I mean, there are much easier ways to make enough money to feed one's family than slogging it out in the Texas summer heat, crawling around with a saw cutting patterns into floors or making concrete the hard way (buckets of sand, bags of cement and our trusty little Imer mixer) only to have to bear the highest level of "hand-holding" in all of the construction trades and the most brutally competitive market for decorative concrete in the world. (Texas was referred to in Concrete Decor Magazine as "the starvation market"). I don't remember the last time my work day didn't end with me smelling like a homeless man. My big, pointy nose gets filled with concrete dust regularly, my joints hurt most mornings, and we risk tens of thousands of dollars every day. Good news is, I really don't think I could be happier!
How rad is it to make a living making stuff you think is great with guys you like for awesome people? God bless America, eh? But enough about all that - I bet you are not reading this because you care about how I smell or how my nose feels for that matter.
What I hope to share here is a reminder that while edgy concrete wall panels and ornate medallions in floors look cool in our portfolio, what it is really about is the day to day consistency. I haven't written here too much recently because I have been maniacally focused on building systems that make the day to day work of the artisans of element7concrete better and more consistent. And to that end, we are maniacs for beige.
"There is no beige acid stain" - Brandon Adamson at my 2nd day of training at Engrave-a-crete in Florida. It's early 2006, and I have committed to going into the decorative concrete business, but I am still working my union job, and taking every seminar in the nation I can before moving to TX to take over the company I have ran for the last 5 years. Brandon went on - "Sealer should be re-applied once a year or maybe once every two years."
This all sounded like crap to me. I lived in Las Vegas at the time, and most things were beige. Re-sealing annually? Sounded like a white elephant for sale to me. I knew my own concrete driveway at home hadn't been touched for at least 4 years and while it was grey and totally unremarkable, it was not something I had to deal with. There had to be a better way.
The project photographed above was just finished this morning. It was about a year and a half old, ugly grey, and covered with oil stains and tire tracks when we started. We used nothing other than Kemiko acid stains, lots of little tricks, an amazing penetrating sealer that will go at least 10 years before needing anything- there is no paint, "dye", or anything else questionable used. If that is not beige, I don't know what to call it. Most important to me, I will bet that when my little kids are out of collage, this thing is a good cleaning away from looking a lot like it did today.
Note: Engrave-a-crete makes great tools and is a really positive force in our industry. I mean no disrespect to Brandon, his family, or their company. I just know that if you tell a stubborn old Kraut like me crap like that, I will find a better way.
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