CONCRETESURFACES WITH COLOR HARDENERS

Stone Image, Inc.

Designing Color Hardener s

Introduction to Designing and ManufacturingColor Hardeners

Rushing things will only create costly mistakes. Safety is always the most important factor when manufacturing a product. New addition to the book; Contact us to set up an account to represent Integral Colors in your area. Its great to have color hardeners in your arsenal however, much material and labor can be saved using integral colors and liquid color releases.

e use a basic formula for color hardeners with the exception of the color.
Basic Make-up is based on

a 60 lb pail of color hardener. When your color hardener is done, it should look close to the color that you are looking for in the finished concrete giving a shade or two lighter/darker based on sealers used.

What to mix first?

MAI N FA CTOR S

White Portland

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Sand Calcium Carbonate Sugar

Mixing color hardeners can be tricky. Blending is not the same as mixing. This manual will show you how in the basic form. There are more expensive blenders and mixers for larger quantities. Lets take a mixer that will hold bag of Portland cement and 1 full bag of silica sand. Go ahead and put them in and mix them up.

Next

Take a regular kitchen blender (its better if the top fits the bottom with a metal shaft instead of plastic gears. The plastic gets hot and soft).

Its time to mix.

Why the blender? The blender breaks down the powders into a finer powder and grain.
The mixer only puts them together. This is one reason concrete in a truck is never consistent. Its mixed and not blended. One lb at a time is all we want to blend. What ever your pigment amount is, the total pigment should never be more than 12 ounces. (1 lb = 16 ounces). For example: a desired color requires 1 lb of pigment per 5 gallon pail. In the mixer we placed bag of Portland (47 lbs) and 1 full bag of sand. (100 lbs.). This will make (3) five gallon pails of color hardeners. Knowing this you will need to blend 6 times. Let me explain. Take 1 teaspoon of sugar and place in the blender. Now place 8 ounces of the chosen pigment and place it in the blender. Open a bag of calcium carbonate and place 24 lbs in an empty pail. Eventually these 24 lbs will go into the mixer. Take 8 ounces of calcium carbonate from the 24 lb pail and place it in the blender with the pigment and sugar. Now you have 16 ounces and one teaspoon in the blender. Blend and pour into an empty 5 gallon pail. Repeat this 5 more times. Now you have in the pail 3 lbs of pigment blended with sugar and calcium carbonate. Dump what is left in the calcium carbonate pail into the pigment blend pail. Just when you thought you were done: Take a inch drill with a mixing attachment, (not the big one) and mix the contents of the combined pails. After this, dump the contents into the mixer with the Portland and sand.
N ote: This is a dry mix and powder will fly when mixing. Tak e a sheet of plastic and cover the end of the mixer. Then take some bungy cords and w rap arou nd the end to keep the plastic from coming off. Mix briefly and dump into (3 ) empty 5 gallon pai ls. Now you have 3 pails of color hardener. For each color you make, the process is the same. By placing the pigment into the blender with the calcium carbonate, you broke down the pigment and prepped it for the mixer. If you u se a combination of pigments, you mu st still u se the calciu m carbonate to break it dow n. M ake su re not to blend

more than 16 ounces at a time, unless you have a larger blender. Food processors do not work very well. Ive tried them and always come up with left over pigment. Pigment Description: The pigments in this manual are coded 001-009 when used with these basic colors. Additional charts are available. The Color Charts for concrete are all based on the gray scale whether it is for releases, hardeners or integral colors. One companys color number will not match another company. The oxide pigments used for Color Hardeners are not already brown, blue, buff, etcThey are pigments that when matched with certain gray scales produce the desired colors. One pigment may be used to produce several colors by only increasing the quantity of the pigment. Pigment prices range from $3 a lb to 5 per pound. Pigments are shipped in 5 gallon pails.

Making Sandstone Color Hardener

.25 ounces 002, 4 ounces 001, 3 ounces 003 _____________________________________________________

Making Buff Tan Color Hardener 3 ounces 002, 9 ounces 001, 9 ounces 004
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Making Desert Tan Color Hardener

3 ounces 002, 9 ounces 001, 9 ounces 003 ______________________________________________________________

Making Desert Clay Color Hardener 3 ounces 002, 9 ounces 001, 5 ounces 004, 5 ounces 003

Making Light Gray Color Hardener

3 ounces 002, 9 ounces 001 ________________________________________________________________

Making French Gray Color Hardener 3 ounces 002, 7 ounces 001

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Making Medium Gray Color Hardener

3 ounces 002, 8 ounces 001, .5 ounces 005 __________________________________________________________________

Making Dark Gray Color Hardener 3 ounces 002, 8 ounces 001, 1 ounce 005
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Making Sunny Clay Color Hardener 3 ounces 002, 6 ounces 001, 15 ounces 006 _______________________________________________________

Making Terra Cotta Color Hardener

Making Tile Red Color Hardener

3 ounces 002, 9 ounces 001, 18 ounces 007
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Making Brick Red Color Hardener

3 ounces 002, 9 ounces 001, 18 ounces 008 _____________________________________________________

Making Gold Rush Color Hardener

8 ounces 003, 2 ounces 001 ________________________________________________________

Making Buff Color Hardener 1.5 ounces 002, 8 ounces 001, 3 ounces 004 ____________________________________
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Making Taupe Color Hardener

2 ounces 002, 6 ounces 001, 3 ounces 009 ________________________________________________________.

Making Rustic Brown Color Hardener 3 ounces 002, 8 ounces 001, 10 ounces 009