Bomanite Artistic Concrete
About us
In 2003, Andy and Allyn’s son, Aaron, joined the company, originally as Sales Manager, and presently as Director of Operations. Although Bomanite Artistic Concrete has been in business since 1985, Andy and Aaron continue to develop and expand their expertise in concrete not only by constantly working with it, but also by attending seminars, workshops, and forums every year in order to keep abreast of the latest advances in the use and technology of concrete.
Business highlights
Services we offer
Decorative concrete and repair.
Accepted Payment Methods
- CreditCard
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We spent a lot of time and money on a blemish-free concrete foundation as we knew early on we wanted to use micro-top as opposed to carpet, etc. Preliminary contacts and arrangements with Bomanite went well. As a small family-run business, it had an A+ rating with the BBB and we'd been told the company had a good reputation.
The initial micro-top application also went well, but everything went wrong when two incompatible sealers were applied (or the first hadn't dried, we're still not sure which). The great room was fine, but the rest of the floor (roughly 1200 sq. ft.) developed hundreds of ugly fisheye pockmarks where one sealer resisted the other. We were told they would 'go away' but they didn't and from that point on it was one sloppy, inept fix after another.
Aggressive sanding didn't eliminate the pockmarks, so an additional coat of micro-top was recommended. (They said they had experience doing so, which in hindsight was the second red flag.) In the meantime they attempted to wax and buff the great room They hadn't brought enough wax, but buffed it anyway to remove some heel marks, unortunately not stopping even when it was evident that grit was caught in the pad. That floor ended up with big circular scratches in the sealer. We were assured again that they would go away, which of course they didn't. Then we were told they would go away when they applied more wax later, but when they did, they waxed even more debris onto the surface, and while better, the rings were still visible. It never received a final buff as promised, so we will do it ourselves.
As for the rest of the house, when the sealer was applied after the second attempt at micro-top, pockmarks popped up again. (We had to actually stop the crew. Had we not been there, they'd clearly have repeated the exact same mistake all over agagin. Mind boggling.) Micro-top is a hand-trowelled process that has to be sanded before sealing and they had simply sanded too far, i.e. down to most of the original marks. We could also see obvious scratches from the orbital sander in many places. You guessed it. Yet another coat of micro-top was the answer. Keep in mind that it took more than two weeks to order the product plus additional time for us and their crew to be available. Each redo took several weeks and delayed our construction for months.
On the third attempt, the pockmark-sealed areas had to be sanded again and a thicker coat of micro-top applied. It was then sanded only lightly. The color was also a bit different, all of which changed the look considerably but was more or less acceptable. Nonetheless, in a few areas, the fisheyes were still evident and had to be spot treated with more micro-top.
This is where it gets really unvelievable. They applied the sealer working from the back of the house towards the front as usual ... and then they left. Rather hurriedly. We could see some irregularities through the windows but couldn't get into the rooms until the next day. To our dismay, we discovered they had either used a different color or hadn't let it dry, or both, and we had big dark blotches in one room and closet. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so I did both. Prior to the sealer it could have easily been sanded down again or we'd have done the whole room that color, or a border, or pattern or ANYTHING that looked intentional. Instead they locked it under the sealer and took off as if nothing had happened. At least this time no one told us the blotches would go away. In addition, the thicker coats of micro-top, or rather macro-top at that point, caused a large number of hairline cracks in several rooms. Overall the floor looks quite different than what was promised, different yet from the great room and with obvious transition lines between the two. We can live with it, but it is not at all what we wanted or expected and certainly not what we hired or paid them to do. They never did wax and buff this part of the house either, so we will be doing that as well.
To Bomanite's credit, the ranch house is in a remote area, and they did make extra trips and incur added expenses in an effort to remedy the situation. In hindsight though, it was all the more motivation to be extra careful, professional and do the job RIGHT THE FIRST TIME! In the end, we heard not one word from the owner, Andy, who had worked with the crew and was responsible for the poor decisions and substandard work. His son offered to paint the botched floor with epoxy but we (obviously) declined to have anything more to do with them. Instead we asked for a partial refund to cover the cost of other flooring for the ruined room .. and which we felt was exceedingly generous on our part. We received a check, with an apology from his wife, but it in no way makes up for the shoddy work, aggravation, disappointment, wasted time and effort.
We've never written a review such as this but we felt obligated to warn anybody who might be considering hiring Bomanite.
Licensing
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