Surface Effects: Painting the Town in Louisiana

By Michele Dawson, The Concrete Network

For Gary Breaux, growing up in the retail paint business provided the primer that led to his metamorphosis into decorative concrete.

Painted Concrete Floor

Breaux couldn't help himself. He loved experimenting with faux finishes when they became popular in the 1980s. Then he started painting and coating concrete floors and couldn't get enough - so many colors, designs, patterns, and textures were possible. One thing led to another and before he knew it he was faced with a tough decision - stay in the family's paint business or devote his career to concrete.

Breaux opted for the latter, ultimately forming Surface Effects, Inc., located in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and serving west to Houston and east to New Orleans. Surface Effects, now 12 years old, specializes in custom floor effects, including scoured stained concrete, faux finished stone, slate, and marble. He can create a tile appearance without any seams or lines.

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"We do staining, painting, overlays ... A lot of customized work," said Breaux.

Breaux has merged myriad techniques to come up with unique, exquisite floors. He uses seamless floor epoxy toppings incorporated with faux finish techniques. He'll score. He'll stain. He'll give it a once-over with his artistic eye and create his own colors and patterns.

Surface Effects offers what today's client craves most of all - choice. His floors, coupled with his imagination, offer the charm and durability of stone and marble at less cost and no limits on size, color, or design.

"Our painted floors are all customized. The colors and combinations you select can either bring your whole project together or can be a stand-alone effect," he says. "The ease of choice by the home or business owner can be made at any point in the project, to match fabric, furniture, or your pashmina shawl."

Homes with open floor plans can be segmented through painting, scoring, or staining individual areas to provide distinct areas.

Breaux uses epoxy resins for base and color coats and a clear non-yellowing urethane by Torginol for the durable top coat finish.

His residential clients are seeking stains, paints, and overlays. Breaux said many of his clients are choosing concrete throughout their house as an alternative to carpet.

"The carpet has dust mites and allergy-prone contaminants," Breaux said. "Concrete is a good option for allergy sufferers."

One of Breaux's goals is to increase the number of interior stamped concrete projects.

"I'm searching for lower profile stamps with good texture for indoors," he said.

Breaux works closely with his clients. When a client hires him for a project, he sets time aside for a special consultation meeting they review the plans, and he can suggest patterns and techniques. He said most of his clients - about 90 percent — follow his lead and adopt his suggestions. He also consults with the contractor and requests the names of all subcontractors involved in every aspect of the project. They go through the list of do's and don'ts before the project gets under way.

"We do a lot of work prior to installation," he said.

It's that attention to detail that keep his word-of-mouth reputation growing. And it's also what worries him about the surge in seemingly overnight decorative concrete specialists.

Breaux points to ads he sees in trade publications showcasing two-day classes covering up to a dozen decorative concrete techniques.

"If I were to teach this class, I would devote one week to each topic," he said. "There are so many variables - prep, patterns, color, finishes, temperature - none more important than the other. It's knowing how to react that ensures a successful job. There's no way these classes can do all that."

Breaux thinks these types of quickie training programs will hurt the industry as a whole, and it will bring down the good decorative concrete specialists out there.

Meanwhile, Breaux continues to get the word out about concrete and hopes the out-of-the-ordinary projects will continue to come his way.

Breaux estimates that about 75 percent of his projects are residential. But in terms of dollars, about 50 percent of it comes from retail and commercial projects.

"The retail keeps us going. I enjoy the commercial jobs more because they're usually after a jazzier look," he said.

By far, his favorite project so far involved his work on Jackson, Mississippi's Majesty of Spain exhibition, which showcased artifacts of Spanish history from 1746 to 1833. Royal Collections from the Museo del Prado & Patrimonio Nacional presented several room re-creations and 600-plus objects, from clocks to a carriage and paintings to porcelain.

Exhibitor organizers saw Breaux's web site and asked him to re-produce the floors in three rooms to mimic famous rooms from palaces in Spain, which featured a sphere of inlaid marble, involving eight marbles in the pattern.

"They sent us pictures of the original room and the dimensions," Breaux said. "We had to figure everything else out."

The creativity and experimenting fed Breaux's love of producing decorative concrete.

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"It came out fantastic. It was definitely my favorite job," he said.

Another one that shines brightly in his mind is a sundial, colored by four different stains. He used a metal type of coating for the dial gauges. It took up about two-thirds of a 20-by-20-foot room, measuring from the center out.

"It really caught your eye."

And that's what it's all about for Breaux.

"That's what catches my brain," said Breaux, who has the added benefit of years spent "cherry picking" manufacturers and products to create the most attractive, durable and easy-to-maintain floor possible.

"I have so many years of knowledge and experience with it. There are so many building contractors that still don't know anything about it," he said.

So Breaux will anxiously await new products to continuously merge with his years of experience and creative flair.

"I really enjoy what I'm doing," said Breaux. "And we're still on the cutting edge of what may be to come."

Surface Effects Inc.
Gary Breaux
633 Cleveland St.
Lake Charles, LA 70601
(337) 439-4809
(337) 439-4809 FAX
Send Mail Now - Click Here
www.surfaceeffects.com

Michele Dawson

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 industryfor several years and was on the public affairs staff of the California Building Industry Association.

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