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Concrete Innovations
by Hallack
by David Thompson

The path into concrete
Hallack, 50, was born and raised in Mexico. He came to California in 1973 as an exchange student studying international marketing at the University of the Pacific. Upon graduating, he got a job as the South American representative for a U.S. farm equipment firm, then took a job as a customer service manager for a western boot manufacturer in El Paso. Along the way he got married, and in 1986 he and his wife moved to the Central Valley so she could be closer to her family.

The move left Hallack unemployed and uncertain of his next move. But that changed one day while he was at a gas station filling his tank. A landscaper pulled up next to him in a truck filled with lawnmowers. Hallack asked how landscaping paid, and the guy said he earned $4,000 a week, which got Hallack’s attention. The guy also offered Hallack work on a big job in a good neighborhood. Hallack took it.

“While I was doing this job,” Hallack says, “somebody came by who was building a house and said, ‘Hey, I’m looking for a landscaper,’ and I said, ‘I’m your man.’”

Suddenly Hallack had his own landscaping company, which he turned into a profitable business.

He found his way to concrete indirectly. Occasionally he hired sub-contractors to build retaining walls, walkways and whatnot, but he was never satisfied with their work.

“I was very unhappy with the quality and with how sloppy they were,” he says. “They used to leave me a mess all the time, concrete debris and beer cans all over.”

So Hallack began learning how to pour concrete, gradually growing more and more interested in the medium. He went to the World of Concrete trade shows in Las Vegas, attending seminars and learning about new products. Back at home, he began pouring and stamping practice slabs on his property, until he had confidence in his skills. Then he started experimenting with color.

Once his eyes were opened to the possibilities, there was no going back to plain old gray slabs. The allure of decorative concrete had him firmly in its grip, and still does.

“I don’t think there’s another product you can do as much with as concrete,” Hallack says. “The opportunities for using your artistic talent are endless. There are no limitations, no borders whatsoever, except your imagination and your creativity and your enthusiasm.”

Gradually Hallack began to introduce concrete services to his landscaping customers, and the jobs he took on grew bigger as his skills and confidence grew. His first major milestone came when he contracted to do an outdoor multipurpose sports court (basketball, tennis, handball, etc.) at a private residence. It was a challenging project that couldn’t have any birdbaths it whatsoever, and it had to drain perfectly. Hallack lost a lot of sleep worrying about it, but it came out flawless in the end. And it opened the door for other opportunities.

“It was done in one of the most prestigious neighborhoods in Modesto, and anytime you work in these kinds of neighborhoods, people are more willing to trust you, and architects are willing to talk to you longer and so on,” Hallack says. “After that referrals began popping up left and right.”

Eventually, the concrete side of his business began eclipsing the landscaping end, and he discontinued the landscaping entirely in 1997.

The importance of image
Maintaining a clean-cut company image has carried over from his landscaping days into his concrete career.

“From Day One all of my vehicles are well painted and clean, and we have the company name, telephone number and website on them,” he says. “All of my employees look clean and well groomed, and all of my staff representing me in the field wear uniforms — very comfortable, good quality T-shirts with the company name and logo on them.”

Even after all his years of concrete work, Hallack still gets jittery and loses sleep before starting big jobs. But he hasn’t lost any of his enthusiasm for decorative concrete.

“I still get really excited about every project,” he says. “You can take a boring piece of gray concrete, change the appearance of it with stains, saw-cut lines here and there, and suddenly you have a piece of artwork. It’s a fact that the best product that Mother Nature has given us, and that God has given us, is concrete.”