Concrete Stains	Concrete Restoration	Concrete Sealers	GFRC Mix Designs
Concrete Countertops	Concrete Surface Prep	Thin Concrete Overlays	Vertical Coatings

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U.S. Locations for SureCrete Design’s decorative concrete product lines and concrete demos and training including: Stamped Concrete, Stamp Overlay’s, Spray Textures, Thin Overlays, Micro-Toppings, Concrete Stain & Sealer, DIY Concrete Countertops, Xtreme GFRC and much more…

California (Northridge, Santa Cruz, Sonoma), Colorado (Denver, Colorado Springs), Florida (Jacksonville, Orlando, Ocala, Tampa, Bradenton, Fort Myers, Englewood, Punta Gorda, Miami, Boca Raton, St. Augustine), Georgia (Alpharetta), Illinois (Crest Hill, Peoria, Chicago), Indiana (Nappanee, South Bend, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis), Iowa (Shellsburg, Pleasant Hill), Louisiana (New Iberia), Missouri (Kansas City), New Jersey (Morristown), North Carolina (Asheville, Charlotte, Concord), Ohio (Barberton, Cincinnati), Oklahoma (Tulsa), Pennsylvania (Paradise), Texas (Houston, Lubbock, Dallas Fort Worth), Utah (Salt Lake City), Wisconsin (Ixonia)

 

CANADA Locations for SureCrete Design’s decorative concrete product lines and concrete demos and training including: Stamped Concrete, Stamp Overlay’s, Spray Textures, Thin Overlays, Micro-Toppings, Concrete Stain & Sealer, DIY Concrete Countertops, Xtreme GFRC and much more…

Quebec (Montreal), Ontario (Embro), British Columbia (Vancouver), Alberta (Calgary)


A History of Concrete - Concrete has been in wide use for hundreds of years, dating back as early as the Roman Empire. It is by definition merely a mixture of cement, fly ash, slag cement, aggregates and water. Over the years our understanding of this material has led us to numerous innovations in its composition that drastically change its physical properties.

Stamped Concrete - This was the first step in the "decorative concrete" industry. By adding some pigment and a few admixtures to change the rate of the concrete's initial cure time, stamped concrete became possible. It merely involves having a textured tool to help sculpt a pattern or design into a freshly poured slab of concrete. Usually employing some form of integral color and pigmented powder or liquid release for the stamping tools for some additional dimension in the piece. Stamped concrete has been a staple for hotels and resorts for years.

 

Thin Concrete Overlays - So what do you do if you already have a concrete slab? Especially one you don't particularly like? Well, the first response was to "paint it" using a variety of pigmented acrylic, polyurethane and epoxy sealers. While this does add color, it doesn't do much for the texture of your slab. Thus came the advent of thin concrete overlays. Now we could add a thin layer of texture to an existing concrete slab instead of having to rip it all up and start over. This could be done using a hopper gun to spray out a thin bubble like texture to mimc the river rock look of most pool decks, or by troweling a "knock down" look very similar to what you would see on the outside of a stucco home, or even by employing stamping tools to a stamp overlay mixture to mimic the look of stamped concrete. These thin concrete overlays are usually enhanced by using water based stains, translucent highlighting or just by employing color enhancing sealers to help make the integral color "pop" a bit more.

 

Concrete Restoration - Sometimes your concrete slab is in less than perfect condition. Some areas deal with issues like freeze-thaw, low water tables, moisture migration, and salt erosion which have a habbit of creating spalled concrete, and even cracked and broken concrete slabs. After quickly realizing that any thin concrete overlay used over these kinds of slabs would simply spall and crack just like the concrete below it, we had to find a way to "fix" the original concrete slab before any asthetic modifications could be done. And so, concrete restoration was born. By filling in cracks with a flexible substance such as urethane or epoxy, cracks could be managed before they progressed to an unfixable state. We learned to cut slabs in specific size increments so as to allow the concrete to "move" and lessen the need for cracks. Then we discovered how to densify our concrete. By emplying a lithium densifier, we were able slow moisture migration, strengthn the concrete integrity, and help prevent some of the problems that cause concrete to fail. This miracle product called lithium densifier can help prevent issues like salt erosion, moisture migration, and freeze-thaw.

 

Concrete Countertops - For as long as concrete has been around, people have been finding new and interesting ways to work it into architecture. The most popular feature being the concret countertop. This first started as merely taking the same bag mix that was used to make your driveway, and pouring it into a stationary mold that was right where you wanted it, then removing the mold to reveal your new piece. Concrete countertops have evolved into an ever changing and progressing industry. Now we can make concrete countertops that are lightweight and stronger than normal concrete. What used to take weeks can now take hours as we discovered high early strength concrete. We could do in 4 hours what would normally take a week - and at half the weight of normal concrete. Now it's possible to make a concrete countertop in very little time and make it lightweight enough to carry into your jobsite with very little effort!

 

GFRC - After years of toying with concrete in many different facets, GFRC is considered by many to be the end all of the precast concrete industry. With the ability to cast at very thin (yet still exceedingly strong) rates, GFRC or Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete has paved the way for a myriad of new uses for concrete in art and architecture. GFRC panels are made to cover the exterior of buildings with beautiful decorative fascades that would normally be nearly impossible to make by hand. GFRC molds are even used in small art pieces and crown moldings or other decorative pieces to give a very real look while still mainting a lightweight product that can be easily installed and moved. The biggest advent of this industry came when it was discovered that the contents of what would normally make up a GFRC mix could all be placed into a "bagged mix" to be easily accessible to the general public and more cost effective for smaller projects. This put GFRC back in the realm of "normal concrete" just like people had been used to with all others - just pick up a bag, mix some liquid and start working.

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