Concrete Style

Polished concrete flooring has gained popularity in recent years for its durability, low maintenance, and affordability. If you’re thinking about getting your floors redone but haven’t narrowed down your choice of material just yet, continue reading.

Polished concrete floors are perfect for both homes and businesses. They can be used in a variety of spaces, including kitchens and garages. Some of the biggest advantages of this type of flooring include:

1. Extreme durability

Concrete can last for decades without needing to be repaired or maintained. It doesn’t peel, scratch, or fade over time like most other types of flooring. This makes it a particularly great choice for cat or dog owners whose pets tend to scratch up the floors. Not to mention, it will save you money in the long run by reducing repair or replacement costs.

2. Requires very little maintenance

In addition to being extremely durable, polished concrete flooring is also easy to clean and maintain when compared with other types of flooring. Pet stains and spills come up easily and can be swiftly cleaned away without the need for special and expensive cleaners. This makes polished concrete a great choice if you’re looking for flooring that will stay beautiful without requiring time-consuming care and maintenance. 

3. Endless color options 

Contrary to popular belief, concrete doesn’t have to be gray and dreary. Polished concrete comes in an array of beautiful colors, including both classic and modern choices that will blend seamlessly with your existing décor, giving your home or business an entirely new look.

4.  Affordability

One of the biggest advantages of polished concrete floors is the low cost. This flooring is an excellent choice for homeowners and business owners who want to install new flooring but can’t afford pricey wood or marble. 

While there are many distinct advantages to polished concrete, the success or failure of your flooring project ultimately depends on picking the right contractor. Our professionals at Port Aggregates are highly skilled in creating beautiful, precise pours every time. Contact us today to request a quote for your next project!

The post 4 Advantages of Polished Concrete Flooring appeared first on Port Aggregates.

Technology is always evolving. That hasn’t been any less true for the concrete monitoring field. Not long ago, contractors were relying solely on field-cured concrete cylinders to understand the compressive strength development of their concrete. It was a time-consuming process with room for error. After all, field-cured cylinders cure at a different rate than concrete placed en masse. And they need to be transported for testing off-site. But now, there are many concrete sensors available on the market to simplify this process and provide more accurate insight into concrete strength.

One in particular has drawn attention over the past year or so. That would be the Maturix Smart Concrete Sensors. These next-gen sensors are helping to lead the sensor market, drawing interest from all over, and we’re here to explain why that is and why you should join the excitement.

Maturix Sensors Offer Award-Winning Concrete Monitoring

These heavy-duty sensors transmit concrete temperature data directly to a cloud-based platform and calculate concrete strength from there on a regular basis each day. That process allows them to provide builders with real-time remote concrete monitoring.

Their setup is relatively simple too. It starts with our Maturix expert creating an online account for builders. So all builders need to do is log in when ready. From there, they attach a cost-effective thermocouple wire to rebar. That in turn gets plugged into Maturix’s transmitting sensor, which is located outside the concrete placement. Builders can then start or refine the monitoring start time remotely through any device that can access a web browser.

That way, contractors can eliminate the time, labor, and money required to physically go to the worksite to collect data on concrete placements. Instead, they can easily access their concrete data 24/7 through the Maturix platform. They can also receive online alerts through Maturix software. That lets them know exactly when their concrete’s temperature has exceeded critical thresholds or fallen out of spec and when their concrete’s compressive strength has been met. For concrete strength validation in particular, that can save up to three days per pour.

Due to Maturix’s ability to streamline concrete monitoring in such a cost-effective way, the sensors earned a Most Innovative Product Award in 2020. And it wasn’t long after that when they garnered additional attention. Soon, they starred in an article about the future of concrete sensor technology, already showing just how much of an impact these sensors made.

On Top of That, They Are Built to Last Long

To add to their award-winning appeal, the Maturix Sensors have been redesigned. They can now withstand the harshest construction and precast manufacturing environments.

Given a durable casing that increases their resistance to both water and dust, these sensors will last for more than the entirety of one project. And unlike other sensors, Maturix Sensors are not gone after a single use. Instead, the thermocouple wires attached to the sensors are disposable. That way, the sensors can be used for as many pours as a contractor likes. That makes them ideal for those who are looking for a streamlined cost-effective solution on monitoring concrete temperature, maturity, and strength.

Both These Features Help to Ease Worksite Information Sharing

With the ability to provide instant updates on concrete development and remain operational for many pours, Maturix Sensors make it easier to share information. There’s no concern about needing to replace them, after all. So contractors can instead focus on what’s important: the data surrounding their concrete’s development.

