Retaining Walls Made Right

Retaining walls generally perform a utilitarian function. These are often intended to create a solid partition between two levels of landscape, eliminating slopes and contours that can be difficult to manage and limit flat, usable space.

When the right materials and design are employed, a retaining wall can be an attractive element of any landscape.

Considerations for Designing the Best Retaining Wall

Whether replacing an existing or failing structure or creating a new one, a proper retaining wall begins with a solid design.

Usually, a retaining wall is holding back a vertical face of soil that can slide or cave in if not properly retained. The first and most crucial issue is strength and durability. Walls that are not strong enough to resist the lateral earth pressure behind the wall may eventually collapse or slide.

In many states, the design of a new stone or masonry retaining wall exceeding four feet should be reviewed by a licensed professional design engineer to assess the wall's long-term integrity. 

Other factors to be considered when constructing a retaining wall are:

• Required height of the wall
• Groundwater conditions and drainage
• Site accessibility
• Building codes
• Aesthetics

With the proper design and the best materials, a beautiful retaining wall not only optimizes the useable area but can be a long-lasting and beautiful accent to the landscape.

Belgard® Retaining Walls from ProCoat Systems

To add interest and beauty to your backyard landscape or to enhance the curb appeal of your property, an attractive, well designed retaining wall can make the difference. Belgarde, a world-class producer of pavers, retaining wall products, and other hardscape materials, produces the highest quality of freestanding and retaining wall blocks for home and business landscapes. Belgarde materials are stable, long lasting, and beautiful, available in a broad range of styles to complement surrounding structures and landscape features.

Belgarde offers a product selection of eleven different retaining wall block designs to match just about any setting. These sturdy options range from coarse to smooth surfaces in several different colors, shapes, and sizes.

To finish the job, Belgarde and ProCoat also provide the matching edges and caps.

Contact ProCoat Systems of Colorado and Utah

ProCoat Systems is a premier supplier of world-class coatings, hardscape materials, waterproofing, and air barrier systems. The company has been a supplier to the construction and remodeling industries in the Rocky Mountain region for nearly thirty-five years.

For more information regarding materials and construction of the highest quality retaining walls, contact ProCoat. The professionals at ProCoat will be pleased to help.

Phone ProCoat Systems at (303)-322-9009.

This post was originally published at http://www.procoatsystems.com/retaining-walls-made-right/

The Versatility of Beautiful Stone Veneer

Stone veneer can be a beautiful, long-lasting and stylish addition to any home or business interior or exterior. By providing texture, atmosphere, and refinement to any room or exterior structure, manufactured stone veneers are a high-quality cladding for fireplace surrounds, interior walls, exterior columns and wainscoting, and other elements.

Homeowners add curb appeal and value to their homes by installing stone veneer siding. Businesses intensify their presence and improve customer perception by upgrading exterior elements of their building with top quality stone veneer cladding.

What Types of Stone Veneers are Available?

ProCoat Systems of Denver, a supplier of high-quality cladding materials to the construction and remodeling industry in the Rocky Mountain region, offers a broad spectrum of stone veneer products for new construction or remodel projects.

Top brands like Cultured Stone® Veneer and ProStone® by Boral, Coronado, and RealStone Systems offer consumers an almost infinite number of textures, colors, stone types, and patterns to match their taste and budget. Each product is as durable and easier to apply than natural stone since these require less cutting, fitting, and shaping and therefore result in less waste. These products are highly durable and easily meet all building codes.

Quality stone veneers are perfect for:

• Exterior and interior fireplaces
• Stone walls and facades
• Commercial retail and entertainment areas
• Stone showers
• Accent walls
• Pool spillovers and surrounding walls
• Water features

Application of Stone Veneers and Preventing Water Intrusion

Accumulated moisture can be a threat to the life of any stone installation.However, when properly applied, stone veneer products are effective in preventing water intrusion. The stone itself does not absorb moisture, but the installation must include measures to prevent water from accumulating behind the exterior veneer. This usually involves three areas of attention. They are:

• Prevent moisture from entering at seams where the veneer meets doors, windows, gates, etc. Special attention to eliminating gaps should be applied to these locations.
• Extra flashing is important at joints, corners, and bends.
• Create weep holes for accumulated moisture, if present,  to escape

Quality stone veneers are rugged and longlasting of properly applied.

