Stamp Collecting for the Pro
by John Strieder
have come a long way from the cookie cutter designs of the 1960s.
Today, one company alone, Matcrete Inc., sells roughly 200 stamp patterns, from basket-weave and herringbone to tile, octagons and squares. “I’ve seen some really tricky stuff in stamping,” says Matcrete vice president Kris Kaitanjian. “It’s such a diverse field. It’s really limitless.”
Stamping’s popularity peaked in the early 1990s, before the public imagination turned to staining, says Bob Harris, director of product training with The Scofield Institute, operated by manufacturer L.M. Scofield Co. But decorative bordering, custom mat design and other innovations are driving a new wave of interest in putting a distinctive stamp on concrete jobs, he says. “People are becoming more creative.”
Chris McMahon, owner of Architectural Concrete Design Inc. in Levittown, Pa., says his company budgets $15,000 a year for stamps, adding new textures, expanding sets and replacing broken stamps or tired designs. “Textures get better all the time,” he says. “The new ones are more realistic.”
 A contractor can build word of mouth with just one good-looking effect, McMahon notes, so picking the right stamp is crucial. “When we have a brick tool that looks a specific way, we become known for having that brick tool.”
So — how does a contractor go about finding the perfect set of stamp mats?
McMahon says he goes to training seminars to test new products. “You can use their tools in real situations,” he says. “But you can’t really tell how good a tool is until you use it on a large job in variable situations. Sometimes it’s a leap of faith.”
Doug Carlton, of Doug Carlton Concrete in Visalia, Calif., says that when he shops for stamps, he sticks mainly with manufacturers who have been in business for awhile. “You want to be able to add to your collection when you need to,” he says.
He grills manufacturers to test their know-how, especially at trade shows. “That’s really the only chance we get to look at those mats before we buy,” he says. “We ask some pretty hard questions.”
To ask the right questions, a contractor needs to know what makes a good stamp. “If a tool is a great tool, it takes a lot of the variables out of the stamp portion of what we do,” McMahon says.
Stamp mats should be lightweight, yet rigid enough to support a worker’s weight on wet concrete, he says. “The more rigid the tool the sooner you can start stamping.”
The mats in a set should be equal in thickness and size, and fit together without gaps. Stamps in some sets are not snug matches, according to Steve Johnson, a former contractor who does marketing and product development for Solomon Colors. “You really have to know those stamps to work them,” he says. “It made it really tough to bring in a new employee.”
Mats should also be strong enough to support their own weight when they are lifted, so the edges of a freshly stamped section of concrete are not disturbed, says Carlton. |
The perfect mat
