ForConstructionPros.com

“Good training leads to good quality work,” says Raymond Bennett, who runs the training program for Yoder & Sons’ Flex-C-Ment.

That sentiment is echoed by Lee Thornton, owner of Grey Matter Design Works, a Greensboro, Ga.-based decorative concrete company.

“I wanted to turn out a good product the first time, and one that I could trust,” says Thornton, who has had training from the Concrete Countertop Institute, the Decorative Concrete Institute and Engrave-A-Crete.

“It eliminates a lot of the research into things like mix design, because they’ve already done it,” he says. “What that does is it allows you to have confidence in the work, and share that information with the homeowner and instill confidence in them as well.”

Thornton says he sees a lot of people get into decorative concrete because it has great potential, but then fail because they don’t have the proper training.