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News from
The Decorative Concrete Institute
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March 2007
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Dear Bob,
 Are you looking to break into the decorative concrete world? Or, perhaps, are you a seasoned
veteran of the business looking for new ideas and to sharpen your skills? We have training opportunities available for everyone! We've just added several new classes.
Be sure to
check out the training available on our website:
Decorative Concrete Institute
Bob Harris
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Breaking News
As seen on NBC News with Tom Brokaw...
okay
we stretched it a little with the NBC news, but it is major news for us! Bob Harris, President of Decorative Concrete Institute has
achieved his dream of being able to help educate and train others in the
decorative industry. After 3-1/2 years
since the start up of the Decorative Concrete Institute, Bob and Lee Ann are
proud to announce the new additions to the Decorative Industry by adding
Decorative Concrete Institute - West Coast Division and Decorative Concrete
Institute - Europe Division.
Decorative
Concrete Institute, Inc., located in Temple, GA has joined forces with industry powerhouses, Mark Haen
of Adobe Coatings - located in the Phoenix, Arizona area, Mike Archambault and Frédéric Ljung of
Moderne Methode ́- located in France.
 Bob
was fortunate to meet Mark Haen of Adobe Coatings five years ago at an industry
event. During this event Bob was very
impressed with Mark's professionalism as a business owner and his huge
portfolio of successful coatings and topping installations. Mark has owned Adobe Coatings for the last nine years, but has been involved in the coatings industry for the past 17
years. He has conducted training
seminars for a variety of manufacturers.
We are very excited to be able to help Mark with his dream of helping
others and teaching the proper skills and techniques to be successful in this
field. Mark was also instrumental in
helping with the production of both of Bob's DVD's. It was during many workshops and the filming
of the DVD's that we really came to know Mark as the consummate professional,
but more importantly, what a class individual he is.
Bob's
relationship with Mike Archambault dates as far back as the early 90's in the
stamped concrete business. In the mid
70's, Mike owned a patterned concrete industry franchise, which he would later
purchase the mother company and serve as the acting President of Patterned Concrete
Industries. During this time frame, Mike
was instrumental in huge stamped concrete installations. It was not uncommon for Mike to jump on a
plane to Europe and pull textures from
beautiful natural minerals in various regions of the world to produce his own
stamped concrete patterns, many of which are still being used in today's
market. Bob and Mike were fortunate to
conduct several training classes in countries like Germany,
England and Spain as well
as here in the states. It was during
this time frame that Bob realized this guy has a tremendous amount of knowledge
to offer the industry and over a couple of cold beers at this year's World of
Concrete we discussed the possibilities of once again working together.
 At
this time, Mike introduced his partner, Frédéric Ljung who is no stranger to
this field of decorative concrete.
Frédéric is the founder and General Manager of a distributorship in France, servicing all of Europe and is currently
distributing decorative concrete products for several large U. S. and
European manufacturers. Mike and
Frédéric have had great success in a short time frame with their business
Moderne Methodé.
It
is with great pride that we announce our alliance with these fine
individuals. We all share the same goals
and business philosophy which is to help our clients / friends with the
complete package of training, providing products and technical support. It is our extreme pleasure to welcome Mark,
Mike and Frédéric aboard!
Look for upcoming dates and join Bob at these new locations for continued "state of the art" training programs!
Click here for Training Dates
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 Polished Concrete Class
February 16-17, 2007
Polished concrete classes become more and more popular each
day, which is apparent with our most recent, successful class on this exciting
subject. Jason Thomas of HTC helped Bob
and Lee Ann with this class. This class
included important topics like the understanding of proper diamond tooling on
different concrete surfaces. The
students learned how to distinguish the difference between soft, medium and
hard concrete which ultimately is going to influence the proper diamond
tooling.  HTC's 500 and 800HD were
demonstrated and used during this session.
