ForConstructionPros.com

Ask most decorative concrete contractors and they'll tell you the biggest threat to the industry is shoddy craftsmanship.

Bill Benckner is no exception. "Seventy percent of the work I see in our market, I see issues," says Bencker, president of Decorative Concrete Solutions, Wilmington, N.C. "That ranges from massive failures to a lack of finishing touches."

Bencker has made a niche for himself along the Carolina coast as not only a talented installer but also as someone customers can turn to when projects installed by others fail.

That was the case when his company was hired for a reclamation job for a 5-year-old production home neighborhood where decorative concrete had been used on the driveway borders, patios and walkways.

The developer hired Decorative Concrete Solutions after years of trying to get the original contractor to come back and repair it.