Award-winning Decorative Stamping Projects

The results of the Fourth Annual Decorative Concrete Awards contest through L.M. Scofield Company included three decorative concrete stamping projects — the grand prize winner and two runners up. The winners were chosen from 42 nationwide entries. The contest is open to any contractor, architect or designer who uses or specifies Scofield Systems.

Museum of Discovery & Science

High-profile, challenging decorative concrete projects are nothing new for Homestead Paving, Homestead, Fla., but that doesn’t mean a job is ever easy. At the Museum of Discovery & Science in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Homestead crews utilized patience, a high level of craftsmanship and sawgrass cuttings from the Everglades to create functional, artful, and uniquely Florida walkways and outdoor areas for the local museum. The project was awarded the Grand Prize in L.M. Scofield’s 2011 Decorative Concrete Awards.

President Mike Rhodes’ father started Homestead Paving with two partners in 1974. In the 1980s, the company diversified its concrete paving and flatwork business to include decorative concrete. Rhodes has been involved in the company since 1999, and in 2008 gained full ownership. The company has 95 employees and typically performs large-scale, high-end decorative concrete installations in addition to its concrete flatwork and heavy-highway paving operations.

The 20,000-square-foot decorative concrete remodel project at the Museum of Discovery & Science consisted of walkways with exposed black granite aggregate, an ADA ramp with an etched “paint splash” design that was filled with Scofield Texturetop in ADA yellow, and a patio area consisting of alternating bands of two shades of integrally colored gray concrete textured with sawgrass cut from the Everglades.

The raised patio stamping process was time consuming and required a great amount of craftsmanship. The bands were created with integrally colored concrete in Cool Gray and French Gray from Scofield’s Chromix line. One set of bands was poured one day and stamped; the other color of bands was poured the following day and stamped.

The impression process started with the finishers applying a powder release agent to the sawgrass. Then they lay the sawgrass down on the slab and used a magnesium hand trowel to tap the vegetation into the surface and work it just enough to leave an impression. To finish the process, they slowly removed the sawgrass from the surface.

“This was a very delicate process,” Rhodes says. Four of the seven crew members on this project had worked with imprinting concrete with leaves and other fauna on previous projects. “The experience of the finishers was very important. They had to know exactly when the concrete was ready to accept that type of pattern impression.”

Hidden Oasis

When Greystone Masonry, Inc., Stafford, Va., started on this backyard pool project, the company had no idea the job would transform into a multi-installation backyard oasis complete with an outdoor kitchen with a copper roof cabana and a koi pond, let alone an award-winning project that won recognition in decorative concrete contests from both L.M. Scofield Company and the American Society of Concrete Contractors. But the job continued to grow as the homeowner added more elements to the project. Greystone saw it as an opportunity to express its expertise in all facets of decorative concrete.

Greystone Masonry Vice President Luisa Dittmann says the company has been in the decorative concrete market for 14 years, and before that it was involved in installing concrete foundations and slabs. The family-owned business has 50+ employees and typically runs six production crews. The company’s background in both concrete construction and decorative concrete allowed it to meet the demands of this project, including excavating and pouring a backyard swimming pool and terraced pool deck, stamping and staining more than 4,000 square feet of decorative concrete, and installing retaining walls, a koi pond, volleyball court, stone-veneer fireplace, fire pit, backyard kitchen complete with concrete countertops, and multiple walkways throughout the property.