The growing popularity of decorative concrete inside homes and businesses spurred Jim Harvey’s quest for a new kind of concrete — lightweight, pourable, self-leveling, colorful, durable and a less expensive imitator of terrazzo and other attractive flooring.
After years of experimenting in his basement, while also operating Harvey Construction of Snohomish with his wife, Jerrilyn, he achieved what he’d always believed was possible, even patenting his new process.
“I put thousands of dollars and years of time into figuring out how to make it, but it was a time when decorative concrete was catching on and I just couldn’t give up until I got it right,” he said.
He got it so right that his Deco-Pour concrete flooring is attracting attention across the country. He has installed Deco-Pour concrete in New York City, the Reflections Art Gallery in Cannon Beach, Ore., Seattle City Light’s foyer, the University of Washington Student Union Center, the Seattle Fire Department’s downtown station and Bremerton High School.
Among the companies looking at his process in Seattle are Microsoft, GLY Construction and Callison architects, as well as homeowners throughout Puget Sound. He even uses Deco-Pour for decorative kitchen counters, garage floors and walls.
Harvey founded Harvey Construction in 1987, specializing in concrete restoration. While he was spending those long work hours on his hands and knees, he thought about creating a new type of concrete and innovative ways to use it. “The Deco-Pour line of products was developed to offer affordable flooring solutions to architects, contractors and other end-users. Primarily, our market is commercial properties where standard terrazzo, decorative concrete, natural stone or ceramic tile have commonly been used,” he said, including theaters, schools, hospitals, museums, convention centers, casinos, restaurants, theme parks, corporate lobbies, food stores and sports venues.
He mixes Deco-Pour in buckets, then pours and spreads the concrete mixture in layers as thin as one-sixteenth of an inch and as thick as 2 inches. Setting up in about three to six hours, his products have twice the per-square-inch toughness of concrete. Plus, the material is integrally colored and sealed, making it wear resistant, chemical resistant, dust free and impervious to liquids.
Using a standard four-man crew, Harvey can install more than 4,000 square feet of Deco-Pour terrazzo flooring a day for $14 to $22 per square foot, compared to 1,000 square feet daily for regular cement terrazzo flooring at $30 or more per square foot. Also, workers can begin grinding and polishing the floor the next day, rather than waiting the usual five to six days for terrazzo concrete floors.
“This process allows architects more flexibility with designs and production schedules. In fact, Deco-Pour floors can withstand foot traffic just four hours after pouring. One of the best timesavers comes from being able to use Deco-Pour over wood or tile floors without first removing the wood or tile surface,” he said. “We can help architects and contractors save their clients time and money on each project.”
Deco-Pour products include not only terrazzo, imbedded with glass, aggregate or even an inlaid corporate logo, but also a polished overlay without aggregates. Deco-Pour can be installed with an integrated noise suppression layer, with internal pipes for hot water heating or electrical wiring.
“It’s environmentally friendly, too, because I can use fly ash, the powdered residue from coal-fired power plants, for up to 12 percent of my product to displace the cement base and add strength,” he said. “Also, these surfaces require minimal maintenance, and they’re treated with a patented silicate sealer densifier.”
He uses a polymer-based Portland cement, which contains only 12 percent cement, as the base for Deco-Pour. Then he adds minerals and as much as 65 percent recycled materials from industrial processes and recycled consumer goods, such as glass, stone or marble. The external and internal Deco-Pour mixture includes a unique chemical process that creates an extremely hard, self-polishing floor.
“I work with architects and designers to show them how Deco-Pour can meet their needs with a savings of time and money,” said Jerrilyn Harvey. “His grinding process even eliminates the need for waxing and chemical sealers, making Deco-Pour floors maintenance free. The floors don’t even have to be stripped with ammonia-based chemicals and resealed every few years.”
Once $200,000 in debt, the Harveys grossed $500,000 in 2007 and project $1 million in sales for 2008. Now their biggest challenge is not so much finding new clients but finding qualified workers, Jerrilyn Harvey said.
“It’s labor intensive, so good people on the crew are essential, yet we have trouble finding enough of them. It’s hard to find trained people who can run diamond polishing equipment over the floors, so we look for those who are experienced in polishing wood floors because the skills are similar,” she said.
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