Sloan Construction Services Finds Splashy Niche

Juliet Farmer,ConcreteNetwork.Com Columnist

Anthony Sloan, co-owner of Sloan Construction Services in Dickson, Tenn., says he's always been in the construction industry in one way or another. But it was in 1977 that he found his niche—in-ground swimming pools.

"We started doing things other contractors weren't doing, like experimenting with materials such as decorative concrete, and adding borders to make pool decks stand out," he recalls of his beginnings in what is now a booming business and industry.

"The way the industry has changed, we focus more on decorative concrete work now," Sloan continues. "In the last three to four years, we're geared to creating decorative concrete in and out of pools, including engraving concrete and staining it."

The company is owned by Anthony and wife, Tena, who works hand-in-hand with Anthony out in the field. She is also very experienced in design and application of decorative concrete surfaces, and has a budding interest in creating interior acid stained floors.

Sloan Construction Services produces visual color renderings of all finished projects. Sloan explains that he takes digital photos of each site, then uses CAD and Photoshop to create a visual rendering and "get everyone on the same page."

"This way, I get to let my vision flow, versus drawing on the site," he adds. The company also produces their own engraving tools and templates to keep their niche work both distinct and unique.

Serving a 70- to 75-mile radius of the Dickson / Nashville, Tenn., area, Sloan adds, "If the project is large enough, we'll go anywhere. Or if it's interesting to us. We don't take a job simply because it needs to be done, we like to use our artistic abilities."

Those artistic abilities came through for a residential project in Dickson near Sloan's own home. "When we first started talking to the people, they said they wanted something different," Sloan recalls. "But they had grading issues on their property. They needed a retaining wall, but we said we'd make it look artistic, and it wouldn't look like what anyone else had."

For the wall, Sloan first laid 12-inch blocks to form a wall 97 feet long, 1 foot wide, and 51/2 feet tall at the tallest point. Then, he put buff integral color into his proprietary vertical mix, and troweled it on before stamping it to look like stones. He then highlighted certain areas with more color.The wall, which changes heights three times, isn't sealed because Sloan says "it's durable in its own right."

Next, Sloan poured plain concrete borders next to the wall using a seamless stone texture for the borders. For the 800-square-foot pool deck, he stamped the concrete with a cobble stone paver stamp, then acid stained it black (it turned dark brown). Sloan says the project took six weeks from excavation to finished product, and was completed with a crew of only four.

Sloan explains that his vertical mix contains one basic element, vermiculite, which he's been using for years. "We know how to deal with it, and we know what we can and can't do with it," he adds of the mix, which also contains other ingredients. "If a 100-ton swimming pool can sit on it, we know it will hold up well. It's not necessarily just a vertical mix—it can be used in other ways."

Sloan adds that he particularly enjoys doing work "other people can't or won't do," and notes, "We spend a lot of time on research and development to achieve things."

For example, for a project with space constraints, Sloan designed a v-shaped pool that used a total of 100 yards of concrete. "The design for the pool took about a year," he adds.

The v-shaped design includes a 5,000-square-foot ashlar slate stamped pool deck with decorative borders to match the house, which has an artificial stone façade on it. Sloan says he individually stained each stone one of four base colors with different tints, all in natural stone shades that compliment the house.

As for upcoming work, Sloan says he's excited about the prospect of a project for Gaylord Entertainment at the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville, where concerts and the Country Music Association awards are held.

"It would be re-doing existing concrete in the backstage areas where they have suites and meeting rooms," he explains. "Right now it looks like a dungeon, and there are polished concrete floors with no sealers. We did a rendering and gave them our proposal, and they were blown away by the possibility of what we could do for them."

In the meantime, Sloan says the decorative concrete industry as a whole is taking off in his area right now. "Nashville is the biggest city close to us—only 20 minutes away," he notes. "Right now we're doing mostly exterior residential work for homeowners, because a lot of architects here still don't know much about decorative concrete. We get more calls from out-of-area architects with projects in the area."

Local architects, take note—Sloan Construction Services should be on your speed dial.

Sloan Construction Services
Anthony Sloan
202 Forrest Hills Dr
Dickson, TN 37055
(615) 426-2677 Office
(800) 282-8266 Fax
Send Mail Now - Click Here
http://www.sloanconstructionservices.com

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