Comment by Ryan W.Rall on April 18, 2011 at 1:04pm

Russell the landscape border looks awesome !! great idea, what did you use for the substrate ?

Comment by Dale Messenger on April 18, 2011 at 2:57pm

Im not sure what substrate he used. But when we did the project in South Carolina Childrens Museum we used rebar. We used 3 stands and we made there chairs. One on top  one each side. Seemed to work out rather well. We then just plopped concrete and then sprayed the carve coat.

Comment by Ryan W.Rall on April 18, 2011 at 3:24pm

Sprayed carve coat? Do you mean you painted/stained carve coat? or you mean you actuaactually sprayed carve coat. It Kind've almost sounds like an additional step?

Comment by Dale Messenger on April 18, 2011 at 7:45pm

we used a mortar sprayer and sprayed on final coat of concrete, then we carved it and textured .

Comment by Russel Whitney on April 19, 2011 at 11:57am

Hey Ryan,

We used wire lath (no rebar ) The first coat is a two to one Portland /DOT sand, Heavy on the fiber and lots of poly - super strong when  cured. General shape and layout. Next we go over with our carve coat.

Carve coat : 50/50 Portland - Super masonry =   1 to 2 parts masonry sand (fine)  36 oz acrylic

Comment by Russel Whitney on April 19, 2011 at 12:07pm

Hey guys,

I have a sprayer but for smaller stuff like this it would take longer to set up and clean up than using a wheel barrow. Haven't had enough extra work to try the mortar sprayer. Dale do you think its worth the investment ( compressor and sprayer ) ?

Comment by Ryan W.Rall on April 19, 2011 at 1:26pm

Thanks for responding Russ. I've been a concrete contractor for 10 yrs. but must confess I am a newbie when it comes to the vertical carving industry.  The landscape border you did looked awesome and I thought that it would be a good starter project for me at my home. A couple of questions if you wouldn't mind? Dot sand ? is that like silica sand ? and poly ? what is poly? is that like concrete glue w/ polymers in it ?  And then on the carve coat what is super masonry? again I appreciate your time and for responding . :)

Comment by Dale Messenger on April 19, 2011 at 2:04pm

Well all I can say is after using it I can really see the benifite of owning one. You can make alot of cool textures other wise would take a long time. It is roughly the same time wise on a project like this. But for scratch coating vertical and carve coat vertical faster and less mess. With the sprayer with a little effort you can achieve some nice wavey detail and over hangs. All I can say is after I used one I got one!! I have not used it. Stupid weather but got some projects for it. Rock mailbox, pillars, 2 sets of steps. Weather please break!!

 

Comment by David Driggs on April 19, 2011 at 2:09pm

Thanks for the discussion on this, guys. I have a nursery that has wanted me to offer this kind of work for them, and I have avoided the conversation for about a year. I don't like the curb machine look that's so common. This is very nice, though, and I would like to give it a go. What do you think a good retail/wholesale price structure might be? By the way, Russel, the backdrop to that photo is amazing. I guess I left more of my heart near the sea than I realized! That hands-on coming up in Naples is sounding really great.

Comment by Dale Messenger on April 19, 2011 at 2:13pm

I was wondering that my self? About the cost?  The only thing or opinion I would add is do it with rebar. Makes it stronger and I dont know the weather situation where you are freeze thaw. It should make it last longer.  I guess the cost would be figured out by the amount of detail. And how long it would take you.

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