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 Stone
restorers carve out niche
Fancy floors gain in popularity
Hal Edmonds was looking for a rock solid business opportunity.
That’s when he bought a stone floor restoration company and suddenly
started noticing ground-floor business opportunities all over the
Sacramento area.
"It’s kind of like buying a certain kind
of car and then noticing that everyone on the highway has your
car," Edmonds said. "Once I got into the business, I became
aware of natural stone floors in many buildings."
Stone floors are common in older downtown
buildings and are gaining in popularity in new houses, said Edmonds,
president of California Stone Care in Sacramento. The operation began
four years ago as part of a national franchise network, but the business
went independent about a year ago.
Edmonds and his general manager, Brian Garvey,
came for the business but are now hooked on the art of stone restoration
and historic preservation, Edmonds said.
"There seemed to be a need in the
marketplace, as lots more stone flooring is being used," he said.
"Stone floors are in high-end residential construction and in
fairly moderate-price-level homes now. Some of the tract homes being
built in the Sacramento area include marble entries or kitchens."
California Stone Care is sometimes called onto
residential construction sites to repair scratches on stone floors that
occur during building. And sometimes the company is hired to do the
final cleaning and sealing on new installations of stone floors. But its
real forte—and Edmonds’ real passion—is major restoration
projects.
Recently the company was hired to participate
in the renovation of Sunrise Mall is Citrus Heights, where Edmonds’
crew will restore 60,000 square feet of terrazzo floors. The mall
renovation is the by far the biggest project for Edmonds.
"Not a lot of people know how to do
this," he said. "It’s kind of Old World skills using modern
equipment."
Stone workers, who get their training mainly on
the job, use industrial diamonds on what is essentially a large floor
buffing machine. The diamonds, attached to 4-inch pads on the base of
the machine, are similar to sandpaper, ranging from the rough 50-grit
pad to the fine 3,600-grit.
The pads grind off a tiny amount of the stone
surface to the depth of the deepest scratch. Workers use a progressively
finer grit, in sequence.
"It’s a multi-step process, depending on
the severity of the wear or damage," Edmonds said.
The company works on marble, terrazzo,
limestone, travertine, granite and terra cotta, and Edmonds is exploring
how to restore porcelain tile.
One of Edmonds’ favorite jobs was the
recently completed restoration of the First Northern Bank in Winters.
California Stone Care was charged with restoring the 1912 classical
revival-style bank’s terra cotta exterior.
"Chunks were knocked out, the glaze was
missing in some places, and the stone was very dirty and
stained," Edmonds said of the bank before restoration. "It was
personally rewarding to see such a dramatic change."
The bank is a historic landmark for the
residents of Winters, with its fluted columns sometimes used as
backdrops in Hollywood movies, he said, so people would stop by every
day to tell the workers how pleased they were with the progress.
"My craftsmen were happy to go to work
every day, because so many people were happy to see them," Edmonds
said.
California Stone Care had four employees in
July, but has expanded to 11 craftsmen because of the major jobs landed
by the company.
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