It Won’t Last Forever

Pitted ConcreteModern concrete is designed to last 60 to 120 years but lack of maintenance and environmental conditions can greatly reduce those numbers.

Many city practices like salting city streets in the winter can lead to pitted and stained concrete driveways. As snow plows push the snow from the street onto sidewalks and driveways it also sends any vehicle waste like oils and engine fluids that have made their way to the street along with city particulates like salt and or grass control chemicals along with it.

Any or all of these waste products can have an effect on your sidewalks and driveways leaving them even more susceptible to the wear and tear of extreme weather and the fluctuations in temperature that cause cracking and flaking.

Hardscapes Inc. has solutions to every concrete restoration need and years of experience to make a repair that is beautiful and long lasting.

Calgary Home & Garden Show 2014

Spring is just around the corner! Mark your calendars for the 2014 Calgary Home + Garden Show.

The event runs from February 27 – March 2, 2014 at the Big Four Building at Stampede Park in Calgary.

Hundreds of exhibitors, retailers and industry experts, will showcase products and provide valuable tips on anything and everything pertaining to home maintenance and improvement, design, eco-friendly products, organization and renovation.

The Calgary Home & Garden Show is your most trusted resource and is definitely an event not to miss! Enjoy the show. Hope you get lots of great ideas…

If your spring project is repairing your concrete, get expert help with Hardscapes Inc. Experts in concrete repairs and flooring.

The Canada Sports Hall of Fame

I took my boys to Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame at Canada Olympic Park this weekend.

It was great to see all of the amazing sports history as we get ready for the Olympics this week.

I was very happy to see how great our floor in the hockey exhibit looked after 2 and a half years open to the public. As you can see, The loonie is still stuck in the “ice”

We were honoured to have been chosen to provide the custom seamless floor for the hockey exhibit. Hardscapes Inc. specializes in one of a kind floors. With unlimited colours, patterns, and textures, we create truly custom floors to make your space unique.

GO CANADA!!

Hall-of-Fame-Canada-Olypic-Park-Floor Hall-of-Fame-Canada-Olypic-Park-Floor-Loonie

Performance Flooring

Custom Floor LogoHardscapes Inc. offers custom seamless flooring options for home, office, retail, restaurant, and warehouse/commercial applications. With thousands of colours, effects, textures and logo options, Hardscapes Inc. is your one stop shop for durable, UV resistant, chemical resistant High Performance flooring.

From simple solid colour industrial warehouse flooring, to beautiful multi coloured stained floors or metallic reflector floors. We have your solution! Call or email to get your project started today!

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Concrete Discoloration

Even though concrete is a substance that can be easily mixed, you can really run into problems if it is not worked properly. These issues include scaling, discoloring and shrinkage to name a few.

Discoloration or discoloring is one of the most common.

If you are using the same materials, mix and batch your concrete should have a consistent color. Changes in concrete color can occur just by using two different cements or if a chemical from a job site gets added to the mix, even different water sources can change the color of the concrete.

Solving discoloration problems:

  1. Discuss your tolerances with the supplier
  2. Water must be completely evaporated before concrete can be finished
  3. Make sure the entire surface is uniformly cured
  4. Use a consistent form release agent

Hardscapes Inc. uses these methods and many more to create perfect concrete structure every time.

Salty

Concrete is incredibly more porous than you would think. Though it seems rock hard it is actually full of millions of tiny cracks and pours.

Concrete can get damaged in any number of ways but the most common damage occurs from the de-icing salts used by city snow plowing services and freeze/thaw cycles which occur quite often in Calgary during spring warming and fall freeze up.

Salt can sneak into small pours and tiny cracks in your concrete. Here there is an acid-like reaction that eventually creates larger and larger pockets that hold greater and greater amounts of water. It is the water that eventually causes all the damage.

Water expands up to 9X when frozen. The pressure from this expansion grows with each freeze and thaw until eventually it pops the surface of the concrete creating the pitting you so often see in sidewalks and driveways.

Hardscapes Inc. has a number of solutions to this problem. Email us for a free quote or contact us for more information.

Welcome

Thanks for visiting Hardscapes Concrete Design & Restoration.

Our What’s New section is a place to drop by when you have a minute. A place to come for information about our products and services, special offers, the latest stone techniques and installation information, recent industry news, and much more…

If you have questions, need specific information, or just have a general inquiry, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

If you’d like to request a quote online click here.

Tyson Long
President