Because that data is received instantaneously, contractors can remain fully aware of any potential issues that might develop. Whether there’s a need to manage the mass concrete differential, cold weather, or hot weather, Maturix Sensors can ensure contractors know about it before it becomes a problem.

However, that doesn’t have to benefit just contractors. If other worksite team members need to know this information, a contractor only has to send that data in the form of a report with the press of a button through the Maturix cloud-based platform. That report will then be transmitted digitally to whoever needs it, expediting report work and worksite approvals in the process with very little effort required.

Contractors don’t have to worry about losing that report data either. The Maturix platform ensures that all data is logged and backed up, so contractors and their team have documentation associated with their project, which can help reduce liability.

ll of Which Has Helped Create a Number of Success Stories

After hearing about Maturix and trying it out for themselves, many contractor companies were happy to report their own success stories with Maturix features.

They’ve Helped The Walsh Group Ltd. Streamline the Monitoring of Multiple Wall Placements

In an interview with our Maturix specialist, Kris Till, Tanner Santo, a superintendent for The Walsh Group Ltd., stated that there were “a lot of moving parts and challenging logistics” to constructing the Southeast Treatment Plant in San Francisco. The company had to determine how to monitor 300 to 400 wall placements. And they had to determine how to minimize any downtime while doing so.

Their original process for this would have been time-consuming and costly. They would need to take multiple concrete cylinder samples, which would add on to the cost of the work. And they would also need to wait for a testing lab to determine when the concrete had reached minimum strength. Without the testing lab’s go-ahead, they would have to wait to remove the formwork, prolonging the progress of their work.

To expedite this process, The Walsh Group Ltd. decided to add Maturix. That streamlined their monitoring significantly. Santo was able to receive notifications on his cell phone, letting him know when the concrete reached minimal strength. As a result, he and his team did not have to take additional concrete samples or wait for a go-ahead and could safely strip formwork, knowing just when the concrete had hit minimal strength.

nd They’ve Improved the Documentation and Quality Control Processes for Kruse Smith

Hoping to innovate technologically and improve their on-site performance, the Norwegian contractor Kruse Smith also chose to work with Maturix. They made this decision with their work on the E39 highway project in mind specifically.

One of their biggest concerns surrounding this work was dealing with the weather. They would be working in freezing temperatures with lots of ice and snow. So they had to protect their concrete from freezing before it cured.

For previous projects, they kept an eye on this concern with manual data loggers. They were digital, but they didn’t transmit data online. As a result, Kruse Smith had to send out workers to physically check their concrete placements individually to collect temperature data. Then, the workers would have to do analytical work based on the information they recorded to get any insight from that data.

With Maturix during their E39 project, however, they received that information instantaneously through an Internet-connected device, which came with generated graphs and analysis already there. So there was less work involved for faster, more accurate results.

In turn, that allowed them to focus more on better active documentation and quality control. They could bring that data up in meetings with team members and their client to discuss the progress of their work and what they could improve. It created a lot of transparency and trust. And it made it easier to spot any possible issues with temperature drops or a slower concrete curing process.

That Just Proves How Reliable and Cost-Effective Maturix Is in the Long Run

In just a short while, Maturix has won an award for its technology and has proven itself out in the field as a reliable tool for saving contractors time and money when they monitor concrete. From streamlining the monitoring of around 300 to 400 concrete wall placements for The Walsh Group Ltd. to enhancing Kruse Smith’s active documentation and quality control, Maturix Sensors show that it’s possible to simplify concrete monitoring and cut costs without losing the quality and accuracy contractors are looking for in a worksite.

The post Why Maturix® Is Leading the Concrete Sensor Market with Next-Gen Tech appeared first on Kryton.

A retaining wall is necessary for any landscape project. 

Without them, shorelines will quickly erode or flood, and gardens become overgrown with weeds.

The most popular type of retaining wall is the traditional concrete block style that has been around since the 1950s.

However, plenty of other options are available. One such option is a type of limestone called rip rap.

This bulky stone offers an array of benefits. When used as a retaining wall, it’s:

1. Aesthetically pleasing

A rip rap retaining wall is an attractive way to add some interest and excitement to your yard or city shoreline. The irregular shapes of the stones give it a more natural, rustic look that complements a variety of styles.

2. Eco-friendly

Because limestone can be obtained from quarries, it has less environmental impact than other materials like concrete and steel. It is also a sedimentary rock, which means that it’s formed over time from the weathering of other rocks.

The process of obtaining limestone does not involve chemical treatments or strong acids like some materials do. It helps to protect the environment and human health during and after its creation.