Stone veneer applications can alter the ambiance of an interior space or dramatically highlight the positive features of an exterior. Choosing the right stone veneer for your intended feature depends on the mood you are attempting to project. Will your fireplace surround deliver the comforting lodge-like feel you envision? Will the new stone veneer in the bathroom create the spa-like elegance of your dreams. Will the new exterior wall project rustic informality or sophisticated grace?

Contact ProCoat Systems

For more information regarding the selection and application of stone veneers for interior or exterior use, contact ProCoat in Denver and the Rocky Mountain Region.

Visit their website for ideas. Or phone the ProCoat professionals at (303)-322-9009.

This post was originally published at http://www.procoatsystems.com/versatility-beautiful-stone-veneer/

Advantages of Cultured Stone Over Natural Stone Veneers

Increasingly, Cultured Stone® by Boral is the first choice of home and business owners looking for a beautiful and economical cladding for interior or exterior walls, fireplaces, and vertical columns. Cultured Stone is durable and versatile, perfect for nearly any application.

Lighter weight and easier to install than natural stone products, cultured stone requires less cutting and shaping, thereby resulting in easier installation and less waste.

In the Rocky Mountain region, Boral’s Cultured Stone is sold and marketed by ProStone Systems of Denver and Salt Lake City.

Colors and Textures of Cultured Stone

To replicate the natural textures of natural stone, Boral production engineers cast molds of Cultured Stone from carefully selected real stone pieces. A broad range of color selections are created from Portland cement, natural aggregates, and iron oxide pigments to create a perfect match for natural stone veneers. Boral produces Cultured Stone uses thousands of different molds to eliminate the possibility of duplication in a single lot. Even units produced in the same mold vary in color and highlights.

Boral manufactures Cultured Stone in 100 texture and color combinations.

Application of Cultured Stone

Properly applied, Cultured Stone, available from ProCoat in Denver, meets all applicable building code requirements. Details of code compliance are listed within the instructions for the product installation.

Cultured Stone should be applied over well-cleaned and structurally sound substrates of wood, concrete, wallboard, brick, or metal and secured with specified Portland Cement mortar.

For best results, installation should comply precisely to the product instructions.

Durability of Cultured Stone

Boral offers a 50-year warranty with properly installed of Cultured Stone. The material is resistant to rain, wind, and snow and will retain the original color much like natural stone. The only suggested maintenance is an occasional washing to remove dust and dirt to preserve the original beauty.

Affordability

Cultured Stone from Boral, available through ProCoat Systems, is easier to install and generates virtually no waste compared to natural stone and stone veneers. Although there is far less cutting and shaping required with Cultured Stone, standard cutting tools like masonry or circular saws are appropriate when needed.

Call ProCoat Systems of Denver

As a partner to the world’s most sophisticated cladding manufacturers, ProCoat Systems supplies builders, remodelers, and installer with long-lasting and beautiful products for new construction and remodel projects.

For information regarding the technical aspects and installation of Cultured Stone by Boral, phone the ProCoat professionals at 303-322-9009.

This post was originally published at http://www.procoatsystems.com/advantages-cultured-stone-natural-stone-veneers/

Exercise Personal Design Creativity with Quality Interior Veneer Stone

Today’s stone veneers, whether produced from natural or manufactured stone, can add a stunning measure of beauty, style, and the ambiance of your choosing to any setting. Interior veneer stone may create a lodge-like feel to a family or living room with a new fireplace surround or an elegant, an outdoor spa atmosphere to a bathroom, or an elegant ambiance with a new stone bedroom wall.

The styles, textures, and colors available in today’s interior stone veneers can produce virtually any style a home or business owner’s imagination can conceive. ProCoat Systems of Denver represents the world’s leading innovators in manufactured stone veneers. Their products replicate the appearance of natural stone such as granite, limestone, marble, or slate. 

High-quality stone veneer is easily applied with far less waste than natural stone and at a lower cost.

Unique Interior Veneer Stone Applications

Besides living rooms, bedrooms and bathrooms, interior designers are visualizing other unique applications to add drama to any home or office space. By coordinating with the existing architecture and color schemes, spaces such as stairwells, alcoves, entryways, and highlight walls can bring the outside in and emit a strong natural aura to the space.

Whether owners choose to install stone veneer themselves or look to professional installers, the project requires precision and attention to detail to achieve the desired result.

Installing Interior  Stone Veneer

The first consideration for stone veneer installation is to make sure the wall or substrate will be strong enough to support the weight of the stone products. The square foot weight of the stone, mortar, and lath can be as much as 25 pounds per square foot.

Normally, stone veneer can be placed over either wood or metal framed walls or masonry substrates.

