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What's
New ~ April/May 2008 |
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Louisiana Contractor Steals Our Floor |
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Much to our dismay, we found out recently that a
contractor in Lafayette, Louisiana, was using a photo
of one of our acid-stained floors to advertise his
booth at a local home show. Without asking,
and without permission,
Jarred Griffin, of
Concrete Designs of Acadiana LLC, took this
photo (below left) from our home page and made it
the centerpiece of a customized banner over his booth (below
right) at the
Blueprints 2008 Home, Garden,
& Leisure Show in Lafayette, Louisiana,
on March 1st and 2nd, 2008. Notice that our photo is
pictured directly above his catchphrase, "Miracles
in Concrete". |
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They say "Imitation is the sincerest form of
flattery", and we are flattered that Mr. Griffin
considers our award-winning floor a "Miracle in
Concrete", but it is our miracle, not his. And
just because he may be a
newly incorporated company, and may not have photos of
his own work to show, that does not give him the
right to take ours. We consider this a violation under
U.S. Copyright Law.
It is probably also
false
advertising,
as defined by the Federal Trade Commission. We
sent Jarred Griffin and
Concrete Designs LLC, a cease & desist letter,
but he has not responded. Now, our attorney is
making a good faith effort to resolve the matter. We'll keep
this section updated with any developments in the
situation.
April 23rd Update: Our attorney informs us
that Mr. Griffin "has gone underground".
Concrete Designs never responded to the law
firm's letter, and now the company's business phone,
their only point of contact, has been disconnected.
We didn't want or intend to put Mr. Griffin out of
business, but that appears to be the decision he has
made for himself.
May 28th Update: We just learned from
one of our customers that another contractor has
stolen photos of the SAME acid-stained faux finish
flagstone floor from us.
Ryan
Seckler
of
Innovative Concrete Surfaces
of Naples, Florida, has been using the above photo
on the home page of his web site for the past year.
This unscrupulous contractor also submitted the
photo to the Concrete Network for use in their acid
stained concrete floor photo gallery, and it was
being used under his company's name. We
notified Concrete Network of this latest copyright
problem, and they were good enough to correct it.
Now, the photo in their gallery has been attributed
to us:
Concrete Network .
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New
Product to Protect Your Floor During Construction |
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If you have a new concrete slab that you're planning
to stain, or a newly completed acid-stained floor in
a room or building still undergoing construction,
you will need to protect it. New concrete
slabs, left unprotected, will quickly become
contaminated with: glue and adhesive
from plumbers and tile contractors; magic marker, chalk, and hairspray
from electricians and framers; black scuff marks
from scaffolding and ladders; and patching compound
and primer from drywall crews. Newly completed
acid-stained concrete will inevitably be marred and
damaged by paint, solvents, and tape from painters.
This damage, while not irreparable, can be
disheartening and is time-consuming and expensive to
fix. So it makes sense to spend a little extra
upfront to protect your concrete floor until all
heavy construction, equipment installation, and finish work is complete.
An unprotected soon-to-be-acid-stained concrete floor at the mercy of the
construction process!
Concrete staining contractors use a lot of different
materials for this purpose: plastic sheeting;
plywood; corrugated cardboard; resin, craft, or
construction paper; Masonite, and insulation,
particle, or other types of hard board; and Tyvek
Housewrap. The problem is that all of these
products are either ineffective, costly, or will end
up damaging the floor themselves. Corrugated
cardboard is probably the best of the above options,
and is what we have used up to this point.
Now, however, we have discovered a new product:
Ram Board, a heavy
duty, fiber-reinforced, flexible material designed
specifically to protect concrete floors that is easy
and economical to install. We haven't used it
yet, but it comes highly recommended from a builder
we know, and we're going to use it on our next
project. We'll let you know how it turns out. |
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