The Stronghold Floors Blog

There are a lot of products that are used with concrete.  One newer item that causes some confusion is concrete densifiers.  Are they a sealer?  Are they the same as epoxy?  Just what is a densifier?

Concrete Densifiers Explained

Concrete densifiers are chemicals that are applied to the surface to:

1)      Fill in the pores at the surface

2)      Increase surface density

3)      Improve the wear resistance

4)      Reduce dusting

We constantly add new content to our website. So much so that it would be difficult to keep up.  I’m going to use this blog to recap all of the recent changes and additions to StrongholdFloors.com.

Polished concrete is commonly featured in decorative concrete magazines and websites.   For the later part of the 2000s, it seemed that polished concrete was the rage.   Like many concrete coatings companies, we began to install polished concrete in residential basements, fire stations, commercial showrooms and industrial production environments.    Now, like many concrete coatings companies, we rarely install polished concrete in commercial/industrial settings and will NOT install polished concrete in residential environments.

In our last blog, we began by discussing two very poor choices for garage floor solutions.    They were stamped concrete and overlays (including epoxy stone and cementitious overlays). We still have 3 more poor choices to discuss.

Every year, I see advertisements for garage floor finishes that make no sense to me.    The most recent advertisement was a small company in central Pennsylvania offering stamped concrete and stating it was a good solution for a garage.    What?!?!

Kim and I just returned from a week at the World of Concrete in Las Vegas.   I’m really not trying to “rub it in” that we escaped the horrible cold (polar vortex) for 6 days. I just want to share some impressions and feedback from our trip.

The World of Concrete

This is one of the largest shows hosted in Las Vegas. If it has anything to do with concrete, it’s probably at the World of Concrete.  Attended by about 50,000 people, the show features vendors and demonstrations on forming and pouring concrete, repairing concrete, polishing concrete, staining and dye work, decorative overlays and, of course, concrete coatings.   The show is massive and requires about 3 days to walk through it all.

We got to see some of the truly artistic aspects of products we use, such as metallic epoxy.   To the right is a picture where an artist used the same metallic pigments we use to do basements, offices and garage floors, but utilized them in highly decorative way to create a painting. 

While the show is impressive, I have to admit that every trip to Las Vegas always impresses me because of all the types of decorative concrete finishes that are on permanent display on the Strip and elsewhere.