Spanning the globe for the thrill of decorative concrete victory

by Bob Harris
Created: March 7, 2008

Students who attended Bob Harris's decorative concrete class at Ideal Works in Italy had hands-on experience with staining and design.
Students who attended Bob Harris's decorative concrete class at Ideal Works in Italy had hands-on experience with staining and design.
Bob Harris's decorative concrete class at Moderne Methodes in Paris produced this colorful and geometric example of decorative concrete.
Bob Harris's decorative concrete class at Moderne Methodes in Paris produced this colorful and geometric example of decorative concrete.
While teaching students around the world about decorative concrete, Bob Harris enjoys taking in world architecture to fuel his inspiration, such as the Colosseum in Rome.
While teaching students around the world about decorative concrete, Bob Harris enjoys taking in world architecture to fuel his inspiration, such as the Colosseum in Rome.

By the looks of it, he and partner Fred have done a great job of setting up shop. This facility has been in operation for nearly two years and has already established a very impressive customer base catering to the decorative concrete professional.

Our class at Moderne Methodes included 24 students and covered topics such as polished concrete, skim coats with stains and dyes, vertical stamping and stamped overlays. As with our trip to Italy, I was equally impressed not only with the amount of attendees but the quality of their work. Strangely, unlike Italy, stamped concrete was not the most widely used application in this area of France but rather micro topped floors in varying shades of gray.

Reflecting back to my first international teaching trip almost 15 years ago, times, products and techniques have made drastic changes. Considering the attendance levels and the quality of inplace work in these locations, you can bet this market is on the verge of erupting. Based on what we have witnessed in this market, decorative concrete is quickly becoming the real deal!

Bob Harris is the founder and president of the Decorative Concrete Institute, Temple, Ga., which provides handson training in architectural concrete. He has personally placed or supervised the placement of more than 3 million square feet of decorative concrete and is the author of a bestselling series of decorative concrete books and DVDs. For more information, call (877) DCI8080 or visit www.decorativeconcreteinstitute.com.