For David Cunningham, owner of David Jack Corporation located in Studio City, Calif., what started as hobbies eventually paved the way for much of the last 15 or so years' of his work—leading to his ability to almost effortlessly make concrete match virtually any color imaginable.

As for the beginnings of the company, Cunningham says he and his brother used to be in the "regular" concrete business in the metro Dallas, Texas, area. "In the late 70s, we were general contractors building homes," he explains. "And we were always unhappy with the subcontractors we had doing the concrete work. So we started with a hands-on approach, doing the work ourselves."

Their hands-on approach led to pouring foundations, which led to commercial construction building tilt-up wall buildings and low-cost warehouses, where they would polish and/or stamp the concrete floors.

"We eventually developed a 1 ½-inch thick concrete panel that we used to skin buildings," Cunningham explains. "The panels were 10-foot by 20-foot sections, and then we incorporated that technology into designing countertops."

But before the countertops came the building of concrete homes using 3-inch stamped panels for the exterior, as well as stamping the foundation for the interior flooring.

They also dabbled in subterranean houses in Texas—the subterranean aspect offered low energy costs and little tornado risks. "We would build a concrete shelter into a hill and finish it out as living space," Cunningham says. "We used southern exposures for the entrance and windows, and everything else was underground, including the roof buried under 3 feet of dirt."

One thing led to another, and soon they built their first dome house, a 60-foot concrete monolithic dome with stamped concrete floors and radiant heat.

"The dome is durable and energy-efficient," Cunningham says. "There's little cost to heat or cool."

One such home is where Cunningham's brother now lives, complete with a cobblestone street theme (the interior is 30 feet tall at the highest point), bedrooms that all face the exterior, and exterior dormers to make it appear less dome-like. Cunningham likens the experience to building movie sets, yet another avenue he has pursued.

"Our movie set background helped, because we knew how to create," he explains. "In that business, anything can be done, and you have to think outside the box...We still do that in our decorative concrete business."

In Hollywood it's all about who you know, and David Jack Corporation started out building high-end barns for fun due to the brothers' interest in the racehorse business.

"When we were in the racehorse business, we traveled a lot and found the need for high-end barns," Cunningham says. The barns they built provided not only security, with resistance to fire and being kicked through, but they also provided sterility for built-in operating rooms.

Using 3 ½-inch steel frames under concrete, they could also make the barns decorative to suit the tastes' of the owners. "We met a lot of people in the movie industry that way, and pretty soon Hollywood started calling," Cunningham laughs.

The countertops came in 1982, when Cunningham applied the same concept he used for the 1 ½-inch panel used for shopping centers to the tombstones he would make after a pet passed away.

"I would grind the tombstones down and polish them into really cool pieces," he says. "In '82, polymers weren't a big thing, and fibers were just coming out...We had used fibers before in our work, and working on the tombstones I developed a finishing technique."

Fast forward to today, when the company is typically booked 60 days out, and the most popular requests are countertops, floors, commercial spaces (stained floors), concrete showers/bathtubs, and fireplaces/surrounds. Cunningham says he also prefers to create countertops in his shop, but some designers and customers prefer the hand-troweled finish work that's slightly imperfect, so he's willing to do cast-in-place as well.

As for popular color schemes, Cunningham says that gray is still the most popular color, followed closely by earth tones such as tans and browns, and the occasional request for bright red or dark green. "I work with a lot of designers and can now match color swatches exactly," Cunningham adds. "I can match anything."

The company recently finished office space for Disney, with 8,000 square feet of floors; early next year they will be involved in a brand new commercial space where they'll be doing bathrooms, countertops, cutaway sinks and 12,000 square feet of flooring. Cunningham says he's also been doing several condominium remodels, creating concrete staircases using an overlay process.

"We just do existing stuff now, no more pouring," Cunningham says. Good thing, otherwise he might not have time to dream up anything else related to decorative concrete, and that would be a shame for both his clients and the industry.

David Jack Corporation
David Cunningham
239 W. Olive,
Burbank CA. 91502
(800) 225-8420 Office
(818) 775-0772 FAX

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