Products Overview

INTERSTATE decorative CONCRETE DESIGNS, Corp.

• Products Overview

Concrete Products Overview

The Design Process

You Don’t Have The Foggiest Clue Where To Start or How To Begin
Take 5 Minutes To See If You Agree, This Process Is Easier Than You Think

At Interstate Decorative Concrete Designs, we make every effort do the job right and make it enjoyable. Here is what I mean. Before the start of any interior job; you will meet with an Interior Decorator at our expense. His or her job is to help you through the entire design process. Once you have narrowed down the options, we will make sample boards or pallets. You can take these and place them wherever you want to make sure the color, pattern, and texture give you the look you are looking for.

We will make as many pallets as necessary until you and the decorator are satisfied with your selection. If it is an outdoor job like installing a walkway or patio, you will meet with our engineer and design consultant. He will work with you to produce a site drawing. This is important and vital step that no one else does. The reason is, it helps assure you are protected and here is what I mean. The site sketch as we call it, not only shows how the walkway, patio, or driveway will be laid out. But it tells the crews where they can and can’t go. If you just put in a new lawn you don’t want a Bobcat going back and forth and tearing it all up. The site sketch also show where sprinklers are, where lighting is located, the location of flower beds, where fill is to be laid and any materials removed from the site are to be stored. When this site sketch is completed, the engineer and design consultant will ask you to sign or initial the plan. This plan is kept on file and a copy is given to the crew boss. He will go over this plan to make sure everyone who will be on your property understands what they must do and not do in an effort to protect your property from damage. And another thing, if we do damage it we will fix it period, there will be no hassles.

A Little Education About Concrete

Concrete Has Been Around For 5,000 Years, But It Never Was Used Like This…

What I like to do at this point is give you a little education about concrete. What you are about to learn will help you know if you are getting a job that is done right and will last for years.

You see, concrete in one form or another has been used in construction, for almost 5,000 years. The Egyptians used a primitive mortar mix around 3,000 BC with the Romans getting credit for discovering “true concrete” around 300 BC by mixing pozzolana cement, from Pozzuoli, Italy,(near Mt. Vesuvius) with lime and sand. The Ancient Romans also added animal fat, milk, and blood as admixtures. Now admixtures are substances added to cement to increase or change its properties. The Romans added these admixtures to make water proof cement. This type of cement was used to water proof the Coliseum of Rome so that it could be flooded to reenact naval battles. Today we add synthetic versions of these substances to give concrete different engineering properties that we will talk about in a moment.

Water is probably the most critical component of concrete. Many people think that concrete hardens when the water dries out. This is not true. The water added to concrete aids in the binding of the sand and rocks called aggregate, used in the concrete mixture. The water chemically reacts with the Portland cement in a process called hydration. The role of water is important because the water to cement ratio is the most critical factor in the production of "perfect" concrete. Too much water reduces concrete strength, while too little will make the concrete unworkable. Concrete needs to be workable so that it may be poured, smoothed and stamped. Because concrete must be both strong and workable, a careful balance of the cement to water ratio is required when making concrete. The concrete must not be allowed to dry or set too quickly which is why the concrete may be covered or misted on hot sunny days, but also needs to be protected if it rains. A good contractor is mindful of this and will take the necessary precautions.

A simple recipe for modern concrete is sand, crushed stone, and Portland cement, but to change the properties of the cement, admixtures can be added.

Here is a list of the different commercial admixtures and what they do.

•	Air entraining: improves the durability, workability, reduces bleeding, and reduces freeze/thaw problems by adding tiny air bubbles to the mixture. These tiny air bubbles give the water in the concrete a place to safely expand when the temperature drops below freezing without damaging the concrete.
•	Superplasticizers: increase strength by decreasing the amount of water needed for workable concrete.
•	Retarders: delay the setting time, increase the long term strength, and offset the adverse effects of hot weather during installation.
•	Accelerators: speeds the setting time, increase the early strength, and offset the adverse effects of cold weather.
•	Microfibers: increase the tensile strength and inhibit the formation of micro cracks.

So what is the difference between structural concrete and decorative concrete? Structural concrete is the plain every day white or gray concrete you see in buildings. To increase structural concrete’s tensile strength or strength in tension, it is reinforced with steel or microfibers. This can be in the form of wire screen or mesh, steel bars called rebar, or steel fibers. This structural reinforcement is important because it gives the concrete resistance to macro or large cracks.

Decorative concrete has sand and Portland cement, but that is where the similarity ends. Manufacturers today add proprietary admixtures and define sand grain size to give this product its unique characteristics. I have seen this product applied to a wooden board and the board was bent until it broke, the board broke before the concrete cracked. Decorative concrete can be used to repair structural concrete surfaces. Deep cracks need to be filled and sealed before applying a decorative concrete surface.

Because of the admixtures in today’s decorative concrete, it binds to the concrete surface both physically and chemically. This is what gives decorative concrete its high durability.

Another important point in our concrete lesson is this. Concrete is porous. Water can easily travel through concrete and carry some nasty chemicals with it that can attack the concrete from the inside. This is why sealing a new concrete surface is so important.

After the concrete has set and cured the surface of the concrete should be protected by a sealant. There are several different types of both solvent based and latex based sealants that can be used and should be used in conjunction with each other to give the concrete surface a long maintenance free life.

