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Full Circle Concrete Design, Fallbrook, Calif., recently put its skills to the test helping a homeowner in California rebuild after losing the house in a wildfire. The job started with stained concrete floors and continued with concrete countertops and eventually concrete shower surrounds. Full Circle also did an epoxy garage floor.

Jared Denham, owner of Full Circle, started the strictly decorative concrete company in 2005. Specializing in the residential market, the company offers services such as precast and pour-in-place countertops, epoxy floors and stained overlays.

For this particular job, Full Circle stained 2,600 square feet of an existing concrete slab on the mail level. Denham also poured and stained a cement overlay in three bathrooms and the laundry room.

Denham created the downstairs floor pattern using acid stain and Modello stencils. Along with the stencil patterns, the design incorporated a "ribbon" that wove across the entire floor. To give the ribbon depth and make it look like it had two sides, Denham stained each "side" a different color.

To prep the concrete he used a buffer and sanding wheel followed by an acid wash. Once clean, he saturated the floor with water to give the stain more working time and also a unique look, he says. "If you put water on the surface before you acid stain, it may dilute the color a little bit, but it allows the color to create its own mottling affect. It allows multiple colors to run into each other and create their own design. It gives you a lot more depth," Denham says. Years of trial and error helped Denham create and perfect his unique staining techniques.