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Updated: July 8th, 2008 05:26 PM EDT

Why you son of a ... concrete contractor

Decorative concrete

Decorative Concrete Institute crew
The crew at the Decorative Concrete Institute had to manually place concrete into a countertop form after a pump mishap.
Domenic Mattei
Domenic Mattei of Custom DesignCrete with his dad, Domenic, Sr.

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Bob Harris
By Bob Harris
Contributing Editor

I had many sleepless nights before a big pour dreaming about the day of HELL ahead of me. It was my job to run the business end of the hose without any helpers. I think to this day it has contributed to the cartilage deterioration in both of my shoulders (I'm only 37).

Well, I just thought I would share some of my horror stories from my childhood. I'm glad the countertop was a success. I just would like to have been present when the choice words started to fly. When my father's pumps acted up and jammed, believe me, my cooler head didn't always prevail.

In the future, I would like to offer my services to you any time you find yourself short handed or need someone to help with one of your projects. I would consider it an honor to work with you.

Domenic Mattei

Custom DesignCrete, Inc.

Cresent, Penn.

As told by Dominick Cardone:

My dad was a ready-mix concrete driver for 25 years and was also a concrete flatwork installer. He taught us to place concrete at the age of 6. Although some of my dad's methods were slightly unorthodox, we got the jobs done.

At the ripe age of 13 or so, my 12 year old brother Pete and I helped dad pour a project in the Bronx, N.Y. The hectic part of this pour was that my dad was to bring the concrete to the site, the three of us were to place it and he was to run the truck back to the yard (about a mile away) while we were to wait for finishing.

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