Concrete Designs and Resurfacing:

Using Innovation to Shake Things Up

Juliet Farmer,ConcreteNetwork.Com Columnist

John Groom, owner of Concrete Designs and Resurfacing (CDR) located in Georgia, is a relative newcomer to the industry. His previous career – that of long-distance truck driver – left him little time at home with his family, and when he decided to switch career paths, he and an acquaintance formed CDR in 1999.

Just a few months later, Groom bought his partner out and has since built a company that offers broom finish concrete resurfacing, splatter textures, troweled surfaces, stamped overlays, acid staining, ultra stone staining and epoxy flooring.

But back in 1999, when he was first starting out, Groom remembers doing a small walkway as one of his first projects. He constantly studied and worked with the products he now swears by – Elite Crete Products – and rapidly picked up the trade.

"I seem to have a creative knack for it," Groom explains. Although CDR started doing a lot of outdoor work (mainly pool decks), Groom's goal was to move to 90 percent interior work. That goal has now been realized, and Groom says this past winter is the busiest he's been yet.

CDR predominantly serves the Atlanta metro area, as well as northern Georgia, and the company is also partnered with two national restaurant chains, Mama Fu's Noodle House and P.J.'s Coffee and Wine Bar. The floors he created for Mama Fu's Noodle House, a chain restaurant with locations (now scheduled to be) in 16 states, have a fiery look of glowing embers.

As for how he got those national restaurant chain gigs? "Someone saw my website," he replies. "(My) website has been my best advertising...90 percent of my business comes from my website." By putting examples of his unique work on his website, Groom has been able to land lots of work.

"Mud Pie Saturdays" are another way Groom has been able to stand apart from the crowd. Those are the days he devotes to playing with and perfecting his techniques. "Most new guys aren't willing to spend the time," Groom says. "But I'm getting too old to work on pool decks, and interior work is much more creative."

Groom is currently perfecting a technique where he applies acid stain over acid stain using several different colors that produces a 3-D effect that is quite amazing. Using his special technique, the result is a marbled floor reminiscent of hot spring pools in Yellowstone National Park.

"My goal is to develop floors and techniques that nobody else does," he says. "I want to do things I've never seen anybody else do...my goal is to make a floor that can be duplicated but that no one else is doing."

At the Cross Point Church, located in Duluth, Georgia, Groom applied overlays and used advanced techniques including putting plastic on the floor " in the channels" over wet stain to achieve a faux-finish look. He also used Miracle Grow over the antique tan color to create "worn" spots.

At Froggy's Crepe and Bagel's floor in Peachtree City, Georgia, Groom used an overlay with a water-based stain. Then he found an artist to paint lily pads over the top, after which he sealed the whole thing. For the floors at RW Jordan Design Studio in Smyrna, Georgia, Groom combined two acid stain colors, then used two coats of a water-based stain before sealing the whole thing with a water clear epoxy.

Groom says his area is currently seeing a boom in lofts, and as a result he has been busy applying either acid stains and acid stained overlays or sealing the floors of lofts throughout the downtown Atlanta area. Although earth-tone colors are always popular, Groom says he has also seen a recent interest in gray and charcoal, probably because the color is neutral and doesn't show dirt. Seamless floors are also high on the popularity list, especially with restaurants and homes with children and/or pets, because the lack of grout lines makes clean up easier.

As for what the future of the industry holds, Groom is creatively optimistic. "Nobody has seen (a lot of) the innovative floors," he says. "People need to see what can be done." If Groom's work is any indication, this industry is in for a lot of innovation.

Visit The Concrete Designs and Resurfacing web site

More Contractor Features

Find a Concrete Contractor 24 Services in 221 Metros -- U.S. and Canada