As a garage floor epoxy coating, it provides all the function you need with a decorative, seamless, non-slip finish. Color flakes in unlimited colors and combinations enable you to design for your desired image.

Light colors, for instance, will brighten a room for showcasing autos, motorcycles or any featured and displayed product of that type. Darker colors mute light reflection for use in high traffic retail stores and restaurants.

In addition to their garage floor epoxy coating, Concrete Solutions manufactures an extensive line of decorative concrete products available at their San Diego facility.

Give Gerry Sadler a call at    619-987-4721  to discuss your project. Gerry will explain your function and design options and will connect you with one of  the garage floor epoxy coating or decorative concrete professionals in their network.  For more information, photos, and data sheets, click the link for Concrete Solutions.

Valley Center Concrete Polishing

Surfacing Solutions of Temecula California sent over this project about a concrete polishing project in Valley Center California.

The home had been destroyed in a fire and rebuilt with radiant heat and concrete floor. The radiant heat had been placed too high in the concrete bleeding through and causing cracks which were accentuated by the concrete polishing process.

Surfacing Solutions was brought in to remediate the problems in the floor. The concrete was slightly wavy which made it difficult to polish. Thats one of the problems with polishing small areas typical in residential homes.

As you can see from the photos Surfacing Solutions was able to solve the problems in this Valley Center Concrete Polishing project.

For more information about Concrete Polishing in Valley Center and other San Diego County area Surfacing Solutions can be reached at 951-699-0035

Contractors Education

I received a call today from Tamryn Doolan owner of Surface Gel Tek (specializing in concrete graphics called Flattoos) regarding how the Contractors Education Guide applied to her manufacturing business increased revenue 45% during the past 12 months.

How about that. A success story in a disastrous market.

The Contractors Education Guide to Profits in Niche Markets applies to manufacturers, contractors and basically every business. The basic idea is to be highly specialized and don’t deviate from your target market.

Specialization accomplishes many things.

1. Specialization enables you to become excellent at what you do.
2. When you get good at one thing you are the professional. You have branded your business or at least started to.
3. Specialization enables you to know the economics of your business. You learn where the profits are. You learn to be efficient and continue to improve.
4. Specialization keeps you focused on your target market. Lack of a target market means you are not in control, you deviate easily and dilute your efforts. Your skills are dimininshed without a target.
5. Word Of Mouth marketing is the best marketing for any business. All the great websites, blogs, newsletters are meaningless unless you have a business worthy of Word Of Mouth marketing.
6. Specialization teaches that large markets are less profitable than small targeted markets. Relationships with people are critical to developing a pipeline of business. If you try and tackle a market that is too big people forget who you are no matter how good you are.
7. The internet has taught us the value of specialized niche businesses. Consumers do not look for generalists. When searching online consumers are searching with very detailed relevant keywords. If you specialize and use those keywords properly you will be found. The more detailed and relevant the keyword phrase the more valuable the consumer.  Specialists get targeted educated clients. That means sales go better and customers are happy.
8. The Contractors Guide teaches that when you specialize you know how to manage your inventory, your employees and your money. It’s a heck of a lot easier to deal with your accountant when you know your expenses.

Tamryn and I have been working on this for the past year. It’s also of critical importance to have passion for what you do. Tamryn would not have been able to stay focused without absolute commitment and belief in her business.

I think it’s very important to be aware that no matter what your business if you deviate and bounce around it’s because you don’t believe and have passion for what you do.  If you find yourself losing focus, if you don’t have a target market, it’s time to step back and anayze what you are doing. No matter who you are you will succeed like Tamryn if you are doing what you love and have passion for.

That is what I say right in the beginning of The Contractors Guide. If you don’t study it thoroughly and have difficulty reading through The Guide you will know you are not doing what you want. That’s a huge step in the right direction.

The Contractors Guide is is very different from any book you will read. It’s the ultimate contractors education, more of a roll up your sleeeves and let’s get serious workbook.

New York City Concrete Design

When I was at the recent World of Concrete show I met Jane Reamer of Iron Age Designs a designer and builder of custom Iron grates. My first thought was what an excellent New York City concrete design idea. The iron grates have an old historical high function appearance.

