Hollow Rock Designs

Patricia and Daniel Bigelow — she a residential contractor and he a commercial contractor — met over the Internet. Now married and working together, they meet over the concrete countertops, specialty sinks, and other decorative concrete creations they custom make as the mainstay of their business, Hollow Rock Design.

Located in Hovland, Minnesota, which is on the northeastern tip of the state on the banks of Lake Superior, Hollow Rock Designs specializes in a myriad concrete creations — countertops, kitchen and bath products, furniture, architectural features, water features, staining, coloring, stamping, and polishing.

"Dan's done concrete since he was a kid in Mesa, Arizona," said Patricia, saying Dan got his start in his family's pool plastering business.

He eventually moved to Minnesota and formed a company called Northern Harmony — Hollow Rock Design's parent company. Northern Harmony provides traditional building services as well as state-of-the-art fabrication methods in remodeling projects and new homes. Techniques include all-wood panel fabricating, foam core SIPs, concrete homes, steel frame building, timber, and log applications. Mixing the old with the new gives the stability and longevity demanded by today's building codes.

About four years ago Dan built his first concrete house, an 11,000-square-foot resort that operates on 120 acres with solar and wind energy systems and a geothermal heating and cooling exchange system. The concrete structure's energy bill is equivalent to that of a typical 2,000 square-foot home.

Dan integrated concrete countertops and hand built sinks and tubs into the resort. In the process became intrigued by decorative concrete. He began experimenting with concrete mixtures and ultimately developed one that resembles soapstone.

Patricia's license in residential contracting and her academic and artistic background as an artist and painter provided a natural fit for Dan's newfound love of concrete.

The Bigelows use high-performance, high-strength proprietary mixes for fabrication of all of their products, yielding high compressive strength, high abrasion resistance and low porosity. In addition, they use a waterborne concrete sealing system that is environmentally safe and can be used in any residential or commercial application. They apply a wax designed for care of stone products to render the surface impermeable with a natural-looking finish.

They don't rely on computerized color matching, instead they prefer a more natural coloring. Tonal variations and veining will occur. There will even be some differences within the same pour depending on thickness, vertical versus horizontal surfaces, etc. This mimicry of nature is part of concrete's attraction, they say.

"Our sinks are curred in the cold waters of Lake Superior," visitors are told on their web site. "Our inspiration for our products and our photos are taken from our front yard. We love what we do for a living and where we live."

Designers are beginning to take notice of Hollow Rock's impressive kitchen and bath lineup.

Hollow Rock has its own product line, called Soft as Stone. The Bigelows recently introduced The Pompeii Collection, which features a three-legged sink with marble white legs and a rust-stained bowl; a rectangular, buff-colored with rust acid-stained bowl; a large, rectangular terra cotta bowl; an oval terra cotta bowl with an inner ridge; and two styles of white cement vessels.

"Designers are starting to call us," Patricia said. "They are looking for things that are unusual and hand-built. They're starting to spec us in on their jobs."

But she says there's still a lot of work to be done in educating the design community as a whole, let alone homeowners.

"The middle of the country is a little bit slower," she said. "But we're starting to see (concrete) more in advertising and on the covers of magazines."

One way Hollow Rock will get the word out is by exhibiting at next month's Kitchen and Bath Industry Show and Conference in Orlando, Florida, which draws more than 40,000 industry professionals.

"We want to show what we do as functional art," Bigelow said. "Anywhere you go when you talk to people it's convincing them that this is a cool thing."

The great thing about concrete countertops, she said, is that you can create anything from a slab to customizing it to whatever the client wants.

"We can even mold a whole island with a shallow wet sink and prep table," she said.

They're also experimenting with creating tables or countertops with a built-in eating surface or plates.

And while Hollow Creek Designs focuses on kitchen and bath creations like sinks and countertops, lately they've been getting requests for something else.

"We've been getting a lot of calls about concrete floors," said Bigelow. "People are tearing up what they had and want us to go over their existing concrete with coloring, staining or polishing."

Whether it's countertops, sinks, or floors, Hollow Creek Design is committed to keeping its creations unique.

"We're a made-to-order company," she said. "We make what you'd like to see in your house."

And today providing custom work is vital to today's homeowner.

"Everybody's looking to do something different."

Meanwhile, Hollow Creek Designs is busy exploring other markets, particularly the Southwest because Dan grew up in Arizona.

Is decorative concrete — countertops in particular — more prolific in that region?

"It always depends on whose door you knock on," said Bigelow. "There are so many surfaces you're in competition with."

A major obstacle for concrete countertops in the Southwest is that granite — considered concrete's chief competitor — is less expensive there than in other parts of the country, she said.

For those in the Southwest who are drawn to concrete there are two primary factors that contribute to the attraction.

"They like it because it's really unique or because they're conscious about the environment," said Bigelow.

Regardless of where they live, homeowners and designers like concrete for its potential.

"People who favor concrete are typically tired of what they have," said Bigelow. "They want something they can play with and design. Concrete isn't this or that — it can be so many things. There's no need for a high-gloss surface. If you have a sander, you can do anything."

Hollow Rock Designs
Patricia and Daniel Bigelow
7422 East Highway 61
Hovland, MN 55604
(218) 475-2232
Send Mail Now - Click Here
www.hollowrockdesigns.com

Michele Dawson writes each week on one of the contractor members of The Concrete Network (www.concretenetwork.com). She has written about the home building industry for several years and was on the public affairs staff of the California Building Industry Association.