So You Want Learn To Stamp Concrete...
I recently purchased some DVDs that are supposed to offer the tools needed to learn to stamp concrete. I would say it was a mistake and that I wasted five hours watching unedited videos, however, if you read this and you save yourself the money, time, frustration and confusion, it was worth the $32.00 I spent. I will not pretend that learning to stamp concrete is the most important thing you could learn. Nor will I say that stamping concrete is a very complicated endeavor. I won’t even tell you that $32.00 is a lot of money. Learning to stamp concrete is not brain surgery. Stamping concrete is not rocket science. Still stamping concrete isn’t quite as easy to learn as flipping burgers either. There are things you must know and they aren’t that complicated – but it can’t be learned in the five hours of videos I spent thirty-two dollars on!I was looking to learn to stamp concrete – but of course I already know how, so I knew exactly what to look for: First and most obvious: you will need to estimate your concrete quantities so you can either buy raw materials or order ready mixed concrete. In order to stamp concrete you have to pour concrete – that concrete either needs to be mixed or delivered, but first it must be ordered by quantity. In order to pour concrete, you have to form concrete. In order to form concrete, you will usually have to excavate some dirt and make preparations for getting the water off of the concrete when it rains. You will need to know how to screed concrete, float concrete, trowel concrete and of course finally you will need to learn how to stamp the concrete; but not until you have learned all of the above. If your concrete is not flat, smooth and creamy, it will not receive a stamped impression. In order to smooth and make the concrete creamy you will need to know when to use a float or when to use a trowel – using the wrong tool at the wrong time can cause unwanted cracking or spawling.
Please beware of teachers that want your money, but have no designs on really earning it. I have taught and trained hundreds of masons and labors. I have been teaching on the Internet now for 10 years and I have files full of pictures from satisfied homeowners. I have been teaching Argentine Tango for 4 years and there are dozens that have learned from me that are now dancing all over the world. In short: I know how to teach. I wrote Groovy concrete in 1998 before the Internet and computers were video friendly places. Our first two years in business we sold the multitorial Groovy Concrete on how to stamp and pour concrete on a 3.5 floppy disc – CD-ROMs were just making their appearance. Since then I keep abreast of all of my competitors.
Recently I ordered some videos for sale on the Internet at a site called howtocrete.com. 5 hours of unscripted unplanned monologue that all too frequently goes like this: “Um… ah… the most important thing for you to know is… ah… er… um, well work hard.” Seriously, the one of the most boring and tedious afternoons of my life was spent trying not to fast forward John Mindrup’s Concrete Stamping, Concrete Engraving, Cantilevered Steps, Concrete Staining and Concrete Basics DVDs. As I watched and listened to him tripping over his monologue, he fumbled and stumbled with boards, nails and screws – he makes you all the video footage!
You have to watch him install every screw and nail, there is no editing what so ever, you spend over five hours watching every tedious move he makes no matter how redundant, clumsy or repetitive those moves may be (well, I mean if he stays in frame – there are over 40 minutes in all 5 DVDs where you get to watch empty footage, the up side is you can at least fast forward through these areas, the down side is they aren’t all in one place on one DVD) you are stuck watching him work all day - my fingered hovered the fast forward button the entire excruciating afternoon, and for the first 45 minutes I managed to have the discipline not to cave in and skip anything, but when I got to 10 minutes of watching his butt while he droned on about how much he loves pouring concrete, while the neighbor’s lawn mower is sputtering in the back ground, I caved in and hit the fast forward button. I sincerely hated doing this since I honestly wanted to know what my “competition” was offering. I mean competition is supposed to be good for capitalism, especially where the consumer is concerned, however, John’s unorganized (and I must say, downright lazy) approach to making these DVDs has nothing to do with teaching, it has everything to do with getting your money and nothing to do with actually earning it.
Since the video is not edited you are forced to watch everything he does –– you will not only be frustrated or even angry – there is no way you will be able to absorb what you need to learn. If you want to learn from John Mindrup’s DVD collection this is what I advise: Prepare to spend five hours making copious notes, then sort through those notes for another three or four hours until you can finally decipher what all it takes to pour and stamp your own concrete. He may quite possibly convince you to never try ordering a “how to stamp concrete” DVD again and that is the reason I am posting this article. I do not believe in negative selling, but this guy went too far. His DVDs are a waste of your time and money! If you have purchased his DVDs, I am sorry, but please don’t judge our product based on his inefficiency.
If you haven’t bought his DVDs, please save yourself some time and money: $31.87 to be exact! Instead click here and use a tried and tested method of learning to stamp concrete.
As I said when I started this article: learning to stamp concrete is not rocket science. You can learn to stamp concrete. You need an organized well-scripted video. You will need clear and concise directions on how to excavate for concrete, how to form concrete, how to float concrete, how to trowel concrete and of course how to stamp concrete. In order to enable your learning process to be all about the trade skills and not the math, I have preprogrammed calculators do the math for you.
In Groovy Concrete I have preprogrammed calculators to:
- Return concrete quantities in cubic yards to order in a ready mix truck
- Raw bags of cement and aggregate
- Premixed bags of 60 or 80 pounds weights
- Precise quantity of excavation dirt in tons and pounds
- Precise amount of compactable fill in tons and pounds
- Exact amount of rebar
- How many feet of re-mesh
- Precise amount of “fall” needed to get the water off of your concrete surface
All you have to do is enter width, length and thickness the preprogrammed calculator embedded right on your work page, does the math for you.
So please save yourself the aggravation of trying to learn to stamp concrete by watching someone else do it all day long, and allow a teacher that has actually trained over 15,000 satisfied students how to stamp concrete. Learning to stamp concrete isn’t brain surgery, but you might need brain surgery if you spend an afternoon doing what I did last Saturday: watching John Mindrup’s videos!
Thanks for reading,
Rusty