Ted VandenRaadt ~ Full Service Concrete Placement. 714-296-9221 in Orange County California and Los Angeles County,
Providing professional services for both residential and commercial projects. No job is too large or too small for us to handle, we can handle it all. Today's economic factors have promoted homeowners and builders to spend money in home remodels and updates versus building new, a trend not lost on the concrete industry. At Ted's Concrete we welcome the opportunity to work with you on any concrete project you may be considering.
Concrete Demolition, Concrete Pumping, Concrete Finishing, Stamped Concrete, Colored Concrete, Concrete Bullnose and more.
A concrete finisher, also known as a cement mason, is a tradesman who works with concrete. The job entails placing, finishing, protecting and repairing concrete in engineering and construction projects.
Concrete finishers are often responsible for setting the concrete forms, ensuring they have the correct depth and pitch. Concrete finishers place the concrete either directly from the concrete wagon chute, concrete pump, concrete skip or wheelbarrow. They spread the concrete using shovels and rakes, sometimes using a straightedge back and forth across the top of the forms to "screed," or level, the freshly placed concrete. After leveling the concrete, they smooth the surface using either a hand masonry trowel, a long handed "bull float" or powered floats. After the concrete has been leveled and floated, concrete finishers press an edger between the forms and the concrete to chamfer the edges so that they are less likely to chip.
Stamped concrete is concrete that is patterned and/or textured or embossed to resemble brick, slate, flagstone, stone, tile, wood, and various other patterns and textures. Stamped concrete is commonly used for patios, sidewalks, driveways, pool decks, and interior flooring. The ability of stamped concrete to resemble other building materials makes stamped concrete a less expensive alternative to using those other authentic materials such as stone, slate or brick.
There are three procedures used in stamped concrete which separate it from other concrete procedures; the addition of a base color, the addition of an accent color, and stamping a pattern into the concrete. These three procedures provide stamped concrete with a color and shape similar to the natural building material. It also is longer lasting than paved stone, and still resembles the look.
The base color is the primary color used in stamped concrete. The base color is chosen to reflect the color of the natural building material. The base color is produced by adding a color hardener to the concrete. Color hardener is a powder pigment used to dye the concrete.
The color hardener can be applied using one of two procedures; integral color or cast-on color. Integral color is the procedure where the entire volume of concrete is dyed the base color. The entire volume of concrete is colored by adding the color hardener to the concrete truck, and allowing all the concrete in the truck to be dyed. Cast-on color is the procedure where the surface of the concrete is dyed the base color. The surface of the concrete is colored by spreading the color hardener onto the surface of the wet concrete and floating the powder into the top layer of the wet concrete.
Concrete can be colored in many ways; color hardener, integral liquid or powder, acid stains to name a few. The process of integrally coloring the concrete offers the advantage of the entire volume being colored; however, the surface strength is not increased as with the use of color hardener. Dry shake color hardener is another popular way to color concrete. You broadcast the hardener on the concrete as soon as it is floated for the first time. After letting the bleed water soak into the hardener you float and trowel it in. This method only covers the surface about 3/16 of an inch but it gives the concrete surface a longer wear life.