ForConstructionPros.com

It seems like everywhere you look, you see decorative concrete - churches, restaurants, hotels, zoos, people's homes.

And a lot of times you might find it difficult to believe that what you're looking at started out with the same basic ingredients as the everyday gray slabs of concrete we have grown accustomed to seeing. No one has to settle for gray anymore, and decorative concrete has turned out to be a material in which human imagination is its only limit.

Mike Verlennich, who owns and operates Verlennich Masonry and Concrete with his brother Dave in Staples, Minn., says decorative concrete has finally reached the mainstream as an accepted interior/exterior finish all over the United States.

"We're starting to see architects and designers specifying the products, whereas even five years ago most of these products were consumer driven," Verlennich says. "When someone comes out with something new, initially the consumer asks the builder or architect or designer for this product. Then as the consumers continue to drive a particular product or process, eventually the other end catches on and then the designers, architects and builders start specifying and offering these things as an option to their customers. That's where we're getting to in the decorative concrete field."

Janine Flynn, CEO at Super Stone, says she also sees the decorative concrete industry growing, and says people are just excited about concrete. She also sees something different in some of Super Stone's new customers.