GBR Concrete - Dayton, Ohio

The Colored and Stamped process is both a science and art form. It provides for a very unique appearance resembling anything from natural stone to bricks. The process replaces conventional methods of laying brick, stone etc... for a much more economical and beautiful result. The colored and stamped process also allows you much more flexibility with your pattern choices and layout options. You can combine or mix patterns with 100's of color combinations. GBR concrete has almost a decade of experience with this new art form and highly recommend this option if you really want a beautiful finish with the flexibility of concrete.

Color Hardener The steps leading up to the colored & stamped process are the same as the Basic Process, except soon after floating the finish, a GBR Crew member will spread over, 1 of 40 colors of a pigmented cement (color hardener), the surface. The color hardener is broadcasted across the slab as many times as needed, and troweled into the surface, to insure that the entire surface of the slab is a consistent color as chosen by you. The color hardener is the "base" color and is in fact pigmented cement. Because of this, the more cement that is added to the concrete the stronger it gets. Colored and stamped concrete is between 8,000 -10,000 PSI on the surface--twice the strength as regular concrete. Therefore, you're not going to accidentally drop something on it and chip it. However, like regular concrete it can be deliberately be beaten with a hammer and damaged.
Antique Release Shortly after the color hardener is troweled the next step is to apply 1 of 40 colors of Antique Release. It is broadcasted onto the now colored slab, before stamping the impressions. The antique release serves two purposes: 1st - Allows rubber stamps to be placed onto the surface of the wet concrete and impress the concrete with texture and pattern and then be removed from the surface of the concrete without allowing the concrete to stick to the stamps. 2nd - the release provides a highlight or grout line color contrast against the color hardener.
Stamping As the name implies, the still "soft" concrete, it then stamped. The stamps are typically, heavy duty rubber mats that have negative impressions of your pattern choice. GBR also has "stamp rollers" which are heavy drums that are rolled over the surface to create an impression. These are used more often for straight pathways but can be used in almost any application.
Finishing After the stamping is complete, your new slab is still not done. It will temporarily have a flat almost congruent color which is the ruminants of the antique release. Depending on the weather, our crew will let the slab sit for 24 hours. The next day our Finish Crew will saw cut control joints in the concrete, to control cracking. Then the crew will wash and scrub off the excess antique release that wasn't absorbed by the wet concrete the previous day, leaving a beautiful 2-tone surface coloring. After all of the excess release has been removed the crew will seal the surface with a silica-sand-based sealer specially designed for colored concert surfaces called Everclear. It protects the surface and provides a non-skid surface for traction.
Maintenance The manufacturer of the sealer recommends sealing the concrete every 3-5 years. Simply mop the surface with hot water and soap, rinse and let air dry until the surface is free of water, and apply the sealer with a course roller and back-roll to insure even distribution--two coats are preferred. It takes a couple of years for the water that is trapped in the concrete to work its way to the surface where it evaporates into salt deposits called Effloresence. Our experience has been that year from the time of placement you need to re-seal and then the following year re-seal again and then it's good for 3-5 years.