Wear & Tear

This gorgeous watery floor produced with Elite Crete UV1 epoxy and Sky Blue Reflector is a tranquil oasis for this family play area. Hardscapes Inc. flooring is a great way to have both a beautiful floor and a very durable toy, kid, and pet resistant floor in your home!

Hardwood can really take a beating over time, especially in areas like children’s play rooms and mudrooms. Scratching, cracking and water damage can lead to costly repair or restorative work. Concrete can solve the problem of wear and will never have to be replaced.

With virtually unlimited colours and patterns available, we have a solution for every design taste!

Pool Floor Pool Flooring

 

Concrete Kitchen

Have you ever thought about turning your kitchen floor into concrete?

concretekitchenfloorThink about it. It’s the one place that you are constantly cleaning and wiping. You are always dropping sharp objects, leaving nicks and gouges and chipping in whatever flooring you have in place. It’s just constant maintenance.

Now concrete on the other hand can be made to look like any surface you want. With new advances in concrete finishes your floor can look exactly like any tile you ever wanted or even a wood finish.

The difference is, no maintenance. Concrete is virtually indestructible. The life span of your floor is huge and if you get tired of the look, a quick surface renewal and you can have a brand now look without the inconvenience of tearing up the old floor and laying down the new.

For information on concrete floors and designs for your home give us a call at Hardscapes Inc.

Sink Hole

Driveway RepairOver the years water, snow and ice even city fed runoff from sewer gutters can cause erosion under your driveway surface. This leaves your concrete driveway slab vulnerable to cracking and if not properly repaired it could collapse.

One way of solving this problem is called mud jacking, a process that pumps high pressured grout into the void under the driveway through holes cut in the surface. The process fills the space between the foundation element and the eroding soil.

Once you have corrected the elevation discrepancy you will still be left with cracking and the inevitable patchwork that covers the holes made to apply the process.

Hardscapes Inc. has a number of solutions to repair and rebuild the surface of your concrete drive and bring it back to its previous beauty.

Give us a call to find the solution right for you.

 

Oil or Transmission Fluid Stain?

Ever wonder what stains your driveway more, oil or transmission fluid?

Stained DrivewayQuite honestly it doesn’t really matter. Either one will leave a nasty stain. If you leave it too long or you have a chronic problem with you vehicle it may be imbedded in the cement permanently.

These two fluids left un-attended can also lead to pitting in the concrete. Small divots that will let water sit and will eventually crack the surface.

If your drive way sounds like the one above you might consider re-surfacing. Hardscapes Inc. has a surface solution for every driveway situation. Fast and professional, get your driveway looking brand new in no time.

Concrete Floors

This gorgeous floor was created by engraving the pattern with our Mongoose concrete engraver. Next, We stained the concrete with Elite Crete’s Antique Brown Chem stone stain. The lines were  highlighted with Antique black by one of our master installers with a steady hand to create the soft rustic edges to the pattern. The floor is coated with Elite Crete PT-1 Epoxy for beauty and durability.

This is a great way to change the look of your floors.

Check out our gallery at www.concretecanada.com  for more beautiful floors!

Concrete and Water

Even though things are starting to get back to normal after the flooding in Calgary some home owners are still struggling with the aftermath and the damage left by water in their basements. Many basement floors were completely destroyed.

After grinding the floor to remove all the old glue and any other contaminants left behind by the backed up water we patched up all the cracks and deficiencies. A base colour coat was first applied and allowed to dry. Then the reflector coat was applied and allowed to dry and finally a clear polyurethane was applied for optimal wear and durability.

The Hardscapes Inc. crew left this happy client with a beautiful new resilient floor that would resist the water damage in the event of another flood.

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Fall Garage Cleanup

Are you getting ready for winter? Are you cleaning out the garage of all the summer toys, yard equipment etc.?

While you’re cleaned out, why not get that ugly floor cleaned up and coated?! A polyaspartic coating will do wonders for your garage. It will be brighter, cleaner, easier to clean, and best of all, protected from all that salt we spoke of last week.

Hardscapes Inc. offers solutions for any budget. Gorgeous flake floors and even mica metallic flakes for those that like to eat, sleep and play in their garage, as well as solid color for those with more of a utilitarian need. These coatings are 100% UV stable, extremely abrasion resistant, and highly chemical resistant.

Many garage floors can be done start to finish in just ONE DAY!

Contact us today for your free estimate!

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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.

Front Entrance Repair

This front entrance was remodeled in just two days. We widened it a foot by using a fast cure TF structural concrete mortar. We then beautified it using our TF polyaspartic river rock topping. This new product outperforms traditional epoxy stone products by offering 100% UV stability and no need for annual re-coats.

Hardscapes Inc. has a solution for all your concrete restoration and development needs.

For a free quote or more information on how we can bring your concrete to life contact us or fill out our request form.

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Water Damage on Concrete

Will water damage concrete?

The short answer is yes.

It’s called water degradation and can be caused by any number of things. Fire, aggregate expansion, bacterial corrosion, calcium leaching and many others.

With the recent flooding in Calgary many basement floors were damaged by the flood water and backed up sewers.

Untreated sewer water can produce hydrogen sulfide, which is then oxidized by aerobic bacteria present on the concrete surface above the water level. The sulfuric acid dissolves the carbonates in the cured cement and causes strength loss, as well as producing sulfates that can be destructive to the concrete.

Hardscapes Inc. has a solution to this problem. A clean up of the concrete floor and then sealing the concrete with a great decorative coating can preserve and update your damaged basement floor. This is a great alternative to replacing rugs and hardwoods.

For more ideas on how to restore or create your concrete Hardscapes Inc. has the answers.

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