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Question: The last two times I have acid stained existing, untreated, basement concrete floors, I’ve unintentionally created footprints in the acid stain finish. I didn’t create them by walking across the wet stain, as I always use spiked sandals when I apply stain.
Dan Sawatzky’s background doesn’t immediately lend itself to him becoming a premier concrete artisan, but his creativity with concrete has led him to work that is far outside of the norm. Sawatzky’s Imagination Corporation is a backyard business run by father and son.
New Iberia, Louisiana, located 130 miles from New Orleans, has an elevation of only 20 feet. Wood floors are fine, but in this area prone to flooding, concrete floors are even better. And Keefe Duhon of Concrete Revolution has developed a specialty of concrete floors that look like wood planks, and he’s become known for it across the country.
Stenciling is so much quicker is that all work can be done from outside the forms using long-handled tools. The pattern is provided by the stencils, and texturing may be accomplished with lightweight textured rollers.
Not everything we write or receive ends up in Concrete Decor. We have a section on the website for “Online Exclusives,” things that we don’t have space for in the magazine but are too good not to share.
“The house looked a lot like a barn,” says Wells, 36, owner of Wells Concrete Works in Los Osos, California. “The clients kept some of the old architecture and appliances and fixtures inside and out. With the outside kitchen they wanted to be able to come back from the beach and entertain lots of people.”
Decorative concrete artisans are not only a creative bunch. They also are quick to figure out if there’s a better way to do something. Some of our top 10 noteworthy products from recent years are about more-efficient production while others involve cool technology that we hope will soon make its way into the forefront of daily work.
Here, the Concrete Decor staff shares its top 10 favorite out-of-the-ordinary concrete creations that were featured or almost featured in the past 99 issues. The thin-shell pavilion and fabric-formed planter tied for first place, while the faux bois sconce and slippers tied for second.
How could we narrow down the numerous influential people in the industry to just 10? It wasn’t easy, that’s for sure. Our list is by no means all-inclusive, but here are brief profiles of 10 people we think continue to influence the decorative concrete industry in a positive way. Who should we have included? Sound off at our Facebook page.
Of all the lists we compiled for this special issue, this one was probably the hardest. It wasn’t because there were so few good jobs to choose from — quite the opposite.
