Friday, January 23, 2009

Vibrant and Alive: Colored Polished Concrete

By Mikkan Drane

You can choose from a variety of ways in order to give your polished concrete floor the desired color you want it to become. These ways include in the typical color pigment to concrete mix application, dye, tinting, and chemical or acid staining option. With the right method and a choice of pattern to add in, you will be able to come up with the polished concrete design that you wish to have.

Color pigmentation coloring option is what used to be the most common way many concrete polishing experts had gotten used with. This process involves the coloring pigment material being mixed at the right proportion with the cement on the concrete or as topping on its layer. The pigment is applied to the thickness of the concrete itself. Used commonly during honing, the color pigments are lessened when necessary depending on what the concrete floor requires. It is available in powder, dissolving granule, and liquid form.

Color pigmentation uses ultra fine pigment particles that works when these fine solids disperses throughout the entire matrix of the concrete foundation. Mostly featured as a dry shake process, the color pigmentation method can be applied as a cement and sand hand cast to the pre hardened surface of the concrete. A process known as monolithic topping formation causes the color of the pigment to come off.

Concrete acid staining or chemical staining is the now much preferred method in coloring concrete polished floors. This product is composed of metallic salts with slightly acidic, water based solution compounds. The process of chemical staining happens when the dense concrete opens because of the acid, which then allows the metallic salts to seep in to the concrete where it reacts to the hydrated lime present in the compounds of the concrete slab.

The concrete polished coloring option tints and dyes are actually far off the common idea of dyes on cloths in particular. In this type of tint and dye, the colors are actually more vibrant and opaqued. This makes controlling the way the design and flow would go trouble free.

The surface coating option for coloring polished concrete floors is probably the simplest method available. This process only requires the contractor to paint and apply sealer on the surface of the concrete polished floor. The design and pattern would all come down to the clients choices of colors and shades. This type of coloring option can easily give you styles and finishes similar to mottled sandstone similar to what interior designers love. The end result in coloring your concrete polish floor all depends on how you maximize the different methods available. - 15252

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