This article is the result of one of our customers asking how to make a "sandy-yellow colored stone with brown and tan colored highlights, so it will look like natural stone". They went on to explain that they had seen that colored stone in a stone yard, and its cost was over $6.00 a square foot. They wanted to make the stone themselves to save money. They were able to duplicate the stone, and save about ninety-percent of the retail cost. Here are the instructions we provided. The basic techniques can be used to attain virtually any concrete colors you may desire.
Creating the base color for your manufactured concrete stone: Weigh out and mix 5-6 ounces of Yellow or Buff concrete color into a forty pound bag of Sand Mix, (less than two-inches thick), and mix it thoroughly (dry) into the concrete Sand Mix before adding water. If you are using a different volume of concrete, adjust the quantity of color you add accordingly. After the color is disbursed throughout the dry concrete mix, add your water to the mix per the instructions on the bag and blend it well until all of the color is even throughout your mix, and you have a nice "toothpaste" consistency to your concrete.Now pour your colored concrete mix into your molds: Pour your mix in the molds and vibrate to lessen the chance of bug holes and bubbles in your stone, and to help compact your mix. Set the filled molds aside on a level surface and cover with a piece of plastic sheeting. Any kind of plastic will be fine. Leave the molds for at least 24 hours or more. The longer you leave them, the stronger they will be and easier they will come out of the molds. Temperature is a factor that helps determine the set-up time of the concrete. The warmer the temperature, the faster the concrete sets.Brookstone from Quality Stone Veneer replicates stone found in mountain rivers and streams that have tumbled downstream for centuries. With rounded edges, smooth boulder surfaces, and random patterns, it is designed to offer authenticity.Cultured Stone Hudson Bay Country Ledgestone stone veneer from Boral Stone provides a warm neutral ambiance with a sense of permanence for both interior and exterior use. It is designed to be suitable for a wide variety of architectural styles and color palettes.For more information contact: Todd Imming The Korte Company (618) 654-8611 Email Contact* FOR MORE INFO CIRCLE #7* FOR MORE INFO CIRCLE #6* FOR MORE INFO CIRCLE #3The Korte Company, founded in 1958, specializes in design-build, construction management and construction services, and is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri with offices in Highland, Illinois and Las Vegas, Nevada. The Korte Company is a fully integrated Design-Build general contractor with in-house design, estimating, project management and construction services. The firm's project expertise includes the design and construction of medical office buildings , warehouse/distribution centers, religious facilities, commercial buildings, schools, recreation centers, office complexes, as well as a variety of projects for federal, state and local government agencies. The Korte Company manages, on average, an excess of $330 million in annual construction volume. For more information, log onto www.korteco.com .
Good luck with your project, and please do get back to us with feedback as to how the coloring turned out for you. And we always like to see the results of our do-it-yourself training articles, so feel free to send photos of your projects.
Author: John McKenzie Panagos
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