Also covered were proper application techniques for densifiers and why
it is important to consider the use of a Densifier. Decorative design layout was covered as well
as solvent and water-based dyes and acid-based stains. Participants joined in on all of the
decorative saw cutting and coloring and  as you can see created a beautiful floor
that consisted of roughly 600 sq. ft. of beautiful colored and polished
concrete using DCI dyes and densifiers.
Don't miss our next class scheduled for May 16-17, 2007!
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 ASCC-DCC Decorative Concrete Expo
February 22-24, 2007
Bob was asked to give several talks at the Decorative
Concrete Expo in Tampa, FL for the ASCC-DCC. The first talk was a PowerPoint presentation
on troubleshooting stains and sealers.
Based on the comments from the participants the seminar went well and
the students said that they learned a tremendous amount of information. Topics included subjects such as: if an acid stain doesn't take how can you fix
it; if sealers are turning white, bubbling or pealing, how do you remove
sealers and coatings; moisture vapor emission rates and relative humidity
levels.
 The second talk was on cast-in-place countertops. The demonstration included monolithic back
splash and sloped drain board on this cast-in-place countertop. The concrete was poured at 8:15 am and
believe it or not, we were still not ready for final finishing at 4:00 pm that
afternoon. A dear, dear friend of mine
threw me a curve ball suggesting the use of a mix that he prefers for his
"precast" pieces, which included certain plasticizing admixtures. The problem is, it wasn't necessarily the
most effective mix for cast-in-place, and needless to say I had to wear my tap
shoes well (as a matter of fact, I wore the metal taps off of the shoes down
into the soles)! This is a good lesson
for all of you that are doing high-end countertops to understand how important
a good paste-rich mix is, especially for cast-in-place applications. To my dear, dear friend - I will see you in
2-1/2 weeks at our shop and pay back is a b---h. See ya brother! By-the-way, dinner was great with you and
your family (your Dad rocks) with the exception of a late night at the
emergency room visit to get stitches for Lee Ann's banged up knee.
For more information on the American
Society of Concrete Contractors and the Decorative Concrete Council please
contact: www.ascconline.org
or 866-788-2722
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 Concrete Countertops - Cast-in-Place
February 28 - March 1-2, 2007
We are just fresh off of a very successful cast-in-place
concrete countertop class. Jeff and Lane
of Concrete Countertop Institute came to our facility to help teach this
class. The topics included: proper mix designs ranging from bagged mixes
to fabricating your own mix, proper reinforcing considerations, sink and faucet
knock-outs, the importance of precise forming including integrated back
splashes and cantilevered overhangs, as well as marketing and selling concrete
countertops to help your business get to the next level. Bob and Jeff prepared a mock kitchen surround
so the students could see how to properly form edge details, back splashes and
cantilevered sections. The demonstration then included proper concrete
placement with some fun details like this elevated, slate edge corner.
The next day we then covered coloring
techniques on this countertop. Also, Bob
showed how easy it is to cast your own coffee or end tables using leftover
enCOUNTER and FossilCrete edge forms.
Check out the results, pretty cool!!!!!
 The students then were able to apply everything they learned
and were responsible for preparing their own mock kitchen surround.They were also responsible for attaching
their sub base, making all of the necessary sink and faucet knock outs,
attaching edge forms as well as back splashes.
Once this was complete, each group was responsible for mixing their own
batch of concrete with integral color.
The enCOUNTER mix was used for this whole seminar. A few groups used colorfast pigment to
achieve a marbleized appearance during the finishing process as well as DCI
dyes the next day to create some additional color contrast. Bob made the comment; this group was awesome,
not only with their positive attitude, but the end result of their concrete
countertops. You be the judge!
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Getting Started in the Field of Decorative
There is never a dull moment around here at DCI
with providing good news for the newsletter.
Keep in mind there is still time, although not much for you to sign up
for our March, "Getting Started in the Field of Decorative Concrete" workshop. This is one you won't want to miss! Until next time!
Click here to Register for our Getting Started Workshop
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