In addition, limestone is a natural sponge that absorbs water. This makes it an especially good choice for areas like the South that experience heavy rainfall and hurricanes.

3. Great for protection against the elements and erosion

Thanks to its irregular shape, rip rap can be useful in more urban areas to protect buildings from heavy rains and flooding. It also prevents soil at construction sites from getting washed away by rainfall or runoff water that carries mud and silt into nearby waterways.

4. Long-lasting

Rip rap is a long-lasting material that can remain in your landscape for many years. Since it’s made from limestone, you can also rely on this material for its strength and durability. Unlike certain materials like cinder blocks, rip rap will not break down over time.

In addition, the limestone itself has been around since prehistoric times and will likely be here until another type of rock comes along to replace it. This provides an excellent return on investment compared with materials like wood or plastic which need replacing every few decades.

5. Easy to maintain

One of the final benefits of rip rap is that it’s easy to maintain. Unlike traditional concrete block walls, you don’t need to replace these stones since they’re not attached together with mortar or cement.

Instead, each stone rests on top of the other and can be removed when necessary (if repairs are needed or if you want to create a new design).

In addition, the irregular shapes and sizes of rip rap makes it easy to find just what you need for your project, whether that’s one large piece or several smaller ones. This is unlike many other types of retaining wall stone which are sold in pre-cut pieces.

Port Aggregates offers three types of rip rap: 10lb rip rap (6-10”), 30lb rip rap, and 55lb rip rap. Whether your goal is to prevent erosion or simply create a garden, we’ve got just what you need. Our high-quality crushed limestone is available in numerous sizes to suit your special needs. Contact us today to request a quote

The post 5 Reasons to Choose a Rip Rap Retaining Wall appeared first on Port Aggregates.

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.concretestyle.net/?p=1178

In our first part of this interview series, we discussed why concrete abrasion is such an issue for concrete construction and how it’s often treated. (For all the details, give it a read!) Most of the solutions discussed were shown to be complicated and ineffective. But we ended on a positive note, briefly talking about a solution that could offer a more worry-free way to increase concrete abrasion resistance.

That solution turned out to be Hard-Cem. As the only integral concrete hardener on the market, it offers a unique advantage to construction workers. With Hard-Cem, workers only have to add it to the concrete mix during batching, and that’s it. Hard-Cem doesn’t need a complicated application process and has been shown to be effective at what it does. And what it does is double your concrete’s wear life while increasing your concrete’s resistance to abrasion and erosion.

But is all that too good to be true? How does Hard-Cem actually perform? To look into it, we asked our previous contributors, Technical Director Jeff Bowman and Kryton Western Canada Territory Manager John Andersen, to give us the details.

So, why don’t we start by talking about the performance you can expect to see when you use Hard-Cem for increased concrete abrasion resistance?

Jeff: To answer that, let’s first review some of the test methods you could use for abrasion resistance.

There are several established test methods published by ASTM. But the one I’d like to highlight today is ASTM C627 (also known as the Robinson floor test based on the machine that is used for the testing).

Now, what’s really interesting about this test is that it applies a much higher load and a much longer test duration than many of the other methods that people might use.

And early in the days of Hard-Cem’s development, Dr. Rusty Morgan, working with AMEC, recommended using this test and adapting it to increase the load and the test time to make it more useful as a test for the abrasion resistance of concrete. One of the advantages of this adaption is that because the test panel is quite large, it allows you to get a more realistic look at real-world finishing conditions that you might use for your concrete.

Essentially, during the test, wheels rotate around the concrete, allowing you to measure the depth of wear directly just by using a pair of depth calipers.

A common result for this is a very straightforward, plain concrete mix of 25 MPa [3,000 psi] with about 1.8 mm of wear depth. And after 5,000 revolutions, the depth of wear of the Hard-Cem concrete is reduced by about half compared to your plain concrete. So it creates a very significant increase in the abrasion resistance of that slab.

How does Hard-Cem perform against competing products like dry shakes?

Jeff: There are a range of dry shake materials, products, and aggregates.

Some of them do perform really well.

But if you look at our Robinson floor test results comparing Hard-Cem with different dry shakes, Hard-Cem came in with the lowest wear depth at just under 1 mm, whereas other dry shakes that were tested next to it had around 1 mm to 3 mm of wear depth.

So, you’re getting excellent abrasion resistance and you’re getting the additional advantage of a simple and reliable installation. And you’re not making any compromises on the performance of that concrete.

re there any case studies about Hard-Cem’s performance?

John: Certainly! I can share a couple right now.

This first one happened 14 years ago. It was a CorLiving facility that was built half with Hard-Cem concrete and half with regular concrete. So it was a good in-service test of control concrete versus the performance you can see with Hard-Cem concrete.

