Sunday, July 31, 2016

NanoPave Hardscape Sealer Product Demo



NanoPave Hardscape Sealer is a water-based, VOC-free, nano-polymer sealant for hardscape surfaces including pavers, bricks, natural stone, and flagstone. It is also commonly used to seal decorative stone ground cover materials such as river cobble, beach pebbles, and specialty aggregates. NanoPave Hardscape Sealer enhances the natural color of hardscape materials and ground covers.

NanoPave Hardscape Sealer enhances and protects the natural beauty of hardscape surfaces using an ultra-high clarity, nano-polymer sealer technology. With excellent adhesion to both porous and dense surface materials, it provides protection without blushing, yellowing, or cracking. It's a breathable sealer that applies easily to interior or exterior hardscape surfaces and protects against UV degradation, staining, fading, and weather damage.

NanoPave Hardscape Sealer is available in (3) ready-to-use sheens; Natural Look Finish - Low Sheen; Enhanced Look Finish - Semi Gloss; Wet Look Finish - Gloss. Each is simple to apply using a pressurized pump sprayer in conjunction with a handheld squeegee or tight nap roller as needed.

Thursday, July 28, 2016

How To Repair Cracked Concrete In An RV Driveway Sports Court



BackYard Basics by TechniSoil with host Terry Jensen. Our repair project is right in the middle of a combination concrete RV driveway and sports court. I’ll be using TrowelPave to repair jagged concrete corners that cracked and flaked away near the intersection of two expansion joints. The damage is spreading over time and becoming a dangerous nuisance.

An ankle-breaker on a basketball court is great when you’re trying to shake loose from a defender, but bad news when it’s literally a rolled ankle from stepping in a hole! This sports court is placed in the middle of a long RV driveway on the side of the home. It’s used for everything from basketball to skateboarding and is one of the most popular places to be at any backyard pool party.

The concrete is in relatively good condition overall, but over time the edges and corners near expansion joints have began to flake and crumble away. It is a constant source of debris on the court but more importantly it poses a risk to anyone who steps in the hole awkwardly.

First off as with most any project, I cleaned the area of loose debris. In this case, I used a screwdriver and pronged gardening tool to remove chipped and flaking concrete. After sweeping up the big pieces, I used the backpack blower to remove the remaining dust and particles. A pressure washer could be used to clean an area like this, but it’s important the area is dry before applying TrowelPave (no standing water).

Next, I opened up (1) 20 pound TrowelPave Concrete kit. The beauty of TrowelPave is it’s ease of application and strength in the most uneven repair areas. One DIY kit covers anywhere from 1 square foot at an average depth of 2 inches all the way up to 8 square feet at an average depth of a ¼”. My kit easily repaired small, miscellaneous damage areas within a 20 ft2 area.

Mixing the TrowelPave specialty aggregates and binder is easy and only takes a minute or two. It’s very similar to mixing a bag of ready mix concrete. I used a shovel to mix thoroughly inside of a wheelbarrow. The dry, sandy aggregates will begin to change color during mixing. Once the color is even throughout, the blended mix is ready for install.

I shoveled the material into place and started in with a small, round edged concrete trowel. The blended mix is not sticky so it’s easy to spread around and fill in cracks and divots. There is no need for any type of mechanical compaction with TrowelPave, all I had to do is pack down by hand with my trowel.

There were a couple handy tips that made this job go quickly. First, I needed to fill in narrow, linear expansion joints that can make it tough to evenly grade. The trick is to scrape some TrowelPave mix into a row over the repair area that is about an ⅛” to ¼” higher than grade, then pack it down with the trowel. The result is a nice, evenly finished surface.

The second tip is helpful to wrap up the project. I used a small whisk broom to lightly sweep away loose TrowelPave mix. I was careful not to disrupt my repair patch and it made cleanup easier than you would expect. TrowelPave has a workability of anywhere from 15-30 minutes depending on temperature, so I took my time on the repair which was complete inside of about 20 minutes.

And that was it, done! I set some traffic cones up around the repair so it wouldn’t be driven or walked over. TrowelPave begins curing quickly, setting up hard within hours. But it’s best to allow 12 - 24 hours to fully cure and there shouldn’t be any water in contact during that time. No more ankle-breakers on this basketball court except for a defender getting crossed up by a shifty ball handler!

Monday, July 25, 2016

Keep Bark And Mulch Ground Cover In Place



BarkBinder is a liquid polymer stabilizer that limits wind and water erosion of fibrous, shredded mulch and bark ground-cover products in landscaped areas while helping to preserve their natural appearance. BarkBinder concentrate dilutes with water, providing for an easy spray-on application process that is completely safe for plants, animals, and the environment. Maintaining a beautiful landscape is easy with this cost effective solution for mulch products.

Rain and wind can wreak havoc on mulch planter beds, resulting in expensive and time-consuming replenishments. By locking mulch into place, planter beds not only look better for a longer period of time but they support better water retention for plants, shrubs, and trees and reduce weed growth. BarkBinder topically applied liquid stabilizer acts like hairspray for shredded bark and mulch products, pine straw, and more.

BarkBinder is applied easily using an ordinary handheld pump sprayer. The liquid is water-based, VOC-free, and will not harm an existing landscaped area. The crosslinking bond reduces erosion, but still allows for natural decomposition of ground cover materials along with water transfer to the soil and plant growth below such as bulbs or perennials.