If you are in doubt about the integrity of the wall or substrate, contact an expert to assess the wall structure to make sure the wall is strong enough to support the extra weight.

Boral’s Cultured Stone® veneer installation instructions involve the following steps:

• Wall Preparation: 2 layers of Water Resistive Barrier plus weep screed to drain away moisture from the new veneer
• Lath Installation: In compliance with building codes, lath can be metal, woven wire, welded wire, or fiberglass.
• Apply Scratch Coat: Encapsulate the lath with a full mortar scratch coat to enhance adhesion and prevent the intrusion of moisture and air.
• Setting Bed: Make sure the stone is clean, use quality mortar, and mix exactly per instructions. Apply mortar in 5-foot square sections to a ½” to ¾” thickness. Apply a thin layer to the back of each stone piece and set.

Contact ProCoat Systems

Experts in the installation of all types of architectural coatings, the professionals at ProCoat advise and assist in the material selection and strategies for the installation of interior stone veneer.

For more information, phone ProCoat at (303)-322-9009.

This post was originally published at http://www.procoatsystems.com/beautiful-versatile-natural-thin-stone-veneer/

Beautiful and Versatile Natural Thin Stone Veneer

Natural thin stone veneer is real stone cut into thicknesses of 1” to 2” for easy application, handling, and transport. The effect is the same as the traditional stone mason’s cutting and shaping without the waste and extra labor. The end results are walls, flooring, fireplace surrounds, and other architectural features that convey the beauty, color, and texture of real stone without the mass and waste.

Natural thin stone veneers from ProCoat Systems in Denver come in a wide range of shapes and types. By partnering with the most skilled stone artisans in the industry, realstone Systems™, ProCoat offers a selection to match any taste or application.

Easy to Install

The craftsmen at realstone Systems make installation as simple as possible. Starting with real stone material, cutting these into thin veneer pieces and positioning them beautifully in panels and planks, the result is a stunning well-crafted wall or fireplace without the mess and hassle of mortaring each joint. The process is simple, consumes less time, and eliminates sloppy imperfections.

Affordable

Using natural stone products to create thin veneers eliminates most of the problems and much of the cost that accompanies working with whole stone pieces. Real veneer products are cut so that installation is simple and requires little or no shaping to apply the stone to the substrate. As a result, the piles of waste and extensive labor and skill to work on-site with the stone is eliminated.

Less Expensive Skilled labor + Reduced Transportation Costs+ Less Waste = Lower Finished Cost

realstone Systems Natural Thin Stone Veneer

Veneers from realstoneSystems are made from a broad range of stone types, each exhibiting a unique color, pattern, and texture created by Mother Nature. Colors range from white and light gray to reds, browns, taupes, to entirely black. Each piece is unique.

Natural Veneers are produced from stone types including:

• Granite
• Limestone
• Marble
• Quartzite
• Sandstone
• Slate
• Travertine

Natural Stone Veneer Shapes

Besides color, texture, and natural patterns, the stone shape also reflects the natural beauty of the beauty of the stone veneer. Pieces may be round, square, rectangular, ledge cut, mosaic, or a mixture of any combination to create a truly unique pattern.  

Contact ProCoat for High-Quality Natural Thin Stone Veneer

ProCoat Systems is a leading supplier of the highest quality exterior and interior claddings and coatings. For questions regarding any project, contact the experts at ProCoat for information about materials, installation instruction, and pricing.

Call ProCoat Systems today at (303)-322-9009.

This post was originally published at http://www.procoatsystems.com/beautiful-versatile-natural-thin-stone-veneer/

Installing Quality Stone Veneer for Maximum Beauty and Durability

Stone veneer products add elegance and style to any interior or exterior space.

Create a dramatic focal point in your living area with a stylish and beautiful new fireplace surround made of high-quality stone veneer. Add class and a natural outdoor feel to your bathroom or family room with a brand new stone cladding.

Or, on the outside, install a stone veneer wainscoting to brighten that dull siding and enhance the curb appeal and add real value to your home. Or, consider creating a stone clad fireplace and new walls to your backyard living and cooking space.

Available in a wide range of stone styles, textures, and colors, homeowners can create the ambiance of their dreams with high-quality stone veneer applications from ProCoat Systems in Denver.

Why Stone Veneer?

