May 2008 Industry Leader:

Faith, Skills and Savvy Spell Success for Dominick Cardone

Dominick Cardone

This month, we decided to check in with Dominick Cardone, owner of The Concrete Impressionist in Brooklyn, New York. Cardone grew up in the concrete business, working for his father as a young boy through high school, and working for a construction company in Manhattan after he graduated. At the age of 19, he took his accumulated years of experience and started his own company, C.I. Construction & Design Corp. (parent company to The Concrete Impressionist) in Brooklyn.

Cardone focused at first on concrete exterior renovations, then in the late 80s and early 90s, shifted his focus to high-end residential interiors in Manhattan until concrete came back into play in the mid to late 90s.

The Concrete Impressionist currently provides a wide variety of pre-cast and cast-in-place countertops, tables, furniture, sinks and fireplace surrounds, as well as vertical walls, and custom wall and floor tile. The company, which serves the entire Tri-State area, offers self-leveling overlays, microtoppings, acid stained concrete, logos in concrete, dyed concrete, and polished concrete. They also work with lighting such as fiber optics in their projects.

Cardone offers in-house training and seminars for his employees, focusing on testing products before bringing them to market, as well as educating clients about concrete.

Here's what Cardone had to say during our interview:

Q: It's been a couple of years since we've talked...what have you been up to?

A: Well, I'm still really into fiber optics. I just recently made the Decorative Concrete Institute logo in fiber optics in a concrete countertop as a gift to Bob (Harris) and his better half, Lee Ann.

Site Fiber Optics Counter DCI Logo ConcreteNetwork.com

After seeing my Fiber Optic presentation at the DCC Expo in Tampa, Bob asked me to teach a class in fiber optics at the "Getting Started" class at DCI. This year, I wanted to do something for him in recognition of our friendship. So I incorporated his logo into a countertop and lit it with animation.

There's not a large market for fiber optics, but it adds a nice zest to my arsenal of products.

Also, In October, we were out in Las Vegas at The Luxor Hotel, on an intricate pre-cast project. The Manhattan design firm Avroko had a vision, and we brought it to life. The pieces had a unique texture and were pre-cast in my facility in Brooklyn. Tommy Lazzetta and I drove them out to Vegas ourselves to be installed in the American Bistro Lounge.

Q: How are Super Floors doing?

A: I've been involved in Super Floors for about four years now, and it's a win-win process. The floors are resilient, super cost efficient, and you almost can't ruin them. Plus, maintenance is very low.

I actually split my organization into one area that does grind and polish only. This has enabled me to focus more time on decorative work.

I also do Super Floor training. I have a seasoned employee (Lazzetta), my go-to guy, who has been leading the training process, and it's been working out really well for us.

Polishing is a recession-proof service that provides clients with a cost effective and resilient product. It's taken off like a bat out of hell, too.

It has worked out so well, that I convinced a very close friend of mine, Brian Vicari of The Concrete Colorist, in Benicia, Calif., to contact HTC in Knoxville, Tenn., and invest in equipment. He has done it, and he now provides the grind and polish process as well.

Q: What are some of the current trends in your area?

A: Besides polished concrete, true concrete pattern stamping is huge here, because it's cost effective over stones or pavers.

People want it to look authentic, so it's important to create realism, which takes a bit more time, but our phone's been ringing off the hook for patterned stamping.

We're also known for our micro toppings and specialty troweling. It's a high-end product, which sells to a select market, but it will always sell, because of our experience and expertise.

We have been leaning back towards traditional decorative concrete applications—just pouring a nice integral colored cast-in-place concrete slab and putting focus on creating a nicely troweled hand-finished floor.

With all the glitzy products and specialty applications, it is so easy to forget the skill and the craftsmanship required to provide a solid colored, monolithic concrete floor.

And as for polished concrete, it's taken off in residential. In fact, we do about 60 percent residential and 40 percent commercial polishing.

Q: What's been going on as far as running your company?

A: About two years ago, Rocky Geans got me to join a Mix Group (the first Decorative Concrete Mix Group founded by the ASCC).

The Mix Group is made up of non-competing contractors of similar size, and we critique each other's businesses and offer tips and advice. We meet regularly—I was just out in Colorado last week, and the group visited my office in August of last year.

For me, it's changed a lot, including the way my company handles incoming calls in the office; how we handle the call-to-estimate process; it's improved my organizational skills; it's helped me create load lists and field manuals for every product we use; it's helped me realize what my profits are (it took me 20 years to figure it out!), where we stand and what our waste is; and it's helped me maintain what's useful and get rid of what's useless.

Q: What about the ever-dreaded hiring and firing of employees?

A: Well, about a year and a half ago, I realized that my company was running me.

I had some long-time employees, and they weren't growing with the company, so one by one I had to let them go. It was a gutsy move, but by the spring of last year, they were all gone—except Tommy, my right-hand man.

I started the rehiring process, and it's been a tough road that's still ongoing. We've also had some turnover, but overall, I feel that I made the correct decision.

It's hard to separate emotion from business, but in this case, even though the employees had been with me forever, they were holding back the company, as well as themselves. It had to be done.

Q: What's coming up in 2008 for you?

A: Things are looking great right now. I'm conscious of the recession, but we made sure to jump at every opportunity lately, and that's kept us very busy.

We've been out to the Hamptons frequently for projects large and small, we have several micro toppings lined up, and there's always grind and polish going on.

We're also going to be involved with an art gallery in Manhattan, recreating an artist's vision on the gallery's floor.

Q: Anything else you'd care to add?

A: I firmly believe that my success comes from my faith in Jesus Christ. Without him, I'd be nowhere.

The Concrete Impressionist
Dominick Cardone
Brooklyn, NY

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