Friday, July 22, 2016

NanoPave Concrete Sealer Product Demo | Clean And Seal A Concrete Walkway



NanoPave Concrete Sealer is a water-based, VOC-free, nano-polymer sealant for finished concrete surfaces including smooth, broomed, colored, stamped, exposed aggregate, and more. It enhances and protects the natural beauty of embellished concrete surfaces using an ultra-high clarity, nano-polymer sealer technology. With excellent adhesion to concrete despite the finishing technique used, it provides protection without blushing, yellowing, or cracking.

NanoPave Concrete Sealer is a breathable sealer that applies easily to interior or exterior concrete surfaces and protects against UV degradation, staining, fading, and weather damage. It comes available in (3) ready-to-use sheens; Natural Look Finish - Low Sheen; Enhanced Look Finish - Semi Gloss; Wet Look Finish - Gloss. Each is simple to apply using a pressurized pump sprayer in conjunction with a handheld squeegee or tight nap roller as needed.

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Understanding Concrete, Cement, And Mortar



Steps for Understanding Concrete, Cement, and Mortar:
1. Portland cement is a fine gray powder that hardens when mixed with water. It's seldom used by itself but is an important ingredient in many other masonry products.
2. Concrete is a mixture of portland cement, sand, and an aggregate, such as gravel or coarse stone.
3. Concrete is mixed with water, then poured or pumped to create foundation walls, footings, piers, slab floors, driveways, steps, and sidewalks.
4. Once fully cured, concrete can support immense structural loads.
5. Mortar is a mixture of cement, lime, and sand, and is commonly used to hold together bricks, concrete blocks, and stones.
6. Masons use a wide variety of trowels to apply, spread, pack, and tool mortar.
7. When cured, mortar is somewhat softer than concrete, which allows it to accommodate a small amount of movement in a wall without cracking or crumbling.
8. Concrete, cement, and mortar are available in various strengths and mixtures, so be sure to get the right one for your job.

Saturday, July 16, 2016

How To Cut And Shape Stones



Roger Cook demonstrates how to cut and shape stones for hardscaping projects.

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Dry Creek Bed



This video was filmed over a number of weeks. It included a crazy paved path over an introduced dry creek bed, lined with river rocks and pebbles. We designed a native layout of planting for the front yard.

Thursday, July 7, 2016

How To Clean And Restore A Brick Paver Patio In A Few Hours



BackYard Basics by TechniSoil with host Terry Jensen. In this patio makeover episode I will show you how easy it is to clean and restore an aged brick paver patio. It sounds like a lot of work, but it’s actually easy to do it yourself over a weekend. I finished this entire outdoor living hardscape project by myself in less than four hours total. Whether you hire a contractor or go the DIY route, this video will show you how to bust out the job quickly so your patio will be ready for a friendly barbecue party or some quiet time reading a book.

This paver patio and adjacent walkway area was very dirty and covered with green and black algae. We started by pressure washing the bricks with a gas powered pressure washer which took about 45 minutes. It’s important to clean evenly back and forth with the spray wand, almost as if you were painting a fence. I tried initially using an electric pressure washer but found the jet stream was now powerful enough to clear out the grime and algae. The gas powered unit worked great and made the cleaning process go quickly. If the water dries in time you can move on to the final restoration steps, but on this project, I decided to give it more time to dry and returned to finish the following day.

Next, I installed two colors of UltraMix Designer Series Paver Joint Sand from TechniSoil. This patio was a combination of red brick pavers and charcoal-tan-plum keystone wall blocks for elevation. I used Brick Red and Charcoal Plum UltraMix Sand, and it tied the contrasting colors together beautifully. UltraMix Sand is not a polymeric sand, but can be used in a dry joint sand application or stabilized with a liquid stabilizer. Polymeric sands have an extremely limited color selection and can cause issues like hazing from polymeric powder dust.

Finally, I wrapped up the project by applying NanoPave JSS (2-in-1 Joint Stabilizer & Sealer) with an everyday handheld pump sprayer. NanoPave JSS performs two necessary jobs for hardscaping, by stabilizing the joint material and sealing the stone surface. The sealer enhances the natural color, and for this job we used NanoPave JSS Ghost - Natural Look Finish. The liquid sprays on white, but dries ultra clear. I used a foam rubber squeegee to evenly distribute the liquid over the pavers and I was careful to apply according to application rate and temperature recommendations.

When the makeover was complete, I had spent only a few hours transforming the outdoor living patio area from old and dingy to bright and beautiful. We used only TechniSoil products to enhance the project, specifically UltraMix Paver Joint Sand and NanoPave JSS. For products and ideas like these and more, visit TechniSoil.com or any of the TechniSoil social media channels.

Monday, July 4, 2016

Backyard Paving Remodel



http://www.landscapingnetwork.com See how to dress up a plain-gray concrete patio with acid stains and then carve it to look like paving stone. Coordinating brick steps and borders complete the makeover.

Friday, July 1, 2016

Modern Front Yard Remodel



http://www.landscapingnetwork.com This modern front yard landscaping was a remodel from the existing yard. Excavation was done to open up space for a fire pit, dining area, front lawn, planters and retaining walls. See how this modern front yard was designed and the materials that were used by landscape architect Ive Haugeland from Shades of Green Landscape Architecture.