Whether natural or manufactured stone, cutting or shaping the material into easy-to-manage formats has become the norm. Compared to whole natural stone, the process of creating individual pieces into a veneer that is approximately two inches or so in thickness allows for:

• Reduced waste
• Lower transport costs
• Reduced the mess around the worksite
• Less weight and very little cutting
• Quicker and easier installation
• Not requiring a professional stone mason to cut and shape each stone
• A less expensive application compared to whole natural stone

Even though the implementation is more straightforward with stone veneer products, the project must be appropriately handled with precision and attention to detail to ensure a beautiful, long-lasting result. For answers to questions concerning stone veneer installation, contact the ProCoat Systems specialists.

How are Stone Veneer Products Installed?

The critical starting point is to select the right stone veneer products. ProCoat of Denver has partnered with the top stone veneer producers in the industry and can offer the product with all of the properties of color, texture, size, and stone type that you can imagine.

A second consideration is to plan ahead to ensure that the potential for moisture and water intrusion behind the construction is eliminated. If you are not sure how this is done, contact an experienced installer.

With that concern in mind, here a few additional tips for a quality installation:

1. Wherever the stone veneer will approach a juncture at a window or door, , for example, the installer should leave a gap of about 3/8” in which to install a backer rod that will prevent water from seeping behind the veneer to weaken the structure.
2. Flashing is vital in any construction to eliminate the introduction of water around joints and junctures, mainly from above. Make sure the flashing is sized correctly so that a substantial rainstorm cannot penetrate behind the stone veneer where spaces are not protected.
3. Weep Holes provide an added insurance against accumulating moisture. If water should find its way behind the veneer, the weep holes at the bottom of the construction will allow the moisture to escape. Keeping moisture and mold from developing is the most important part of the installation process.

Contact ProCoat Systems

For the highest quality stone veneers, contact ProCoat Systems of Denver and Salt Lake City. The professionals at ProCoat will be pleased to discuss your vision and provide expert advice, materials, and tools to realize your dream.

Visit the ProCoat website or phone ProCoat Systems at (303)-322-9009.

This post was originally published at http://www.procoatsystems.com/installing-quality-stone-veneer-maximum-beauty-durability/

Protect Your Exterior with EIFS Finish Coats

EIFS, also known as Exterior Insulation and Finish Systems, is an energy saving and durable cladding consisting of scientifically developed layers of materials that coordinate to restrict the transfer of energy and eliminate the accumulation of moisture. In reality, EIFS works as an overcoat for your home or business.

The exterior layer of EIFS construction is a specially designed EIFS finish coating that incorporates flexible, crack-resistant acrylic copolymer technology that restricts cold and moisture while maintaining an attractive, long-lasting appearance. The material rarely requires reapplication and is designed to resist fading, chalking, or yellowing that occur with other exterior coatings. This original classic stucco-like or other style presentation is designed to look new for decades.

Characteristics of an EIFS Finish Coat

After the home or building has been clad with the EIFS insulated and moisture-removing layers,  it will be time for the exterior finish coat to be applied. The material complements the other layers to seal the EIFS infrastructure. This finish coat imparts the texture, color, and protective nature of the building’s exterior surfaces. The material can be applied in a rough, stucco-like finish or smooth to project a softer, outer texture.

EIFS coatings are softer than real stucco and will deflect when pressure is applied. Resiliency is the reason for EIFS coating's crack-resistance while true stucco, a stiffer material, is subject to cracking as buildings settle or are subjected to extreme weather variances.

Sto® is the world leader in the development of modern EIFS cladding, coatings, and restoration systems. As a longtime partner and distributor of Sto products, ProCoat Systems of Denver and Salt Lake City offers StoCoat®Lotusan® and StoTherm®, both durable and beautiful stucco-type coatings designed for long-lasting and energy-saving EIFS cladding.

Sto also produces a base coat primer to enhance the protection and adhesiveness of the finish coats.

The colors and textures available from ProCoat and Sto allow for a wide selection to match nearly any preference. EIFS finish coats can be smooth, granular, or sandy in texture and come in a range of colors that include sandstone, limestone, granite, and even brick.

Once applied, the Sto’s EIFS finish coats are:

• Water repellent
• Vapor permeable
• Dirt, mildew, and algae resistant
• UV resistant
• Highly durable

Contact ProCoat Systems

The experts at ProCoat in Denver and Salt Lake City are experienced in all phases of installation of exterior surface coatings for EIFS and other types of construction for homes and businesses. 

For more information regarding EIFS Finish Coat options, visit the ProCoat website or phone the ProCoat professionals at (303)-322-9009.

This post was originally published at http://www.procoatsystems.com/protect-exterior-eifs-finish-coats/