More than just gray
By RACHEL PETERSON
Sun Staff Reporter
03/26/2006

It's modern. It's green. It's cost- effective.

Decorative concrete has become more trendy as a home flooring option.

Stacey Wolter, owner of Northland Decorative Concrete, said he got into the product to hang up his suit and start working with his hands after spending several years as a manager for Nackard Beverage. Decorative concrete was a great way to combine his experiences, he said.
"I took the high-end auto body work (experience) and combined it with the skills I learned at a construction company" working for his dad, he said.

The product can look like tile, wood, stone, brick or most other hard floor coverings, or done as a repair process to existing concrete or installed in new homes. "It's pretty big in Phoenix and very big in California," Wolter said. He hopes his company will make it trendy in Flagstaff as well.

"I did a lot of research on new technologies," he said. "I wanted to be the cutting edge guy in Flagstaff."

And this just fits Flagstaff's style, he said.

For starters, the product is considered environmentally friendly because it doesn't need to be replaced and prevents people from replacing existing concrete surfaces, keeping all of those materials out of landfills.

"In the past, you had to jackhammer and take it out," Wolter said of replacing driveways or other concrete slabs gone bad.

Concrete also heats and cools slowly, reducing cooling costs in the summer and heating costs in the winter. Couple decorative concrete with radiated heat -- a method of installing heat beneath the surface so that it rises from the floor -- and the product can significantly reduce energy costs, Wolter said.

While decorative concrete is a fairly old technology -- dating back to the 1950s, and including much of Disney World's design -- the new technologies have made the product more attractive to smaller projects and homes. These include:
* Concrete crack repair.
* Overlay concrete material that makes concrete last longer.
* Concrete coloring, producing the appearance of wood, tile, marble or other surfaces.
* Texturing by engraving can be logos, artistic designs or any print that can be imagined.
* Sealant coatings that stop water from penetrating the surface and can create a dull or shiny appearance.

Rachel Peterson can be reached at rpeterson@azdailysun.com or 556-2253.
Northland Decorative Concrete
Stacey Wolter
7830 Morado Mountain Lane
814-9467
Wolter can be found March 31-April 2 at the
13th Annual Flagstaff Home and Garden Show
Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Northern Arizona University Skydome
Adults, $8
Children 16 and younger and seniors 62 and older, free.

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