When I founded my company, Quality Epoxy, 20+ years ago, I only offered solid colors. Over the ensuing years, as my competition began to heat up, I also started offering a five-layer chip system with 5/8-inch chips. I went with the 5/8-inch chips because the standard industry chip size is 1/8 inch or 1/4 inch and I wanted to offer a better-looking floor than my competition.
Over the course of many years, my chip system floors earned me local recognition. But in time, I began to get burned out on chip floors and solid colors. I was never pleased how solid colors were such a thin coat system. There were always problems with inconsistent pigment.
By 2010, I contemplated selling my company. During this burn-out stage, I was surfing the internet and stumbled upon an amazing flooring system called “metallics.” In 2011, I shelved the idea of selling my company and turned my attention to learning all I could about metallics so I could offer them to customers in the Phoenix market.
There’s a method to my madness
As I started to understand how metallics really worked, I realized there are a hundred different ways to achieve many different looks. So my biggest struggle was trying to figure out which of the many methods was the best way for me as an artist. Once I made up my mind, I decided to move forward with that method.
As several more years went by, I started offering three different styles of systems. It became clear to me that metallic flooring is an artistic system and the results are the maker’s “artwork.” I also discovered that with metallic floors, no two jobs are ever alike. Even if all my customers chose the same colors, the floors would differ in many ways and each would be unique.
Metallic floors are binders of randomly dispersed pigment. Since there is never such a thing as a level concrete floor, gravity is always pulling the product to the lowest level which creates movement, making each floor one of a kind.
Metallic floor benefits include:
- They are made with 100% solid epoxy.
- They have a 3-D appearance.
- Pigment bonds to the epoxy and is dispersed throughout the floor.
- Metallics are one of the most impact-resistant and durable floors you can install.
100% in
A lot of people ask me what 100% solid epoxy means. It means the epoxy dries to the same film thickness it was when applied. Comparatively, if something is 60% solid, once the product dries, 40% is lost through shrinkage and evaporation. This 100% solid trait is what makes metallic epoxy so durable and impact resistant.
After implementing metallics for a few years, I became a true artist with the system. I soon realized that metallics were all I wanted to do because solid colors and chips didn’t utilize my creativity. With solids and chips, there was either a right or wrong way to do things. But metallics drew on my artistic talent because no two floors were the same. There is no right or wrong art. You either like it or you don’t. And I discovered that worldwide, my followers liked my art.
I share all the time. And I let customers know that when it comes time for a metallic floor, they have to pick the artist whose style they like and not ask someone to imitate someone else’s work. I find it disrespectful for a customer to ask me to try to copy someone else’s style. If they like that person’s work, they should hire him or her. I wouldn’t know how to deliver their style, just like they couldn’t do what I do.
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Metallic solo
In early 2018, I decided to make a radical business decision at Quality Epoxy to only do metallics my way. While everyone in the industry thought I was nuts to only offer one style of floor system — and only offer a system that most people didn’t even know about — I discovered that not only did people like the durability of my floors, but they were in awe of how my floors looked.
Fast forward to now. Other coating companies, homeowners, general contractors and architects from all over the world email and call me for my professional advice and thoughts. I take a lot of pride in the work I do. I post all my work on social media, and my combined total of followers is almost a million people.
Becoming a metallic specialist is the best decision I ever made.
