Good Neighbor Podcast: Milton & More
Bringing Together Local Businesses & Neighbors of Milton, Crabapple, and Hickory Flat
Good Neighbor Podcast: Milton & More
EP #44: Pebble Stone, LLC with John Delahoz
Have you ever wondered how to transform a boring, cracked concrete surface into something visually appealing and functional? Our guest today, John Delahoz, from Pebble Stone, LLC, is here to answer that question and more. Journey with us as John shares his entrepreneurial adventures of moving from Colorado to Georgia and penetrating a market with a product that was virtually non-existent. He reveals how he mastered the art of installing Pebble Epoxy, and expanded his repertoire to include driveway repairs and flake epoxy. But what truly sets John apart is his unwavering commitment to customer satisfaction and delivering a worry-free experience to his clientele.
Epoxy for your driveway...really? Absolutely, says John, who continues to enlighten us by shedding light on his revolutionary techniques in concrete garage floor coatings - the introduction of new type of coating. This is not just a passing trend but a significant game-changer in the industry due to its numerous benefits. John also explains how pebble epoxy coating can be a solution to prevent pesky puddles. Moreover, he generously shares about the giveaway he is conducting to promote Pebble Stone, LLC and the array of services his company provides.
In our final segment with John, we tackle the prevalent myths and misconceptions surrounding epoxy and polyaspartic coatings for driveways and garage floors. He emphasizes the importance of proper surface preparation for these coatings to work their magic. Besides, he highlights how these innovative coatings can be a smart investment, saving homeowners both time and money. And as we wrap up, remember to explore the Pebble Stone, LLC website and their social media accounts for more fascinating insights into their services. Thanks for tuning in, and until next time, keep those driveways looking sharp!
This is the Good Neighbor podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Stacey Polar.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody. I am so excited to be here with my friend John, who owns Pebble Stone Pros.
Speaker 3:Welcome, John hey how are you doing Stacey?
Speaker 2:I am good. I am good. Why don't you tell us about your business?
Speaker 3:Pebble Stone started in 2020 and it basically came about because I moved here to Georgia from Colorado back in 2014. In my home in Colorado we had Pebble Epoxy on our back patio and it's pretty well known in Colorado. Pebble is an epoxy coating that goes down with hand trial. It goes down a half inch thick on your concrete and it's porous. When water gets on it it soaks all the way through. You don't see the no puddles, but it's super shiny, super pretty. It's just real decorative. After living here a little bit, I thought man, I really miss that.
Speaker 3:Pebble Epoxy. I want to get some on my house. I started searching and I could not find one company in Georgia that does it. I saw how they put it down. I bet I could learn how to do it. I searched around, found the materials and I put it down on my sidewalk and it turned out really well. I thought I am going to start a company. I decided Georgia deserves to have Pebble Epoxy on their homes or businesses and someone needs to do that. Pebble Epoxy was born and out of that we've started doing a lot more offerings as far as garage floors, epoxy, garage floors, flake epoxy, quartz epoxy, and then we got into doing driveway repair and resurfacing. We do a whole slew of different surfaces in regards to concrete repair and decorative resurfacing.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So if I think back to my younger days and visiting my grandparents in Florida, they had what I'm guessing is Pebble Stone, what it was called like Chattahoochee Stone. So is that the same thing? Is that the look that you're going to be? I think people may be familiar with that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly the same system, same materials. It's just a different name, different branding. Pebble Stone is my own company name. It started out I was going to call the Pebble Epoxy Pebble Stone, but then we started doing other things and so I decided to just call Pebble Epoxy, because that's what it is.
Speaker 1:But it's not.
Speaker 3:Pebble Tech. People call Pebble Tech all the time. That's what goes inside the pool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it goes around the pool right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Pebble Epoxy goes on the pool deck or on your patio or drive one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the big advantage to that that I remember from when I was a little kid running laps around a pool, is that it's not slippery, right? I think that is why it is the preferred stone of choice, you know, and for whatever reason it just like you're saying people here just don't know about it and I think what you're doing is really cool. So, taka, I mean, you mentioned a little bit about why you kind of started it and your own. You know history and where you used to see it in Colorado, but what were you doing before this? You know, have you always been an entrepreneur? You know what was sort of that, the impetus to kind of get a new business going for you?
Speaker 3:Well, we go all the way back to when I was in my 20s. I started doing concrete finishing and I was a finisher in California for like eight years and then I moved to Colorado and started doing more concrete work out there. So I have well over 10 years pretty close to 15 years of concrete finishing experience, and that goes right into the whole process for petal epoxy, because it's all hand-trialled, and so with those skills that I had from concrete finishing, I was able to pretty quickly learn how to install the petal epoxy so that it turned out flat and smooth for a person's bare foot, if this is what they wanted. And then, as time went on, I got into another business doing web design and internet marketing, which is totally different, and a couple of my clients were petal epoxy installers One in Colorado, the guy who did my patio.
Speaker 3:We worked out a deal, and then I found another guy in Pennsylvania and it was hugely successful for these two companies and I did most of their marketing for them. So I started doing SEO for my company and it's doing really well, but people aren't searching on it in Georgia because they don't know about it at least not everybody, and so this is why I sought out the neighborhood Milton neighborhood because it's something that's going to. People are going to see it, and when they see it, then they're going to know that this is something that they want on their patio, or a cool deck or argument.
Speaker 2:Right, and it's not just a superior product. Just from knowing you personally, I think it's. You know a superior customer service and an install experience that is worry free and trouble free. Can you talk a little bit about your process and you know how you know how you really deliver on your promises?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's the number one goal for us.