As you can see in the photos they are ideal for adding a decorative functional solution to concrete.  Notice the photo with the fish inlaid into the concrete. That one is from a walkway in Boston Massachusetts.  In New York City a concrete design idea is for decorative grates around trees that line the avenues like Park, Fifth or Lexington.

Iron Age Grates has found a unique niche in the big concrete market. Like with many products mentioned in Metrocrete concrete is not a stand alone product. There is always something that works with concrete that makes concrete better. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Is it the grates that make concrete look so good or is it the concrete that makes the grates look good. (I’d rather use the word great rather than good but too much?)

Anyway I liked the grates and thought that since I’ve spent so much time in New York City that they are a notable Concrete Design idea in any classic urban area.

For more information contact Jane at 206-276-0925 or visit their site at Iron Age Grates . Just click the link.

This is a case study about the functional and aesthetic benefits of Decorative Concrete.

The project is a 5 story Mill style industrial brick building converted to residential Boston Lofts. The building in Bostons South end is like many industrial and older buildings found in many cities in the United States like Brooklyn NY, Baltimore Md. or Chicago Ill.

The floors were wood frame subfloor with a couple inches of concrete. The concrete had hairline cracks and in a few places had a hollow sound. Cracks were opened up and filled with an epoxy injection system (see Emecole crack repair videos at www.metrocrete.tv ).

In areas with hollow sound holes were drilled in the concrete then filled with an epoxy injection system. Once the concrete floor was remediated there were new issues to be dealt with before these Boston Lofts could be put on the market for sale.

Signature Surfaces of Barrington Rhode Island run by Tom Zilian was brought in to take a look and evaluate the options. As is the case with many building conversions floor height is a critical factor. The solution can make or break a real estate redevelopment.

This building had 50 units in the $600,000 – $800,000 range. Thats a $30 million -$40 million project. The solution had to be thin,durable, cost effective and aesthecially in harmony with the historical brick and heavy wood beams in each unit.

Tom Zilian of Signature Surfaces provided the solution utilizing Colormaker Floors Sgraffino Concrete Overlay with a color called Charcoal Suede. This was an ideal match with the historical feel of the building while conforming to code regulations regarding height at the doorways.

For many of the buildings worldwide Decorative Concrete overlays make it possible to convert a building into a higher and better use. There are many neighborhoods with old beat up buildings that cannot be converted economically without knowing the solutions.

Hence these neighborhoods wallow in disrepair. This case of remediating Boston Lofts should serve as example of how Decorative Concrete can help ailing downtowns everywhere. Not only does Decorative Concrete provide unlimited solutions to investors but a substantial business opportunity for those seeking an opportunity in the inner cities.

This solution applies to inner city and main street buildings world wide not just Boston lofts. The toughest construction projects are rehabs. Flooring is frequently the most challenging aspect of a rehab because of door jam heights and stairs. The cost of remediation can be excessive. Concrete overlays and self leveling concrete is frequently the only solution.

If you want to know more about Tom Zilian check out his website at www.signaturesurfaces.net

Tom has been involved with many Boston Lofts over the past 5 years.

The concrete overlay was applied with a white concrete and water based dyes with light shades of red and blue. When it was time to apply the sealers the floor looked almost white. It wasn’t until the sealers were applied that the color popped out. Very subtle but it was there. The client was happy to my surprise.

The client was planning on painting the walls in shades of purple. Each wall was to have a different shade.

A few weeks later the client called me to come over and take a look. I walked down to the basement and the lights were flicked on. I couldn’t believe it. Naturally because concrete is my thing my eyes went right to the floor.

The floor that two weeks earlier was bland had come to life. The floor color was a rich lavender and reds. Very cool. None of the white was there. Every area of the floor was unique.

What I realized is that it was the lighting that made all the difference. The room had 3 different uses of lighting, ambiant, task, and accent.

The various uses of light broadcast the wall colors, furniture and and pictures into the floor. The lighting pulled it all together and created the ambiance in the room.

Since then I have done of lot of research into lighting and how it enhances a decorative concrete floor. Decorative concrete floors are sealed and the sealers have a shine to them. With the proper use of light and wall colors the shine is not evident, the richness of the floor is.

I send a lot of our clients over to the GE Lighting website for education and information to get started. Proper lighting especially with decorative concrete floors is one of the most effective value added investments you can make.