Vol. 16 No. 1 - January 2016

According to Paul Koury, president of Westcoat Specialty Coating Systems, one of the company’s recent projects was the green rooms of the Ascend Amphitheater in Nashville, Tennessee.

Imagine getting a phone call from Shaquille O’Neal asking you to create a concrete floor in his house. Oh, and the floor is to depict a hole going down into a pit of fire. No problem, right? “You don’t say no to Shaq,” says Michael Jensen, president of Atlanta Concrete Artist.

David Brown, business development manager for Seal-Krete, says his company’s favorite projects are those that solve problems.

Hundreds of people showed up to witness the dedication of the Veterans Monument at Ken-Caryl Ranch in Ken Caryl, Colorado, which was officially presented to the community just in time for Veterans Day 2015.

A great deal of Scott Harrison’s work involves large facilities, so he understands the importance of being able to do a lot in a limited amount of time.

We’ve all had the phone call with a client where he lets you down gently, saying thanks, but some other contractor came in with a lower number. Sometimes it’s best to just write off those lost jobs, but how do you get the jobs you really want without having to be the lowest price?

Being a successful concrete professional requires more than skill with trowels, colors and coatings. You also need to network. Networking requires investments in both time and infrastructure, but you will almost definitely see an increase in your business if you are thoughtful about your approach.

Mike Riggs is a guy who can say that he really did grow up in the concrete business. His first job was for Progressive Concrete Works, a concrete company his father started in 1954 in Phoenix, Arizona.

The Concrete Decor Show held a Brawl in the Fall competition where seven preselected teams of decorative concrete professionals vied for a chance to win their part of $10,000 in cash and prizes, with the first-place team netting booty worth $5,000.

In a city where each new project shines brighter than the last, an old favorite is taking on a new sparkle.

Julio Hallack isn’t really a magician. Still, what else can you call a contractor who pulls off the nearly impossible: completing a 25,000-square-foot pool deck restoration for the ritzy Claremont Hotel Club & Spa while the facility remained open?

From commercial kitchens, fire stations, spas and salons to basements, garages, veterinarian clinics and airport hangars, epoxy materials are being applied to concrete floor surfaces.

Colorful mica pigments designed to be dispersed in a variety of binders are part of what makes metallic epoxy floors so alluring.

What is it with the San Francisco Bay area as a hotbed of technological and artistic invention and innovation? Is it the climate, the awe-inspiring Golden Gate coastal setting or the pioneer spirit that lives on in this land of dreams and promise?

How valuable is 48 hours to you and your business? Can you put a price on it?

And does the price go up if you run into a moisture-related problem with a concrete slab in the later phases of a project?

Diamond tools, and how they’re used, can make the difference between a profitable polishing job and a not-so-profitable job. So how should contractors select tools that are long lasting and deliver what they want? Read on.

Concrete artisans and contractors are always searching for the ideal coating, but end-users and equipment manufacturers are behind the latest push for one specific coating formulation — UV-cure.

Resealing exterior stamped concrete, stained concrete or decorative concrete is probably the most misunderstood and least-studied process in our industry. It has the potential to be a repeat revenue stream or a headache that never really goes away.

It’s no secret that most people think sealers are the Achilles’ heel of decorative concrete. You can do nearly everything perfectly while installing your concrete masterpiece only to have something like a sealer decimate all your good efforts.

I got into acid staining as an extension of my former life as a painter on canvas. In fact my earliest works were not on canvas, but on hardboard panels mounted on stretcher bars and coated with plaster of Paris.