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Photos courtesy of Dan Lynch |
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As a man who appreciates good whiskey, Dan Lynch thought what better motif for his office than a concrete floor that resembled a whiskey barrel and featured bigger-than-life labels from some of his favorite brands. The idea of a whiskey-themed concrete floor starting churning in his Cajun brain as he plotted a tour of whiskey factories for a then-upcoming trip to Tennessee.
The whiskey barrel floor
So in June 2017, the owner of Ashley Concrete Products and Dan Lynch Concrete Floors in New Orleans, Louisiana, began a sketch of his floor and got to work. Lynch began by grinding the existing floor and installing a grout coat of SureCrete SureTex with Charcoal color packs. He then laid out the area where he was going to create the look of 12-inch wood planks as the backdrop for the center of attention, an oversized Jack Daniels logo.
Once that was completed, Lynch put down 2-inch-wide painter’s tape every 2 inches in preparation to form replicated oak planks. He then applied a coat of SureCrete MicroTek and textured the floor. The next day, he stained the floor and removed the tape.
Next, he taped the 2-inch textured and colored boards to expose a grout line. He then overlaid the grout between the boards that were already finished.
Meanwhile, Lynch was also busy making the “metal bands” that crossed the oak planks by taping off 2-inch planks and lightly texturing 4-inch bands. Thanks to a tip from his buddy Troy Lemon in Pennsylvania, he added metallic pigment to his solvent sealer which delivered the look he was going for.
The floor décor also featured barrel tops that had been taped off prior to overlaying the 2-inch oak planks. Lynch grouted these four areas with MicroTek and Jet Black color packs. After they dried, he applied vinyl stencils custom made by one of his employees.
He then installed MicroTek, texturing it to replicate wood and coloring it with a water-based stain in varying shades of brown before removing the stencils. The smaller stencils were replicas of the logos of Jim Beam Devil’s Cut, Jameson, Tullamore Dew and Wild Turkey.
The final task to tackle was the 8-by-5-foot area that served as the backdrop for the 6-by-4-foot Jack Daniels No. 7 logo. After applying and staining the logo, Lynch finished the job with SureCrete MicroTek with white pigment. Once that dried, he removed the stencil, sealed the whole floor with a solvent and waxed.
Three years later, Lynch’s wife, Shawn, challenged her husband to create an office for her.
Stained glass, concrete style
“I had always thought about doing a stained-glass floor with metallics,” Lynch says. So with Shawn’s blessing, and excess time on his hands due to the coronavirus, Lynch approached the project with a lot of enthusiasm But, he admits, “I had no idea where to begin.”
But he quickly cleared that hurdle. He applied a vapor barrier, followed by a base coat of 100% solids epoxy. For the design, Lynch used 100% silicon waterproof caulk.
He began with a rose and two dragon flies (locally known as mosquito hawks), then added another rose, a border, a sunset, leaves and grass. Once the designs were drawn, he used his Cajun Metallics to color different sections.
“The process involved a lot of trial and error,” Lynch says. “I had metallics leaking over the caulking in a few spots that, once dry, could only come clean with grinding. However, this step in the process was also exceedingly fun. My colors were coming along better than I ever imagined.”
Once the individual designs had been colored, Lynch caulked the “glass panels.”
“I filled them with different amounts Pearl of Metallic to achieve varying shades of white. It looked amazing but I knew the most painful part of the job still lay ahead of me — removing the 100% silicon caulk.”
That caulk removal ended up only taking a few hours. In the voids left by the process. Lynch used old ketchup bottles to inlay silver metallics. As a final touch, he applied a topcoat of SurfKoat MCU 85 urethane. “This gave the floor a saturated effect even after it was dry.”
The project was not a success until it got a mark of approval by a critical board of review — that being a thumbs up from his wife, Shawn. Luckily, she loved it.
Happy hour
Besides the manly floor in his office, Lynch also has included a kid-friendly feature. When potential clients bring their offspring with them to a meeting, he invites them to sign their name, draw a picture or leave a handprint. “The kids really get a kick out of this,” he says, and it gives his office a personal touch.
At the rear of the office, Lynch sculpted a bar out of foam and Kirtbag Vertical Mix “to mimic the crypts that as so popular in the New Orleans area. Most customers are either in awe or creeped out of their britches by it. But that’s how we roll in New Orleans!”
