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  • A starfish in the making at Roseland Good News Daycare Center.
  • The completed starfish.
  • FloorMap Stencil Designs donated all the stencils used on the project, including this giant octopus.
  • The finished octopus.
  • A child at the daycare center gets involved coloring in a giant sea turtle.
  • The turle at the completion of the project.
  • A school of fish swims along a hallway floor dyed ocean blue. Increte's acetone-based dyes were used on most of the floor. A metallic epoxy was also applied in some areas to create wave-like effects.
  • Tropical fish swim through a tangle of seaweed. After all the concrete floors were stenciled and colored, they were coated with a water-based urethane.
  • Some finishing touches are given to faux wood planking.

Last August, volunteer members of the Decorative Concrete Council (DCC), St. Louis, Mo., traveled to the Roseland Good News Daycare Center in Chicago, bringing an “ocean” of resources along with them. Using metallic coatings, decorative stencils, and a palette of stains and dyes, they adorned the center’s concrete floors with an array of giant sea creatures. On a portion of the floor, they also duplicated the look of wood planking, evoking a rustic ocean pier.

Neil Roach, Creative Construction by Design, Danville, Ill., was the concrete contractor for the new building, which will provide free day care for teenage mothers. He enlisted help from several DCC board members, including Rick Lobdell of Concrete Mystique, Nashville, Tenn., to give the children floors that would be practical yet fun. The volunteers started by prepping the plain gray concrete floors. On some sections, metallic epoxy colors were applied and distributed with a leaf blower to create dynamic wave-like layers. The sea creature theme was designed by Rachel Krigge Bruce, owner of FloorMap Stencil Designs, Springdale, Ark. She also donated all the stencils used on the project and did much of the stenciling work herself, along with Lobdell’s assistance.

“Rachel designed everything. My specific role was overall stain and dye applicator. As we installed each layer of stencils, Rachel had me come through and stain all the main colors while she came in to fill in the final details,” says Lobdell. “Rachel and I used two different airbrushes to apply the dye. And some of the colors were applied with rags.”

The project was managed by Todd Scharich, decorative concrete specialist for the American Society of Concrete Contractors (ASCC). Other onsite volunteers included Dale Mizer, Matt Meermans and Rich Cofoid, Increte; Bill Palmer, Sharon Rehana and Victoria Sicaras, Concrete Construction Magazine; and Paul Schneider, Patterned Concrete of Cincinnati. Some of the children at the daycare center volunteered as well, and were delighted to participate in the coloring process.

Companies donating tools and materials used on this project included FloorMap Stencil Designs, Increte, H&C Sherwin Williams, Decorative Concrete Resources, Preval, and CNA Insurance.

About the Decorative Concrete Council

The DCC, a specialty council of the ASCC, is the only professional organization dedicated to focusing on the issues, trends and work of the decorative concrete industry, and to meeting the needs of the contractors who pursue this specialty market. For more information visit the ASCC web site at www.ascconline.org or call (866) 788-2722.

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