Gary Middleton, a commercial general contractor, simply wasn’t happy with the decorative concrete he saw installed for clients by other contractors. He knew he and his team could provide a higher quality product.
That was eight years ago, the same year Middleton opened Creative Concrete and Polishing. Since then, Middleton and his team have created their own products to ensure they provide their clients with the highest quality products.
“We have a shop so we test everything, before we put it out onto a project,” Middleton says. “We specialize with CTI dyes, and SherCrete has the best overlay. We use American Polish for our solvent colors, and HTC is used for the commercial water-base sealer.”
While Creative Concrete and Polishing does offer exterior concrete designs, they specialize in interior work, particularly dry polishing and are certified by American Polish. Other services offered by Creative Concrete and Polishing include colored concrete, concrete driveways, engraving concrete, patios and walkways, pool decks, resurfacing concrete, finished basements, interior concrete floors, water-based epoxy coatings, and concrete polishing.
With today’s movement to protect the environment, Middleton makes a conscious effort to use products that are environmentally friendly or “green.” In fact, all of Creative Concrete and Polishing’s polished concrete is 100 percent green.
The lifespan of the polished concrete floors should last between five and ten years, if a finish is added to the sealer annually.
“The key is to do the floor finish, which you just mop off. You wear out the floor, but you’re not wearing out the sealer,” Middleton says. “We use SherCrete’s floor finish.”
Middleton, who today secures the majority of his clientele from referrals, ensures that he and his team focus on their clients. “One of the things I teach my key people is customers are not interrupting our work when they ask us questions,” he says. “A lot of people get kind of frustrated with customers, but the bottom line is the purpose of our work is for our clients. Our clients are very important to us.”
As a result, Middleton takes care of his clients. While the standard industry warranty is one year labor and material, Middleton will take care of his clients’ problems regardless of whether the problem falls within that time frame. In fact, he’s helped clients whose products he installed eight years prior.
Headquartered in Tallahassee, Florida, Creative Concrete and Polishing serves clients in South Florida, Louisiana, and Georgia. Prospective clients are welcome to visit Creative Concrete and Polishing’s showroom, which is shown by appointment only. Middleton advises clients to schedule their projects in advance because, even with two crews, Creative Concrete and Polishing is generally booked several months in advance.