Here is a great article written by Austin Wilson of ESR Decorative Concrete Staining & Engraving of Duncanville, TX about the training he and his father received at Engrave-A-Crete’s Discovery & Training Seminar.
We started our journey in Dallas, TX after a hard days worth of work.
Our spirits where high as we embarked on our ten hour drive to Mansfield, MO.
After researching for a while on the topic of concrete staining, I came across the Engrave- A- Crete Company and their process of decorative concrete engraving. I had not planned to expand our electrostatic painting business into engraving concrete, but after reading through their articles on the web site I had to see what the decorative concrete engraving and staining was all about!
With thousands of questions and ideas running through my mind I tried to catch some rest to prepare for my turn behind the wheel. After a pit stop in Hot Springs, AR we arrived the next day at our hotel in Missouri.
The Engrave-A-Crete staff was waiting at the doors for us the next morning and promptly welcomed us.
Debbie gave a quick tour of the areas we were to be working in. Going through their showroom, I could not help getting excited seeing the Engrave-A-Crete products lined up waiting for me to test them out!
After a quick breakfast, we headed into the training area to begin the course. We went through introductions and got straight to work. We were shown a quick demo of the Barracuda, Beaver, and Sandroid tools and a quick simple stain.
The staff encouraged hands on work to prepare and complete the next projects. After laying out a few designs we started taking turns using the tools and cutting designs into the concrete.
It was a blast getting to work hands on with these machines! As I was going back and forth to different projects my mind was racing with ideas as I became more comfortable with the tools!
As we completed the engraving projects, we had a break for an amazing lunch provided by the staff and moved onto staining.
After discussing different types of stains, we watched a few demos on different techniques for applying the stains. We were able to get our hands in on the staining action. A few more hours of hard work and we were done for the day which was followed by another fine meal provided by the staff.
We headed back to the hotel trying to let all the information sink in that we gathered from the day’s course.
The next two days where filled with tons of information for us to take in. The staff managed to answer most of my questions throughout the course and presented us with all the tools needed to get our concrete stain and engraving business started.
I left feeling completely confident I had learned all the skills needed to provide my customers with a professional quality product.
I can’t thank the staff enough for all their hard work over the three day course! Now it’s time for us to turn this opportunity into something great!
Austin Wilson – Sales
ESR Decorative Concrete Stain & Engraving
Phone: 972-296-2173
Fax: 972-296-2175
www.ElectroStaticRefinishers.com
www.esrconcretestaining.com