Vertical & Carved Concrete

The Streets at SouthGlenn, a sprawling new shopping destination in south Denver, boasts a block-long urban park with a brick fireplace, tall "legacy trees," gardens and cafes, and a centerpiece: a grand, European-style fountain, more than 16 feet tall with four falls.

Nolan King, owner of King Architectural Concrete and Construction LLC in River Falls, Wisconsin, started his own construction business at the age of 23 after graduating from college in 2001 with an engineering degree. His business focused primarily on home remodeling work.

Vertical Artisans, launched in January 2008 at Verticalartisans. com, presents training videos and articles by experts. The site aims to offer a broader perspective than can be found at schools or training centers that, besides being bound by the limits of time and space, are often devoted to one manufacturer’s product line or one artisan’s techniques.

David Seils’ master craft, wall relief sculpture, is an art form that dates back to ancient times, when civilizations carved designs into stone walls, buildings and columns. But instead of chiseling away material, the Asheville, N.C.-based Seils builds up his wall sculptures in layers using mortar, a mason’s hawk and a trowel.

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.

East Coast met West Coast and “old school” joined up with state-of-the-art hardscape concrete work at an award-winning residential project in Andover, Mass. The three-level backyard spread, including patio, pool, fire pit and surrounding walls, earned project owner New England Hardscapes, of Acton, Mass., an ASCC design award.

Whether you're working on a decorative wall in a backyard or the exterior walls of a 15-story building, consider stencils for vertical surfaces.

If you apply vertical concrete, carve concrete walls or create cast pieces, sooner or later you may have to face a painful truth: Traditional metal lath can be troublesome.

The language barrier was the least of the obstacles a team of two professors and a student from Southern Arkansas University had to overcome during a weeklong trip to Cuba last November for an art project with the University of Artemisa. The saga began with a lack of supplies and ended with the death of Fidel Castro the night before the Americans left.

Give your next faux-stone wall vertical project the look of a Spanish vineyard with this effect from Flex-C-Ment.

Their still-in-progress project includes a number of concrete features inside the home, the centerpiece being a cast-in-place, carved, stamped GFRC staircase that resembles rock and leads into the basement-level man cave, graced by a sun-and-clouds water feature on the wall next to the staircase.

Imagine this: You own an estate in the California hills overlooking Monterey Bay. You are a lover of art and natural beauty. You want a swimming pool complex with a large concrete deck and pool house. You want it to accentuate the surrounding landscape and incorporate the feel of the bay, but you’re not sure how you want to achieve that. Who do you call?

I’ve always been curious why certain decorative systems and finishes take hold only in certain regions of the country, while others are universal in their appeal and demand. The answer lies somewhere between perception, demand and what the market is offering.

If you’re one of the growing number of contractors making the move from horizontal to vertical, this may be one of your first questions.

A visually striking public art project near the University of Simon Fraser in Vancouver, British Columbia, was the result of science and engineering intersecting, orchestrated by a concrete artisan who was skilled enough to make it happen.

When taking on pervious paving contracts, the San Diego-based contractor’s mix design is typically accepted by clients following mock-up, as custom blends can significantly increase a project’s difficulty. Yet, there are always exceptions, with the most recent being the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans).

In the world of theming, epoxy is still an underutilized tool for creating levels of detail and realism second to none. For example, Polygem Inc. has spent years developing its 307 series of epoxy among others that are custom-formulated for this exact type of work.

Structurally unbeatable, decorative forms and form-liners are creating a timely and profitable advantage on more and more jobsites, big and small.

Glass-fiber reinforced concrete and other materials can be molded to make rock structures so natural-looking, even Mother Nature will be fooled.

Looking for a way to expand your business’ offerings or add a little more creativity to your life? Either way, the vertical surfaces market may be for you.

As for Hileman’s original vision of using actual coco logs in construction, remember “termites” and realize it is nice to fool Mother Nature — and human guests — in the name of maintenance.

American Patriot Getaways in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, is one of the companies that rents cabins to vacationers who want to stay in “tree houses” in the Smoky Mountains.

Exposed aggregate finishes are in demand on concrete walls. How do you get that rock to pop? One way is to use a surface retarder.