The facility team later invited us in to have a look at the facility’s concrete to see how it performed. And there was a clear visual divide. In one area, it was nice and shiny with nice, straight edges on the concrete. This was the Hard-Cem concrete, and it was right next to the regular concrete, which had broken edges and was worn out and dusty.

It’s a good example of what you can see when you put Hard-Cem in your concrete.

Another good example is this second case study for a concrete company. They placed Hard-Cem concrete in the exit area for their concrete batch plant trucks as a way to demonstrate the performance of Hard-Cem to their customers.

After four years, they came back and took a look, and you could see the control concrete with the heavy machinery, loaders, and concrete trucks driving over it. It was really ground down and its concrete paste had worn away, whereas with the Hard-Cem concrete, you could still clearly see the original broom finish marks in it and its paste was completely intact.

We’ve proven that Hard-Cem can be highly effective with no application hassle. But does it have any other benefits worth talking about? We’ll look more into that on the third and final part of this interview series.

The post Concrete Abrasion Resistance: The Bad, the Good, and the Better (Interview Part 2) appeared first on Kryton.

When it comes to getting a durable concrete slab, a critical part of it involves keeping the concrete resistant to abrasion. Without that resistance, construction professionals will often encounter ruts, dips, potholes, or worse in the surface of their concrete. All of which can lead to safety hazards and operational inefficiencies.

Professionals usually try to counter this with conventional surface-applied concrete hardening solutions. But these aren’t reliably effective and come with a number of setbacks.

To look into why that is, we’ve decided to explore the bad, the good, and the better parts about concrete abrasion resistance. Helping us in this discovery are two of our Smart Concrete experts: Jeff Bowman, one of our technical directors, and John Andersen, our territory manager for Western Canada. To start, let’s dive into some of the negative aspects surrounding concrete abrasion resistance.

Thank you for joining us on the first part of this interview series. Let’s start by discussing what abrasion actually is and why it is an issue for concrete in the first place.

Jeff: Abrasion describes the steady loss of material from the concrete through some sort of mechanical action. It’s generally more of a surface phenomenon. So forces that are acting on the abrasion of concrete are usually going to be some sort of object that’s either rolling or sliding over the concrete. And this may also be combined with foreign particles trapped between those two phases that are also gouging and sliding through the concrete.

John: When we talk about the significance of that wear and tear on concrete, we typically think about just the cost of taking the building out of service and replacing the concrete. But there’s also a cost regarding safety. And it’s not just about the people tripping and falling and encountering all other hazards because of it. There’s also an issue of breathing in the concrete dust, the cost associated with keeping the facility and machinery clean, the cost to the equipment, and the reduced productivity due to the worn out concrete.

How exactly do construction professionals usually try to resolve this issue?

Jeff: Dry shake hardeners are quite a common product for this. I’m sure many people reading this now probably use or specify them.

But for anybody who’s not familiar with them, a dry shake hardener is some sort of blend of cement and possibly some other additives and an abrasion-resistant aggregate particle, such as aluminum oxide (also called emery). And these products get broadcast in a dry form overtop fresh concrete and then worked into the surface during the final finish.

Now, certainly, these products can work and can give you a good abrasion-resistant finish if they’re installed well. The challenge that the industry has is they’re very difficult to install.

Dry shake hardeners are applied in two portions, and there’s some work that needs to be done in-between. And one of the significant challenges of this application is that it all takes place in a very time-critical period. All the steps are time-critical, and it can be very easy to miss that perfect window of opportunity.

There are just so many variables that could be happening with the concrete and with the weather. And if workers start to have trouble with it, sometimes they just can’t get a full specified amount of the dry shake applied to the concrete.

John: That’s exactly the challenge that the contractor Graham Construction faced when they were building a new pea protein plant in Manitoba. This is a massive facility with large slab pours, and they were trying to get that shake-on hardener down in that little window of opportunity. And they lost the first slab.

They eventually changed to Hard-Cem to get away from the challenge of that little window of opportunity for properly applying the shake-on.

re there other challenges that come with using dry shake hardeners?

Jeff: Another challenge that we see is that this work normally comes up fairly late in the day when workers have been at it for many hours and they’re just getting fatigued. This is a lot to put on them at the end of the day.

Another challenge that we see is that the dry shakes are very sensitive to bleed water. If there’s too much bleed water coming out when you apply the dry shake and you work that water back in, the surface will become weaker and is likely to delaminate. If you have a low-bleeding concrete, perhaps something with a lot of fly ash, there’s just not enough water there to really work it in properly. The concrete sets up too quickly.

