Jacek Bienkowski Decorative Concrete Floors: What to Consider Before You Commit "Concrete" has grown steadily more popular in interior design, residential and commercial. It pays to be clear about both the aesthetic expectations and the correct procedures - too often neglected in... 24 Oct 2018
Jacek Bienkowski Restoring Historic Timber: Science, Conscience and Knowledge "It is the only man-made object that receives a baptism: when you launch a boat you call the priest, have it blessed and give it a name. That is why boats have a soul, a story to tell and a future to ... 27 May 2017
Jacek Bienkowski Dusting Concrete? The Fix in One Move Ever wondered why concrete dusts with age? How to prevent it - and what to do once it has started? The causes In a fresh pour, dusting comes from excessive segregation of the mix: heavy particles sett... 4 Aug 2015
Jacek Bienkowski Protecting Reinforcement in One Simple Move Ever seen concrete so deteriorated that the reinforcement shows through, inevitably rusty? Look at the barriers dividing motorway carriageways, at structures near the sea, or anywhere with heavy pollu... 21 Jul 2015
Jacek Bienkowski The Strange Case of Screeds The screed has always been seen as the poorest element of a building, and has always received scant attention to its technical details. To be precise: a screed is the non-structural horizontal layer t... 2 Jun 2015
Jacek Bienkowski Simple, Fast and Effective? Choosing a Cleaner That Does Not Eat Your Floor Imagine a concrete or microcement floor at home or in the office. Now imagine you have stained it and need to clean it without a trace. Finally, imagine choosing the cleaner. That is where the dilemma... 23 May 2015
Jacek Bienkowski How to Prevent Drying Shrinkage Cracks in Concrete How many times have we faced walls or floors with annoying cracks - and wished for an immediate solution? "Too many" is the unanimous answer. So let us start at the heart of it: the importance of curi... 18 May 2015
Jacek Bienkowski Cracks and Crazing in Seamless Floor Finishes: Where They Really Come From Floor finishes fall into two families: those laid or glued on top (floating floors, tiles, timber, some rubber and linoleum) and those in full adhesion with the substrate (resins, trowelled cementitio... 13 Apr 2015
Jacek Bienkowski Terracotta, Tiles and Porcelain: Cover, Don't Demolish Does the 1970s floor fight with the new kitchen? Are there never enough rugs to hide the red terracotta you can no longer stand? Has the old terrazzo had its day? "The floor is half the furnishing" is... 14 Dec 2013
Jacek Bienkowski Not All Silicates Are Equal: How to Choose the Right One Sodium silicate or lithium silicate? Waterglass or potassium silicate? Silicates come in liquid and solid form; those used in construction are the following. Sodium silicate Commonly called waterglass... 30 Apr 2013
Jacek Bienkowski Corrosion of Reinforcement: Why Balcony Repairs Keep Failing You will almost certainly have seen degraded reinforced concrete: the surface layer - the cover - missing, and the reinforcement exposed. It is very common, especially on balcony edges, and the homeow... 20 Apr 2013 Blog
Jacek Bienkowski Measuring Relative Humidity in Cement Screeds Excess moisture in screeds is known to damage floor coverings - timber, linoleum, resins. Rising moisture carries alkalis and salts to the surface, where they attack adhesives and coverings and cause ... 18 Mar 2012 Blog
