“The Fountain” – A Cement Coating Project In Heath, TX
This project was in the back yard of a beautiful home in Heath, TX. It shows just what a cement coating (which we often also call an overlay) can do for plain jane concrete.
We have a lot of flexibility when it comes to applying a cement coating; we can apply it as a thin coating in a process called a skim coat, as a relatively thick layer to be stamped using a rubber matt in a process called a stamped overlay, or as a medium thick coat like we did here called a trowel down.
One question I often get from my customers is whether thicker is better. The short answer: no. When you are putting down a cement coating, it is only as strong as what it goes over; i.e., if the foundation is sound, then the coating will be. Making it thicker will not make it more resistant against normal wear and tear for the simple reason that, once you wear off the top part of the cement coating, the floor is not going to look good, irrespective of how thick it is underneath.
What is more important in this case is abrasion resistance. As you walk, play, or drive over it, you want it to resist showing this wear. The cement coating material we use has excellent wear resistance properties, so it holds up real well during normal use.
So then why do we have different thicknesses? For minor repairs or color corrections of a concrete floor, a skim coat goes down thin, and as it uses less material, it is a very economical option. For those looking to dress up their concrete with a stone-like texture on a budget, the trowel down works well, but as we are texturing it, that makes it a little thicker.
The stamped overlay creates a very authentic stone-like look, but it needs a thicker layer to effectively transfer a pattern from a rubber stamp into the still hardening cement coating.
Our Heath homeowners wanted a trowel down texture, and we delivered. We put it down with a medium texture and then scored it into a random stone pattern, which they asked us to stain different colors.
As always we wrapped it up with a sealer coat to protect it. It was a beautiful cement coating project with a beautiful view of a fountain right in the middle of a field in the back.
