Concrete Overlays & Toppings

Compressive strength — the ability of a material to withstand being compressed or pushed together — is often used to determine mortar and concrete’s quality. This makes sense for floors and overlayments as the primary forces applied to them are downward, compressive loads from traffic, equipment or anything affected by the force of gravity.

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.

After installing a stamped and colored concrete driveway in Minnesota, Concrete Science was approached by his client’s neighbor and complimented on a job well done. As luck would have it, during the conversation the man asked if Villella did epoxy work. He said yes and the talk turned to something the man had always wanted: a wall-to-wall penny floor.

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.

Teamwork, expertise and a carefully picked set of products were the secrets to success during a recent concourse floor coating job at Raley Field, home of Sacramento’s minor-league baseball team, the River Cats.

Whether you use self-leveling material as your primary pour or over existing concrete, it's an efficient way to get going on a job.

This column has little to do with discussions of intuitive freestyle art versus disciplined mechanical graphics, or with criticism of superfluous decoration as contrasted with really spare concrete - my normal "literary" territory. It's a column about me and a museum. It's a tale of two topping slabs.

In order to complete the nearly 2,000 square feet of surface area in just one week, workers from Butterfield and Miracote teamed up with local contractors to take on the massive overhaul.

We announce the winners in Exterior and Interior categories of the 2008 Restoration Contest.

Thank you to our sponsors, NewLook International and Midweest Rake.

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.

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.

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

I was once a much younger concretist, really impetuous and passionate. I was working for L.M. Scofield Co., and as my wife told me, I worked way too much. So she left me. To be more accurate, she left me in charge of the kids for 10 days while she and her best girlfriend toured a bit of England and Scotland.

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.

A job that began with a mere 80 square feet of overlay snowballed into a decorative concrete transformation — complete with faux hollow tree — for this restaurant and bar.

Many of those pedestrian-traveled venues that look like cobblestone, slate, brick and marble are in fact, cement surfaces fashioned to look like more expensive materials at a fraction of the cost. If you have questions, we have the answers.

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

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.

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.

For years, the owners of Phoenix, Ariz.-based retail chain Leslie’s Swimming Pool Supplies hired various contractors to work on their floors, hoping to see blue water-like effects beneath their customers’ feet. Their wish was granted when they met Troy Lewis, owner of Orlando, Fla.-based Exquisite Flooring of West Orange.

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.

Self-leveling products vary widely in their makeup, so which one you choose may largely depend on what you plan to do with it.