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Making Stronger Concrete — the Roman Way?

The ancient Romans are well known for their engineering prowess, constructing buildings, aqueducts, entertainment centers, roads, harbors and monuments that survive even today. What’s most amazing about their structures, however, is that the concrete and mortar used to build them, especially in their harbors, is stronger today than it was over two thousand years ago! […]

Does Concrete Make Heat While Curing?

It is a little known fact that the process of curing concrete actually generates heat. This is because when you mix water with cement, the molecules in the cement begin a chemical reaction together. Sometimes they react with each other, and sometimes they react with the water, in a process called hydration. Heat is generated […]

Coating Concrete Countertops

The concrete countertop is quite the do-it-yourself rage right now, but here at California Custom Coatings in Sacramento, we feel beholden to warn you of one thing about concrete, since we know it so well. Concrete is porous and therefore it stains. Since countertops tend to see a lot of water and plenty of food […]

Does Concrete Absorb Carbon Dioxide?

A major component in concrete is cement, and the manufacture of cement is one of the world’s largest producers of carbon dioxide. Cement is made by taking limestone, which is mostly calcium carbonate (CaCO3), and heating it. That produces calcium oxide (CaO) and carbon dioxide (CO2). And since heating limestone takes a tremendous amount of […]

Coating Concrete in Winter

Since epoxy coatings are a rather thick product that needs to dry after application, many of our Sacramento and Northern California customers assume that you can only coat concrete in the warmer months. In fact, many varieties of concrete coatings are adapted for application in colder climates and are perfectly acceptable for use by California […]

Radiant Floors and Concrete Polishing

Recently we talked about radiant floor heating and epoxy coatings. This brought up the question of whether California Custom Coatings can also do concrete polishing for radiant floor heating. Although the polishing process requires more aggressive floor grinding to achieve the desired luster, the answer is still positive. Radiant floor heating and concrete polishing and […]

Myths About Polished Concrete

Polished concrete is a modern surface in demand with designers and property owners looking for sleek and sanitary floors. Especially helpful where people have allergies, polished concrete eliminates the dust trap that is carpeting and the cracks and crevices of just about any other type of floor material. Sadly, there are some persistent myths about […]

The Evils of Unwelcome Oil

A common use for epoxy flooring is to cover the concrete floor of a garage. Sometimes our clients request this service because their garage has become unsightly due to oil stains. They think we can simply cover them over with epoxy and the problem is solved! It’s not that easy, but California Custom Coatings does […]

The Gardner Scale and Amazing Topcoats

The first color scale for varnishes and topcoats was the Gardner Scale, developed in the 1920’s under the direction of paint chemist Dr. Henry Gardner. Recognizing the need for color standards in transparent oils and paints, he created an eighteen-stage scale that went from “water white to yellow to deep amber.” Although originally designed as […]

Radiant Floor Heating and Epoxy Coatings

Can you combine radiant floor heating with epoxy coatings? Many clients worry that the two simply don’t go together, so they keep their concrete floors plain, instead of taking advantage of the water-resistant surface provided by epoxy flooring. This is a huge benefit where subsurface floor heating is most popular – areas with snow and […]