Allbright Artistic Concrete:

Like most in the decorative concrete trade, Corby Allbright, owner of Allbright Artistic Concrete in Bonita Beach, Florida, got started in the business by pouring concrete for someone else.

But it wasn't until he saw the decorative products at the World of Concrete that Allbright saw his future in concrete. "I took a few seminars and started rolling with it," he explains. "Then I stuck my neck out there."

And his initial concept of "doing anything and everything that anyone would call with" really paid off, because today his business is booming. His company specializes in acid stains, overlays, resurfacing, driveways, walkways, cleaning and sealing. They also create concrete countertops.

Allbright's approach to advertising doesn't hurt, either. He focuses on strategic advertising, and also runs ads in the phone book. All of the ads have a common theme. "We educate people that they don't have to rip out old or existing concrete," he says.

One of the first jobs Allbright did was for the Dolphin Mall in Miami when he was a subcontractor. "I did the food court, and my portion (of the job) took a month and a half," he explains. Doing the entire job himself was no small feat, either, since it consisted of close to 70,000 feet of concrete. He credits the job's fantastic results to great communication with the general contractor. "I made sure they kept the concrete clean for the acid stain... prep work is key to decorative concrete jobs."

Allbright's first residential job was for the entire interior floors of a home in Naples, Florida. "The floor was about 45 years old, and it was in horrible condition," he says, adding that it was covered in carpet, linoleum and old tile. "But we brought it back to life."

Although the majority of Allbright's work is centered in Naples, he also finds himself working on jobs in Ft. Myers, Bonita Beach, Miami, Orlando and Tampa. His work mix is about 70 percent residential and 30 percent commercial, and the work is equally distributed between acid stains, stamping, textures and overlays. "Everybody wants something different," Allbright laughs.

For Pinchers Crab Shack in Bonita Beach, Allbright acid stained and etched 15,000 square feet of concrete in four days. That job led to Spectrum Furniture, where he acid stained 18,000 square feet for the furniture store. When the owner of the store called him back to the site, Allbright recalls, "People kept asking about the floor, and he wanted me to bring some of my business cards in."

For one job, Allbright worked with an area builder to create a patio that looked like tile--but without the maintenance of tile. Allbright created a deep, rich brown five-inch border surrounding lighter brown 24-inch diamond patterns.

Currently, Allbright has been working with WCI communities. He recently finished a garage floor for one of their homes in Venice. The floor featured a combination of colors, including brown, green, blue and tan. "That garage floor became a showroom for my work," he says.

For those customers who have some ideas of what they want at the first meeting, Allbright helps them narrow it down by helping clients choose colors and designs. "There are eight standard (colors)," he says. "We can move up or down in shade to get in the realm of color they are looking for, and then do a sample... samples are important because every concrete takes acid a little differently."

Although all of the work he does takes artistic skill, it's the freehand etching that Allbright does that's most remarkable. Likening himself to a tattoo artist, Allbright says he usually draws a sketch on paper and blows it up to scale for the etchings.

One such job was a green acid stained patio for a home. Allbright etched a five-foot sailfish into the patio for the owner of the home, who was just starting to customize the patio and wanted a "tiki" environment.

Whether it's etching or staining - or anything else that can be done - Allbright is making his mark on the concrete in Naples and beyond.

Allbright Artistic Concrete
Naples, FL

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