cool.

Inspired by a desire to develop and utilize responsible chemistry for the environment, a group of scientists and chemists teamed up to create Evolution Surface Solutions. Now, after seven years of product testing, Evolution Surface Solutions has released their line of TruNano Sealers & Coatings, which is made up of five sealers, six coatings and two additives.

What's the difference between concrete and decorative concrete? One of the first indicators is whether it has the dull gray color of … well, concrete, or if it incorporates a natural or even not-so-natural hue, tone or shade. Of course, there are also several ways to add color to concrete, depending on the needs and desires of the client.

A surface-preparation product called The Profiler from Surface Gel Tek can be used to create an etched effect with stencils. In these photos, Dane Hantz of Dane Concrete Design in Prescott, Arizona, demonstrates the technique. The surface was a steel-troweled concrete floor in a home. Hantz wanted to create a 60-linear-foot border around the room.

To sample just a few of the flavors of decorative concrete that can be found in the newest restaurants, follow us to Modesto, Calif., San Diego, Calif., Covington, La., and St. Louis, Mo.

Spice 6, a fast-casual restaurant in Hyattsville, Md., serves up a zesty visual feast that complements its Chipotle-like “modern Indian” bill of fare.

The products and finishes in the decorative industry are becoming more sophisticated - polymer-modified toppings, nanotechnology sealers, and sustainable stains and dyes to name a few. But all need to remember the old tried-and-true products that still make up a large portion of the industry, and refresh ourselves on the right way to use them.

Cary Grant has had an interesting life and he admits that his name, the same as the classic Hollywood icon, has always been an icebreaker.

Super Dye is a liquid concentrate, not a powder dye. The Super product is packaged as an 8-ounce concentrated liquid that is mixed with a gallon of water or acetone. Give the mixture a quick stir, and it's ready to apply to the concrete floor without having to wait for the dye to sweat in.

The sixth annual Decorative Concrete Awards were announced recently by sponsor L. M. Scofield Co. The contest honors contractors and designers who use Scofield decorative concrete materials.

This year, for the first time, the contest was divided into six categories.

In his 68 years, Jim Vermillion has mastered many skills: military officer, airline pilot, inventor, seagoing kayak adventurer, business owner.

But he hasn’t been able to get the hang of retirement.

Melanie Royals started out working on her own techniques and designs as an answer to problems she perceived in the stenciling industry. In 2003, Royals introduced Modello designs to the decorative painting industry, a fresh concept she called “the art of decorative masking.” This line of stencils, called Modellos, differed from Mylar stencils in that they are one-time use adhesive-backed vinyl patterns.

There are many regions where the weather does not seem winterlike but is cold enough to affect concrete placement. This is where cold-weather placement practices become very important. Not following the rules because it does not seem that cold potentially leads to concrete that is weak and substandard.

When Adobe Coatings of Mesa, Ariz., was brought in to create new concrete floors for Christ's Greenfield Lutheran Church in Gilbert, Ariz., the original plan was to use acid stain for the entire project. One hitch: The 11,000-square-foot project included some balcony space.

So far, I’ve written a lot about math and my love for it as it is truly my favorite part of my decorative concrete work process. Recently, however, I’ve been getting requests to turn my attention to color, which I think would be a nice change of pace. Let me warn you in advance: If you thought talking math with me was complex, wait until you hear my take on color theory. I can go on for days.

The finished floor of this art center brings in the arts wherever applicable. The new floor was one of the major changes to the space, and it presented the perfect opportunity to showcase local talent in artists who could work with concrete. Instead of creating a neutral floor, we went for bright and vibrant.

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.