There can also be challenges with wind. And of course, it’s very important not to use dry shakes with air-entrained concrete because the power troweling needed to really work them in properly leaves a high risk of delaminating the concrete surface. So there are many challenges to dry shake products that people might face.

There are also some products that professionals apply post-construction, right? What about those?

John: Yes, I think if you’re in Western Canada, where I live, many of these products use silicate as the base for their formulas.

Jeff: Right. When we’re describing liquid hardeners (which are sometimes called liquid densifiers), these are all some sort of silicate-based product. They work by penetrating into the concrete and reacting with the calcium hydroxide there, which is a by-product of cement hydration. That reaction turns into what is called calcium silicate hydrate gel, which is the normal hydration product of cement. It’s what gives the cement paste its strength and what gives concrete its properties. So this reaction pathway is really quite similar to the reactions you get from fly ash or slag or other supplementary cementitious materials.

That introduces some challenges in and of itself. Some suppliers of these products recommend limiting the amount of fly ash or slag you’re using in your concrete. That’s not always possible or desirable for many other reasons. Or they may recommend delaying the application for at least 28 days to allow the concrete to come up to its specified strength first so that the silicate is not competing with the other cementing materials.

Does their application work effectively?

Jeff: While they are often used or specified specifically to increase the abrasion resistance of the concrete as placed, that’s not really what they’re intended to do.

They function by slightly increasing the amount of cement paste on the surface. But cement paste is the weakest and most vulnerable phase to abrasion. Having a little bit more doesn’t significantly move the dial on the abrasion resistance of that concrete.

Now, liquid hardeners do serve an important purpose. If a contractor does have a slab that has had some challenges when they’re placing it, the surface might be poorly hydrated or weak or might have dried out too early. These products can help strengthen that surface as a remediation measure.

But they’re not really an appropriate material to specify as an abrasion-resistant material for concrete that’s been otherwise properly placed and finished.

re there other solutions that have been used to increase concrete abrasion resistance?

Jeff: Another common solution is high-strength concrete.

And why not just use stronger concrete? You get better abrasion resistance. And normally, this approach would be just using a mix that has more cement. You could use more fly ash or slag or maybe silica fume to really get that strength up and keep that water-cement ratio down real low. The concrete gets stronger, and the abrasion resistance is better. And this generally does work.

But there are some limitations.

Now, the research shows that when you double the compressive strength of concrete, you can roughly double the concrete’s abrasion resistance. And there is research and literature on this.

But there can also be some consequences. Any time you are using a stronger mix, especially with anything that has more cement paste, you’re getting more hydration. That generates more heat in your concrete. More paste means more shrinkage. More shrinkage normally means more cracking. And if you’re pouring a slab, you also now get more curling, so your floors just don’t stay as flat. And curling can result in a lot of damage and wear at the joints.

All of these things are actually really bad. They target some of the core properties that a facility owner expects of their floor. An owner wants more than just good abrasion resistance. They want their floor to perform in many other ways.

And as an added bonus, using high-paste strong mixes comes with a cost premium. Because you are using so much more cement in the concrete, the carbon footprint of that concrete can go up quite significantly.

So most popular concrete abrasion-increasing efforts don’t seem to work as well as expected. Is there a better way to get that abrasion resistance?

John: Adding Hard-Cem into concrete at the batch plant! Hard-Cem lives in that concrete paste, and that’s how it works. It increases the resistance to abrasion and erosion that way. It’s easy to apply. There are no negative effects on your plastic or your hardened concrete. It’s fully compatible and used often with air-entrained concrete, so no longer do you have to specify products like this just for indoor use. You can now use it outdoors. And it can be used in horizontal and vertical slabs, behind formwork, in precast, and in shotcrete. There’s a huge opportunity for this product to be used often in mining applications as well.

And Jeff very clearly articulated the difficulty in applying the shake-on hardeners. So no longer do the jobsites have to take all this into consideration. Basically, they can just order Hard-Cem when they order their concrete. And there’s no harmful dust exposure.

Hard-Cem’s been used for 18 years now for over 7 million m2 (80 million ft2) in all kinds of applications. And many of the top-producing concrete companies have branded their own durability concrete using the Hard-Cem admixture.

Once concrete finishers get to use this, they start to ask for it by name because it just makes their job that much easier.

It sounds like Hard-Cem could be a much more effective solution. But how well does it perform? We’ll look into that in more detail in Part 2 of this interview series.

The post Concrete Abrasion Resistance: The Bad, the Good, and the Better (Interview Part 1) appeared first on Kryton.