Concrete Decor — Manufacturer Profile

Colormaker Floors
by David Thompson

The meditation room in San Francisco’s new Asian Art Museum has a domed ceiling, a single bench and a gurgling fountain cut from a basalt boulder.

No paintings hang on the walls of the tiny 6-by-12-foot space, but artwork of a different sort lies underfoot: a polished concrete floor, integrally colored with taupe, stained with metallic salt, and washed with a hint of ocher that plays off the patina of the rock.

The floor was created with a cementitious topping known as Pentimento, a product from Colormaker Floors Ltd., a small company based in Burnaby, British Columbia.

Designed by Mike Miller, The Concretist, it was hand troweled by Gary Jones, Colormaker’s president.

It’s really not surprising to find a Colormaker floor in an art museum, considering that Jones describes his company as “An artistic operation using concrete as our medium, versus a concrete company with artistic applications.”

Nor is it surprising to find Jones with trowel in hand at a client’s pour. “Not only do we supply the materials, we go along with the materials,” says Jones.

Jones and Miller are long-time associates, and Miller is part of Colormaker’s network of artisans. But in the case of the meditation room, Miller deferred to Jones’ skill with a trowel. “I’ve never found anybody who can trowel quite like him,” Miller says.

Colormaker generally sells its product to end users rather than distributors so that the company can provide training and support. In most cases, Colormaker relies on a small network of regular clients who act as consultants and trainers, but sometimes Jones goes himself. The company also teamed up recently with Bob Harris of the Decorative Concrete Institute in Atlanta, who will provide training and distribute its product line on the East Coast.

Colormaker’s overlays can be found throughout the U.S. and Canada in locations such as Starbucks, Whole Foods grocery stores, Sur La Table kitchen stores, Rainforest Cafe restaurant and retail outlets and the Bootleggers chain of restaurants and brew pubs.

“Our main clients install floors for restaurants, clothing stores, high-end retail, art galleries and projects of that nature,” says Jones. “Residential is the smaller side of our business; I’d guess it’s about 30 percent.”

Skill with a trowel a plus
Colormaker’s overlays aren’t for everyone. They’re aimed primarily at artisans adept at hand troweling. “We’re a little different in that respect,” says Jones. “Everybody’s pushing for self-levels because it’s very easy on installers. We try to create more of an artisan finish. There’s more training on our side.”

In fact, Jones won’t even sell Pentimento, Colormaker’s core product, to anyone who hasn’t been trained to install it.