Vol. 13 No. 2 - February/March 2013

The Decorative Concrete Hall of Fame is pleased to honor its inductees for 2013: Ralph Gasser, Bill Stegmeier, Barbara Sargent and Byron Klemaske II. The Hall of Fame announced the group at the 2013 Concrete Decor Show.

Marketing activities exist in multiple forms. In 1960, marketer E. Jerome McCarthy identified four distinctive types of marketing, often referred to as the “four P’s”: product, price, place and promotion. This marketing mix provides a standard framework for a decorative concrete professional to communicate and deliver lasting value to customers.

As a polishing consultant I get to wear several different hats, but by far the largest amount of my time is spent managing polished concrete programs for retailers. Polished concrete is an aesthetically beautiful and valuable flooring solution, but it is fairly specialized.

Inside, decorative concrete that resembles Venetian plaster is troweled on some walls while molded log tiles made out of glass-fiber reinforced concrete (GFRC) cover others. Huge columns shaped to look like intricately crafted wooden chair legs were designed with a CAD program, fashioned out of foam and chicken wire, and covered with troweled-on white concrete

Watch out for water, especially in climates where you get cold winters. Water is by far the biggest challenge you will face as a decorative concrete professional. Words like “spalling,” “flaking,” “pitting” or “chipping” are not what people making a living in concrete want to hear. and rarely do these words mean a satisfied customer a profitable month.

Two months before graduating from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with a bachelor’s degree in architecture, Eric Boyd and two other students opened their own design-build firm. One of the first jobs they landed was a kitchen remodel where the client asked for concrete countertops, somewhat of a novelty back then.

Putting down a beautiful concrete museum floor that doesn’t distract from the artwork is, well, creating a work of art in its own right.

Concrete has many faces, and there are many preconceived and misconceived ideas about it. You should not navigate what people think concrete is — instead, explain to them what it actually is. This includes your concrete, its finish and all of its attributes.

The 34,000-square-foot colored and stamped concrete courtyard that Allied Concrete Applicators poured at Saint Martin’s University in Lacey, Wash., presented a laundry list of challenges that had to be dealt with during installation.

Last fall, Architectural Concrete and Design Inc. was tasked with retrofitting the concourse of nearby Valley Fair Mall with a stampable overlay system. The specifications dictated that the selected concrete system was to be installed over existing ceramic tile without any demolition.

The Harley dealership is a leader in sales and rider satisfaction for the entire Mid-Atlantic region, and its headquarters reflects its ethics. The 31,000-square-foot facility boasts a modern industrial theme, with cathedral 25-foot ceilings and marblesque floors.

Prepping a concrete floor for polishing is one of the most difficult tasks we face in this industry. We cannot be aggressive like we can when prepping for a coating system, because there will be no coating to cover up the deep scratch patterns. We must take care to remove the surface materials while causing as little damage as possible to the concrete. We must be aggressive while being cautious.

A solid-color concrete stain might be described as a cross between a coating and a stain, with the opaque solid color reminding one of a coating and the penetrating properties being more like a stain.

The “Florida cracker” cowboy rode off into the sunset long ago. But thanks to a design team’s partnership with decorative concrete company Edwards Concrete, residents of a central Florida community can immerse themselves in the region’s frontier days.

Like any commercial building, the Charlotte Convention Center has a set of emergency exits that lead to the outside. However, the Convention Center had a unique problem in that its doors led towards the tracks for the Charlotte Light Rail.