Big Apple gets hard-core floor

FayObserver.com

By Don Worthington

Polish it regularly and this apple should last forever.

It spans the center of the Big Apple’s sports pub on Yadkin Road, from near the bar to the disc jockey station. Once it is finished and polished bright red, this apple will be the Big Apple’s new dance floor.

The restaurant and sports bar tapped into a trend in flooring that has been popular elsewhere in the U.S. for some time — decorative concrete. The new floor is like a giant mural, textured and colored.

It’s the largest decorative concrete job that Custom Concrete Solutions of Fayetteville has attempted — about 5,000 square feet, a quarter-inch thick. The concrete includes 15 different colors. There are patches of blue sky, even a yellow rope — all done in decorative concrete.

Major colors are poured separately. The concrete also can have different textures. A wooden texture, for instance, is created by dragging a mop or broom over the concrete as it cures.

The concrete is then sealed. With periodic waxing and buffing, the floor should last forever, says Steve Baysa, one of the co-owners of Custom Concrete Solutions.

The decorative concrete is twice as durable as regular concrete, said David Mitchell, of Pure Texture, which provided the materials and design for the Big Apple’s project.

“The durability is unsurpassed,” Mitchell said. “If you don’t like it, you will have to grind it off with a diamond-tipped blade.”

Decorative concrete has been popular along the West Coast and in Florida for about 20 years, Mitchell said. The concrete can be used on floor, walls, pools decks and bar tops. How it appears is limited by a customer’s imagination, Baysa said.

Baysa, Joey Newcomb and Chris Morales own Custom Concrete Solutions. They are distributors for Pure Texture of Greensboro, which is owned by Mitchell and Dominic Freda.