For your decorative concrete business to grow, it must be built on a foundation of innovation. If you don’t do so, you will find it increasingly difficult to create lasting value for your business and your customers.
Vol. 12 No. 1 – January 2012
A Tool to Help Visualize Decorative Concrete by Depiction Software
Potential clients often struggle with visualizing what decorative concrete will look like at their home or business. The new Deco-Con Wizard from Depiction Software can help remove the mystery by quickly and easily showing them what selected decorative concrete patterns will look like on their property.
Making International Travel and Shipping Plans for Concrete Projects
While in the course of business these days, you will sometimes be asked to travel outside the United States to do decorative concrete work. The pitfalls are many, but the windfalls can be huge.
Polished Concrete Wows Museum Goers
In Southern California, grinding and polishing concrete that was placed 20 or 30 years ago is fairly common. However, burnishing concrete that’s more than a century old is a rare task for any contractor.
How to Survive and Thrive when Doing Decorative Concrete Overseas
In the United States, decorative concrete is advanced at a level that it is not at anywhere else. When you’re overseas, be prepared to educate.
Floors at Swimming Pool Supply Stores Mimic Water with Epoxy
For years, the owners of Phoenix, Ariz.-based retail chain Leslie’s Swimming Pool Supplies hired various contractors to work on their floors, hoping to see blue water-like effects beneath their customers’ feet. Their wish was granted when they met Troy Lewis, owner of Orlando, Fla.-based Exquisite Flooring of West Orange.
U-Shaped Concrete Bar Top at Regeneration Park
The uber-green project, called Regeneration Park, features a wide array of ecofriendly building techniques, from the new solar thermal system that satisfies almost all its heating, cooling and hot-water needs to the old gray concrete floor ground down and polished to a 1,500 grit.
Virtual Ice Rink Created With Concrete Overlay
Happenstance led Tyson Long, president of Calgary-based Hardscapes Inc., to the new location of Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame museum in Calgary’s Canada Olympic Park, where he used white and clear epoxy coatings to transform the floor of the museum’s ice-hockey exhibit room into a virtual ice rink.
How Do Concrete Stamping Contractors Handle Maintenance
Taking steps to incorporate a maintenance program for your customers is a great way to ensure ongoing business.
Let’s look at several ways you can promote maintenance services that help relieve headaches and save the industry from a tarnished reputation.
Getting the Most Out of Decorative Concrete Educational Opportunities
The cold truth is that our industry has seen its share of truly talented decorative concrete individuals fail, and it’s not because they weren’t good at their craft. Today’s artisans must be more than talented — they must be capable of overlaying talent with an entrepreneurial spirit. That’s where training and education comes in.