The Stamp Store's Doug Bannister

If your company trains contractors on decorative concrete applications, you might as well knock their socks off right when they walk in the door to your facility. That's the approach Doug Bannister, owner of The Stamp Store in Oklahoma City, has taken in building his new southwestern themed conference room. "We wanted to push the envelope, take it to the margins, with this conference room," according to Bannister.

The Stamp Store's new conference room measures 26 x 17 feet. The room serves as a classroom for the monthly Deminar training classes and presentations to the local design community, as well as Doug's office.

In it's essence, The Stamp Store's conference/ training room has become a showpiece for fabulous decorative concrete possibilities. And that's the point, " There is nothing quite like immediately awakening one's mind to what can be done with concrete then to let them see and feel it. This gets people who have come to train in the right frame of mind to learn," according to Bannister."

And come to learn they do. Bannister had to start doing two training Deminars per month last year due to heavy demand. He recently segmented the two monthly Deminars into an introduction to decorative concrete and an advanced decorative concrete class. By segmenting the training, he can focus on the type of training most needed by the attendee- there won't be a new contractor and a 10-year veteran stamper in the same class.

The "Intro to Decorative Concrete" course is for those interested in starting a business in decorative concrete, but do not have any previous experience in concrete. In these classes the Stamp Store emphasizes stamped overlay concrete for existing concrete, acid and water-based staining, scoring, stencils, countertops, and guidelines on how to start a decorative concrete business.

The "Advanced Decorative Concrete " course is for those interested in starting or expanding a business in decorative concrete and who already possess a strong working knowledge of plain and/or decorative concrete. In this class, The Stamp Store provides in-depth training in stamped concrete, polymer overlays for existing concrete, acid and water-based staining, countertops, and how to start and/or improve their decorative concrete business.

Over the last several years The Stamp Store has become widely recognized as a reliable source of product information and training. Bannister has been involved in decorative concrete treatments work since 1980. He has a critical advantage. First he was a decorative concrete contractor; He still contracted while starting and growing The Stamp Store; in 2001, he put the contracting aside and is concentrating his full energies on growing and improving The Stamp Store.

His experience and approach qualifies him as one of the leading experts in the industry. Bannister is a member of the American Society of Concrete Contractors (ASCC) and an active participant and presenter in the Decorative Concrete Council (DCC) events. Bannister led the Stamp Concrete Demo at the 2001 WOC. At the 2002 WOC he shared the podium with Joe Nasvik, Senior Editor of Concrete Construction magazine in their presentation, Stamped Concrete II, an advanced seminar for stampers.

It is an exciting time for Bannister and the Stamp Store. With all the new products and training The Stamp Store provides, they still have time to publish the Imprint and a new electronically distributed tip sheet, Tips, Tricks, & Tools, both designed and edited by Mary Logan Wolf.

The Imprint is a full- color newsletter full of decorative concrete tips and trends, which is mailed free to concrete contractors. Tips, Tricks, & Tools is a free email resource with useful tips for the decorative concrete professional.

"We are not bored for a lack of exciting things to do around here," Bannister said.

Here are more detail about The Stamp Store's Conference Room:

The Conference Room Table

The focal point of the showroom is the conference table. It is two inches thick, 13 feet long and tapers from 46 to 35 inches. Polystone's 2" split face reusable form was used as a form liner to create the edge detail.

Conference table and concrete tree trunk

Stan Pace of FossilCrete created the two concrete tree trunks that support the table. The larger tree trunk was made from a box mold cast from a wonderfully gnarled cedar tree. The smaller trunk was made from Wall Mix, a proprietary FossilCrete concrete mix. Stan imprinted the bark and knotholes with his tree stamps and hand carved some additional details. Coloring was done with PreStain water base colors.

Three pieces of plywood and 4x4's were used to support the fresh concrete. The forms were removed two weeks after the pour.

One-quarter cubic yard of ready mix concrete was used: 4,000-psi chip mix. The 1" slump mix was brought to a 3" slump with Fritz-Pak SP5. Reinforcement included 4"x4" x 6 gauge welded wire mesh, #3 rebar, and 2 pounds of micro-fiber.

White color hardener was broadcast on the surface, but not hard troweled. The table was wet cured for 7 days and left covered another 7 days.

White SLICK'EM modified was mixed with a polymer (because the concrete had hydrated past its initial set) was troweled over the entire table, followed the next day by a wet sanding starting with 220 grit and ending with 600 grit. The SLICK'EM allows for a smoother finish and has greater reactivity with acid stains due to its high cement content.

Dana Boyer, of ConcretiZen, out of Apache Junction, AZ, was our lead color person. Bannister said, "We had heard of Dana's work, so we knew she was an accomplished artist, but the results were even more spectacular than I had hoped."

Green and Blue acid stains were used first followed by Boyer's use of a stains and template technique. The final accents were done with Boyer's proprietary coloring technique.

The cracks in the conference table were carved alongside the template lines with the Wasp – the smallest KaleidoCrete tool. Gold was added to the cracks and carried over the edges. The sealer was one application of a 100% two-part epoxy. The epoxy was smoothed with 4 " brushes and a spiked roller. Heat guns were standing by but they were not needed as the product leveled beautifully with no bubbles.

The Conference Room Floor

The floor color was achieved with a Golden Wheat Acid Stain applied over white color hardener. Semco PreStain colors were applied with an HVLP to even out the acid stain base color. More PreStain colors followed to create color drifts, which complement the wall colors.

Conference room floor

The KaleidoCrete system was used to create the border with the Sun, the Navajo design, the Pueblo Lizard, and the Flute Player. Both Acid Stain and PreStain water base were used for coloring.

Four thin applications of The Stamp Store's one part urethane solvent sealer were followed by three applications of Premia, a "finish" maintenance product.

The Desktop

The desktop measures more than 21 lineal feet of surface, uninterrupted by joints and seams – and there are no cracks. The same mix design was used, again followed by white SLICK'EM. The top was sanded, stained and cleaned. After that, another very fine layer of SLICK'EM was applied and stained once again. After a light sanding we applied more stain. This process added a great deal of depth and rich marbling. The sealer was one application of a two-part 100% epoxy.

The Desktop

Both the desktop and the conference table were constructed using the same techniques outlined in the Stamp Store Video "Cast-In-Place Concrete Counter Tops".

The Water Feature

There is one remaining project for the conference room. Bannister noted, "We are designing a rockscape/water fountain feature in the corner of the conference room. We will use the Wall Mix grout. We will apply 2- 3 inches of material to the wall. After an initial set time we will stamp the major features and then carve the finer rock details. A tree will appear to grow out of the floor, disappear into the rock wall, and reappear near the ceiling, branching out into the room. We also are creating a concrete cactus using the Wall Mix. The cactus will grow up out of the floor but only one branch will disappear back in the wall and will not grow into the ceiling."

Plant pockets are planned in the rockscape, but Bannister hasn't detailed out the plant types yet. They are thinking Arizona Reds and Buffs for colors at this point, but as Bannister commented, "With artists, who knows what the final product will be. The fun of creation is following the inspiration. I can say that working with Dana Boyer and Stan Pace, two very creative people, was a real treat for this old cement finisher."

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