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If you install stamped concrete, you should be maintaining stamped concrete. You already have all the equipment you need, and you have the experience and training you need as well. Offering an annual maintenance program on your work, or any stamped concrete work for that matter, is a good source of revenue that does not require much in the way of equipment or mental gymnastics.
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.
What do you think of when you hear the term "sealer maintenance"? If you are like most in the industry, the first thing that comes to mind is waxing or buffing a previously sealed interior floor. Well, with spring upon us, it’s a great time to talk about another kind of sealer maintenance – maintaining exterior stamped or textured concrete.
In some cases, people were in fact looking to get a free application of sealer on their driveway, or a buff and wax on an interior floor within the warranty period of our work. However most were just interested in protecting the investment that they made, and wanted our help to ensure that the right products and procedures were in place.
Picking the right sealer. Teaching the client. Selling a plan. Contractors have several ways to make sure their projects — their calling cards — stay maintained, durable and looking great.
The polished concrete industry has been plagued with a slew of maintenance systems that confuse and aggravate end users of polished concrete. Many suppliers of tools, equipment, chemicals and cleaning products rush to offer systems of maintenance, none of them adequately tested or proven.
When a problem occurs with a recently installed decorative concrete job, who is responsible? I understand that this is a loaded question, and there are lots of factors to consider, but the question still stands.
Grout it, fill it or design around it? In decorative concrete, every crack presents a contractor with a unique set of problems.
When Adobe Coatings of Mesa, Ariz., was brought in to create new concrete floors for Christ’s Greenfield Lutheran Church in Gilbert, Ariz., the original plan was to use acid stain for the entire project. One hitch: The 11,000-square-foot project included some balcony space.
There are three things in this world that have room for improvement: cell phones, microwave popcorn and, you guessed it, concrete sealers. There have been more prayers and cuss words offered up regarding sealers than over any other decorative concrete issue.
