Concrete

Today, we are greeted by various building and flooring surfaces, from simple flat hard wall, the very concrete walls which surround your home or apartment, the pavement in which cars drive by, or the sidewalk you walk on every day.  Each of them uses various materials for their own purpose whether to create a certain texture or aesthetic, or in structural purposes in which the weight of the material has to be taken to consideration, or maybe even the friction required for vehicles to go through to meet certain safety standards. Yet some surfaces might not be what you think they are.  

With modern materials, there are means of mimicking surfaces, from laid bricks to stone floorings, which one means to do so is concrete stamping. Which is the art of stamping over concrete which is malleable in order to create a desired surface. For such task specific tools are used which allow for efficient and quality work. There are: 

• Concrete Stamps – are pre-shaped plates which are either pressed, or rolled over the wet concrete in order to achieve the primary shape. Comes in various shapes, sizes, and patterns. 
• Texture Rollers – Are similar to a skin mat or a paint roller. It is rolled over the stamped concrete in order to provide each surface with their desired texture. Commonly used ones are the slate and stone textures, yet there are many other textures to use. 
• Touch-up Mat – With the large surface area the concrete stamp can cover, there will be areas in which require re-doing. And the use of a touch-up mat would allow consistent surface shaping along the entirety of the surface. The surface of the mat should be the same initially used on the texture rollers and stamps. 
• Detail Chisel – this is commonly used in surfaces which require the showing of grout, or to deepen the grooves of a surface in case some manual detailing will be required. 
• V-Jointer – typically used for surfaces with grout detailing. Is slid between the two large stamped surfaces to further emphasize grout in the desired surface.  

• Tamper Tool – commonly used in conjunction with either the larger concrete stamps, or the touch-up mat which allows for further force to be applied in order to leave a great texture on the surface and further set the grout lines. 
• Sealer – Is a liquid commonly sprayed over the finished stamped surface in which not only protects the concrete from future wear and damage, but also allows the surface to have a smooth surface desired, either, a smooth stone surface, wet-look, or many other finishes. 

The above tools are for primarily creating the surface of the decorative Concrete Charlotte NC. Other things such as color and many more are to be case-specific depending on the your desired surface as surfaces can be of familiar brick, slab, or stone, or even made to look like wooden planks in surfaces where traditional wood wouldn’t be suitable such as a poolside in which water could weaken and seep into the wooden fibers.