Kwik Kerb

Last Saturday I helped my friend Robert do a job with his Kwik Kerb business. It's an interesting process. You can make something really nice out of concrete with it. But I wouldn't say it's exactly quick. It was an all day deal to lay about 100 feet of the stuff. And it's hard work. The machine (made in Australia, btw), which extrudes concrete into curbs of various cross sections, works quite well and can follow curves. But there is a lot of shoveling and mixing and wheel barrowing that goes into feeding the thing. And the prep work is a big part of it, like many jobs.

The basic concrete curb is covered with a slurry that can be many different colors. The stuff we were using was the exact color and texture and thickness of a Wendy's Frosty. I was wanting one all day. When this stuff sets up a bit it can have texture added to it and various stamps that look like branding irons can make it look like brick in various patterns. The texture and stamps are dipped in a powder that after being sprayed with a sealer with some other chemicals in it gains it's strong coloring and contrasts with the slurry color. In a few hours the whole thing starts to harden up and cures completely in a month. Once cured, the base concrete and the slurry are hardened together. Like I said, it's an interesting process and a very nice product, but doing it is not something I think I want to do every day.