Color Hardener Installation Instructions

1. Basic Use: Faux Brick Color Hardener is a ready-touse, dry shake material designed specifically for use with Faux Brick Stencils to create brick, tile, stone and other patterns in concrete. It is also well suited for coloring, hardening, and finishing new concrete floors, walkways, pool decks, and other flatwork. Faux Brick Color Hardener is not recommended for intermittent or continuous exposure to oxidizing minerals and organic acids that may be detrimental to the cement binder in the concrete slab. It is also not recommended for areas that will be subjected to heavy steel wheel vehicular traffic.
2. Composition and Materials: Faux Brick Color Hardener is a special formulation of graded mineral aggregates, inorganic pigments, Portland cement, and surface conditioning and dispersing agents. The aggregates are selected for hardness and purity, then carefully graded through a wide particle size range to produce a dense, wear-resistant surface.
3. Color: Faux Brick Color Hardener is available from stock in 25 standard colors. With sufficient notification and proper lead-times, special and custom-matched colors can be formulated and must be purchased in minimum quantities of 2,000 pounds (40 pails).
4. Size: Faux Brick Color Hardener is available in 50 pound pails.
5. Coverage: For most commercial and industrial applications, a minimum of 50 pounds (one pail) per 100 square feet should be used for most standard colors. For light or pastel colors, 80 to 100 pounds per 100 square feet may be required. For heavy duty requirements, up to 120 pounds per 100 square feet may be required for all colors.
6. Textures: A variety of finishes can be attained, such as the modern look of a smooth-troweled finish or a skid-proof broom finish. There are a number of antiquing techniques that can create a charming colonial look. Changes in finishing techniques or timing may produce color variations and should be expected.
7. Concrete Mix Design: It should contain a minimum of six (6) sacks of cement per cubic yard for most commercial and industrial applications. This is especially true for climates subject to freeze-thaw. For interior applications, the cement content may be reduced to a minimum of five (5) sacks of cement per cubic yard. All fine and course aggregates must be totally non-reactive (free of deleterious particles). The water content should be the minimum practicable, and the slump should not exceed four inches. A normalset or retarded-set water-reducing admixture may be used, but the concrete substrate must contain no other admixture, such as calcium chloride or water-proofing additives containing calcium chloride. An air-entraining admixture should be used in all concrete on grade that will be subjected to freeze-thaw cycles or when required by the engineer. Air contents above 6% may make it difficult to work in color hardener and may lead to blistering of surfaces that are steel troweled.
8. Application: When the freshly floated concrete substrate has reached the point where no excess moisture shows at the surface, but while still plastic throughout, the Faux Brick Color Hardener is broadcast evenly onto the surface in two applications. The first application should consume 2/3 of the material. After the first application, the surface is thoroughly floated. It should not be troweled between the first and second applications. The second application is then applied evenly and surface floated and troweled. A small quantity of material should be withheld for touching up non-uniform or weak-toned areas. Long-handled fresnos must not be used. Hard troweling should be minimized, and consistent finishing practices used to insure uniformity of color. Troweling is not recommended in freeze/thaw climates.
9. Curing: Faux Brick Color Hardened concrete should be cured with a curing compound that complies with ASTM designation C309 (Liquid Membrane-Forming Compounds for Curing Concrete). The compound should comply with applicable air quality management regulations. The use of burlap or other wet covering, plastic sheeting, waterproof paper, or other liquid membrane type curing compounds is not recommended except for special applications. Curing with water is usually detrimental to color uniformity.
10. Quality Control: Adequate size mock-up samples must be made and approved by owner or owners agent prior to installation. Use the same personnel, placement methods, finishing techniques and curing products that will be used on the project.
11. Maintenance: Periodically clean surfaces with a mild detergent, let dry and reseal as needed. Over applications of sealer may be slippery and should be avoided. Clean up spills as quickly as possible.

Warranty

Faux Brick Color Hardener is warranted to be of uniform quality within manufacturing tolerances. Since no control is exercised over its use, no warranty—express or implied—is made as to the effects of such use. Seller and Manufacturer's obligations under this warranty shall be limited to refunding the purchase price of that portion of the material proven to be defective.

Safety Guidelines

OSHA approved safety glasses, gloves and dust mask or respirators should be worn at all times during any job function.

Refer to MSDS Sheets for proper handling.