We are almost done with our class on concrete, but there is one more important point I want to discuss briefly and that is control or contraction joints. You may have seen lines carved into a sidewalk or walkway. These lines are called control joints and they allow the concrete to crack because of thermal expansion and contraction. You have to remember the temperature ranges, exterior concrete can see over a 24 hour period. In the sun the surface temperature can reach over 200 F and at night the temperature can drop below freezing. To give you an example using the temperature extremes we just talked about; let’s say you have a one hundred foot driveway; your driveway will be almost an inch longer by mid-afternoon as compared to the early morning when you left for work. These extremes of temperature cause the concrete to expand during the day and contract at night. The enormous stress that this puts on the concrete must be relieved. The control joints allow this stress to be relieved and cracking minimized. Any large surface like a patio, walkway, or driveway must have control joints.

For a walkway there should be control joints every 4 to 6 feet. For a large patio or driveway joints should be spaced 15 to 20 feet apart. A longitudinal joint down the center of a double width driveway, dividing the driveway into two equal width sections, is also as beneficial as the transverse joints. When widths exceed 20 feet, joints should be used to break up those expanses into architectural widths and lengths not to exceeding 20 feet.

A Little Education About Interior Decorative Concrete

Concrete Has Entered The Twenty-First Century, And Is Being Used In Ways You Could Never Imagine

Concrete, on the second floor of my house?! Yes, there are homes that have tiles on the second floor. News Flash! Anywhere tile can go, decorative concrete can go. Decorative concrete flooring is an extremely versatile flooring system. It can be applied on any floor in the house because it is lightweight and strong (5000 pounds per square inch (PSI) in compressive strength). The biggest problem with high-end flooring is that most clients will purchase “what they can afford,” not “what they really want.” The versatility decorative concrete allows our clients to get “what they really want.”

See how Decorative Concrete Flooring compares with other flooring products in the chart below

PRODUCT	Glue-less Laminate Flooring	Hard Wood
COST OF MATERIALS(per square foot)	$0.99 - $4.50	$4.00 and up
COST OF LABOR(per square foot)	$5.00 - $8.00	$5.00 - $10.00
TIME REQUIRED TO INSTALL	1 - 2 days	2 - 5 days
REQUIRED MAINTENANCE/yr	Standard cleaning or replace	Standard cleaning/wax and refinish/replace
COST OF MAINTENANCE/yr	NA; can only be replaced	$100 - $700
GRADE FOR DURABILITY	C	B
ADVANTAGES	Inexpensive product	Durable with maintenance
	Easy to install: good for do-it-your-selfers	Looks good
	Installs in little time	Warm on your feet
DISADVANTAGES	Can scratch easily	Dulls over Time
	Warps over time	Costly maintenance
	Limited in design	Limited in design
GRADE FOR OVERALL VALUE	C+	B

PRODUCT	Natural Stone (Marble, Granite, Slate…)	Linoleum
COST OF MATERIALS(per square foot)	$5.00 and up	$1.00 - $10
COST OF LABOR(per square foot)	$10 – 20	$5.00 - $8.00
TIME REQUIRED TO INSTALL	2 - 5 days	1 - 3 days
REQUIRED MAINTENANCE/yr	Standard cleaning/re-grout/replace	Standard cleaning or replace
COST OF MAINTENANCE/yr	$100 - $1,500	NA; can only be replaced
GRADE FOR DURABILITY	B+	D
ADVANTAGES	Very Durable	Inexpensive product
	Looks good	Easy to install: good for do-it-your-selfers
	Many designs	Installs in little time
DISADVANTAGES	Requires re-grout	Can scratch easily
	Expensive	Dulls over Time
	Designs limited by contractor	Not durable at all
GRADE FOR OVERALL VALUE	B+	D

PRODUCT	Ceramic or Porcelain Tile	Rug
COST OF MATERIALS(per square foot)	$1.00 and up	$0.45 and up
COST OF LABOR(per square foot)	$5.00 - $10.00	$4.00 - $8.00
TIME REQUIRED TO INSTALL	3 - 5 days	1 - 2 days
REQUIRED MAINTENANCE/yr	Standard cleaning/re-grout/replace	Shampoo(3/yr)/ vacuum/replace
COST OF MAINTENANCE/yr	$100 - 1,000	$100 - $300 (does not include what you paid for your vacuum)
GRADE FOR DURABILITY	B-	B-
ADVANTAGES	Good for do-it-your-selfers	Inexpensive product
	Can be inexpensive, but you always need to purchase extra tiles	Easy to install: good for do-it-your-selfers
	Looks good	Installs in little time
DISADVANTAGES	Tiles can crack	Gets dirty easily
	Grout gets moldy	Bad for allergies
	Design limited to affordable tiles	Can damage sub-floor
GRADE FOR OVERALL VALUE	B	B

PRODUCT	Terrazzo	Decorative Concrete
COST OF MATERIALS(per square foot)	$6.00 and up	$2.00 - $5.00
COST OF LABOR(per square foot)	$10.00 - $20.00	$7.00 - $15.00
TIME REQUIRED TO INSTALL	1 - 4 days	1 - 4 days
REQUIRED MAINTENANCE/yr	Standard cleaning or replace	Standard cleaning/reseal/ replace
COST OF MAINTENANCE/yr	NA; can only be replaced	$1.00 - $3.00 per square foot
GRADE FOR DURABILITY	A	A
ADVANTAGES	Extremely durable	Extremely durable
	Looks good	Unlimited designs
	Easy to clean	Easy to clean
DISADVANTAGES	Expensive	Requires maintenance
	Not practical for all floors	Requires a strong sub-floor
	Designs limited by contractor	Not popular…yet
GRADE FOR OVERALL VALUE	A	A

INTERSTATE DECORATIVE CONCRETE DESIGNS, CORP.

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