June 2003 Industry Leader:

For Darrel Adamson, inventing things has always been in the blood. While in high school in Montana, he sketched a surf-making machine, but stopped short of patenting it because of the cost.

Instead, he took his love of inventing with him to aircraft trade school in California. Adamson graduated from the Northrop Institute of Technology in 1968, and went on to serve two years with the U.S. Army.

When he first started working with concrete as an apprentice carpenter, he was forming, pouring and finishing. Within three years he was promoted to commercial construction superintendent.

He soon went on his own as a remodeling contractor and then specialized in commercial concrete sawing and drilling, along with designing equipment to improve the work he was doing.

In 1986, Adamson and his family moved to Florida and bought a decorative concrete contracting company that also offered mudjacking and concrete repair services.

One day in early 1990, while driving down the road, Adamson thought of a way to cut patterns into existing concrete. Using his expertise in concrete sawing and drilling, and his decorative concrete knowledge, he designed the prototype tools on which the Engrave-A-Crete System is based.

Adamson engraved his own driveway, but at the time didn't know it was a viable business.

"In 1990, I sold the concrete contracting business...six months later, I got bored," says Adamson.

Video Interview with Darrel Adamson
Time: 01:11
Listen to Darrel Adamson share how he started Engrave-a-Crete along with the many products and services offered.

He started tinkering with the concrete cutting or "grooving" tools he had invented, and then took the equipment out to test it. "The tool designed for linear brick cuts didn't perform well, but the tool for radial brick cuts was great, so I combined the two, and that worked," he says.

He first designed the tool to be self-propelled, but decided that the final version would require an operator to gain speed.

The Engrave-A-Crete System he invented cuts patterns into existing concrete to make it look like marbled tile, bricks, flagstone, and cobblestone. It can be used on interior floors or exterior slabs, in both commercial and residential settings. It's not a coating, there's no sandblasting required and it doesn't require overlay materials. It simply changes the color of the existing and then engraves it.

"Designing and creating tools and then creating a demand for them is something I enjoy," Adamson says.

Adamson's other system ------ KaleidoCrete ------ can be used by itself or in conjunction with the Engrave-A-Crete System to remodel driveways, walkways, patios, sidewalks, businesses, stores, basements, garage floors, or anywhere else plain, gray concrete exists. It can be applied to walls, steps, risers, stoops, porches and concrete ceilings, too.

"KaleidoCrete is comparable to sandblasting, but without the mess. It can cut deeper and faster than sandblasting, and you can reuse the templates, which makes the system much better, more profitable, and less messy," says Adamson.

Adamson developed the Shark Concrete Engraver, one of the major components of the KaleidoCrete System for decorative concrete.

The Shark, weighing less than 12 pounds, is made of billet aluminum and heat treated alloy steel, and is air conservative. The Shark's teeth eat concrete and stone aggregate and leave a detailed cut, and to reduce the chances of marring the surface, the Shark has strategically placed No-Mar plastic cushions.

Its teeth are arranged and reconfigurable to many cutting needs, and it works well with the plastic templates. The mouth of the Shark is shaped to contain the impactor array in cutting formation, and it has an integral air nozzle that blows cutting debris out of the openings of the template.

When it comes to touching up, removing islands, voids, and adding extra details to the engraved pattern, the Wasp Concrete Engraver ------ another of Darrel's inventions ------ is a handy pneumatic tool. The Wasp's name comes from its design. It has a single reciprocating carbide stylus cutter, called a Stinger.

"The Wasp is like a microscopic jackhammer. I've seen people do amazing things with it. It's like a concrete pencil," Adamson says

The KaleidoCrete System also has templates that are reusable, stable, repairable, reversible, impact resistant, lightweight, quiet to work with and will flex over most bumps in the concrete. When a template wears out, it can even be recycled.

Custom templates in any size are another option, and can be made from any photograph, line drawing or idea.

The KaleidoCrete Deluxe Package includes the Shark, Wasp, other tools for machinery operation, replacement parts, and a deluxe template set.

A major advantage of both the KaleidoCrete and Engrave-A-Crete Systems is that most of the time a job doesn't have to be completed all at once.

And both the KaleidoCrete and Engrave-A-Crete Systems are stand alones, so one can be operated without the other. For cutting brick, tile, or cobblestone patterns, the Engrave-A-Crete System is best. To cut a wide range of decorative or graphical patterns and letters, KaleidoCrete is recommended.

As for the company itself, it's a family thing. Adamson's wife, Ann, handles bookkeeping, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and mails out information in response to inquiries.

His son, Brandon, started working part-time helping to manufacture machinery. After he graduated from college, Brandon came on full time to help with the machining, manufacturing, sales and training of machinery.

In 1997, Brandon formed Elegant Concrete Engraving, Inc., which he ran for three years before selling the company and coming back to work with his father.

Adamson's daughter-in-law Alicia handles the company website, advertising, and manuals, as well as writes copy for print ads.

"We couldn't be in the position we're in without everyone's expertise. In the beginning, I was coming and going as I pleased, taking a lot of time traveling to trade shows and on the road a lot. When I decided I wanted to get customers to call me instead of going to them, I knew I had to get serious," says Adamson.

And exactly how does this inventor get inspiration?

"I enjoy designing equipment and processes that result in interesting things. For example, my original vision of Kaleidocrete was a kaleidoscope, where you'd take small templates of four by eight feet and mount them on a pivot to do kaleidoscopic patterns that could be 10,000 square feet," he says.

As for the future, Adamson's always got something going on. He's currently developing new types of tracking systems for saws that will give another infinite variety of patterns and designs, and other equipment developments are also on the way.

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