Speaker 3:You know we we're a Christian based company and so all of our values are focused around those, those Christian values, and it may not be for everybody, but regardless of whether you're Christian or not, it's you're going to get that kind of service where people we care about how you do it, and then it puts a good face on the people who are installing it, because you know that they care enough to do something with values that are in integrity, that are very high standards, and so, whether a customer is, if a customer is ever not happy 100%, we will do whatever we have to to make sure that they are happy in the end.
Speaker 3:That's the number one goal and promise for our clients. And as far as the pedal of Oxy, once it goes down, as long as we do the prep properly which is the number one thing about recoding concrete, whether it's garage floors, the prep has to be done properly. We understand what needs to be done for that to happen, but the pebble of Oxy once it goes down I've seen it worse lasted 50 years. I mean, this stuff is indestructible and it's just. It's just. Once you it's there, it's going to be there forever.
Speaker 2:What about the maintenance on it? Is there anything people need to do? Just reseal it, or you know what's the upkeep.
Speaker 3:Yep, that's. That's basically it. You just have to recode it. Typically we pressure wash it, let it dry for three days and then come back and top it off with some new epoxy or polyaspardic. That's the latest trend in concrete garage floor coatings, as everyone's going to the polyaspardic. It is a harder chemical that will go on top as a coating also, and so if somebody wants the polyaspardic, it does cost a little extra.
Speaker 3:we will coat it with the polyaspardic, which does give you extra protection, but you know, every probably every two years, you might want to recode it and we can either show people how to do it and give them a DIY package to roll it on themselves it's not super scientific or anything, it's pretty easy to do it roll it on with a roller or we offer that service to do it for them.
Speaker 2:In terms of the garage floor coatings like what are you know? I mean, obviously it looks nice, there's an aesthetic repeal to having a coating on your garage floor, but what are some of the advantages? What is it? Help people prevent and problems and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a huge trend right now. Garage floors People are having them done everywhere and there's a lot of companies out there doing it. Most companies just do flake epoxy garage floors. That's the least expensive approach out there. It keeps your garage floor clean and free of stains. It's easy to keep clean. You can blow it off and you're done. Wipe it down with a dust mop, you're done. The only thing about flake garage floors and we offer those too, but I'm here to tell you if you put a flake epoxy garage floor, or even just a single color epoxy garage floor, you're going to get puddles.
Speaker 3:When it rains and it rains out here a lot you pull your vehicle in, that water has to go somewhere and your concrete is essentially sealed and so you will have puddles. Or even coming in from a hot day and your air conditioner's been running, you're going to have that condensation that drips out of your vehicle and you're going to have puddles and they can be dangerous. If you slip on a garage floor and you fall, you can break a hip and that happens a lot. We see that and so I always have to warn people look, if you're going to do this type of sealer on your garage floor, there could be puddles, it could be slippery. You have to be aware of that.
Speaker 1:But the epoxy, the pebble epoxy.
Speaker 3:It goes down a half inch thick and it's a porous install. So when it's dry and you pull your vehicle in, it's wet. That water just runs right through the epoxy and hits the concrete below and either evaporates or soaks in. You will never, ever have a puddle with pebble epoxy and it looks just as nice actually nicer than I think than flake epoxy garage floors. So that's my preferred choice for garage floors, hands down.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and cost wise. I know that the pebble epoxy is probably a little bit more expensive, but I'm guessing long term because it is so durable. There's just it works out for a homeowner.
Speaker 3:It is more expensive right now, essentially because we're shipping in pebbles from other states and then mixing it with the epoxy and hand trailing it.
Speaker 3:But I am working on some local resources where I can get some granite or marble chips and we're going to be experimenting with that, and if we can actually get this to go down flat and smooth and as pretty, we'll be able to offer it probably around the same price as flake epoxy. So, fingers crossed, let's hope that we can have good results with that in the next month or so and we'll be posting that information on our website so that people will know whether we've had good luck with that or not.
Speaker 2:You can come over and test it out on my garage.
Speaker 3:I trust you. I love you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on out. You know you guys are pretty inventive. It sounds like, and I know that you kind of are looking into some different ways to get yourself out there. Is there something fun or new that you're doing to promote the business?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we just launched a free giveaway and it's. I don't think I've ever heard of this anywhere else. There's just an idea I had, but we want people to know about our concrete repair and driveway resurfacing services Because a lot of times people think they have a driveway that needs to be torn out and reinstalled because it's so bad.
Speaker 3:We've actually come up with a system that, for like the half the price of tearing it out and pouring it, we can come in and stabilize your concrete, repair the cracks, fill the hollow voids and resurface it with the material that will not come off, and when we're finished, it looks like a brand new driveway, but nobody knows about it. So we're actually doing a free drawing giveaway for up to 500 square feet and we're going to have people post pictures of their ugly driveways crack, broken, whatever spalling of the rocks are shown through. We can come in, we can fix it, and so we're going to let we're going to do a drawing that we just look for us on social media and marketplace or look on our website. We have information about the giveaway. This is not a scam. This is a real thing no money out of your pocket.
Speaker 3:We're going to repair and resurface your driveway to the lucky winner that we're going to have on a 15th is going to be the driver.
Speaker 2:Awesome. So the ugliest driveway in Milton Alpharetta area. Is that what we're looking for?
Speaker 3:We're asking the ugliest driveways to be posted and then we're going to do a random drawing between all those driveways and it's going to be random, so we're not going to choose who's it is, but we're hoping it's going to be really bad ones so we can show you the effectiveness of what we do.
Speaker 2:And so you know I mean I know that the HOA is around here pretty tough on people about their driveways and you know. So if there's a house in your neighborhood that you know people have been kind of talking about, maybe you take a picture and you nominate them for it. There you go.
Speaker 1:It's a good idea.
Speaker 2:I mean it sounds like a really great solution. I mean anything we can do to conserve and preserve versus rip out and report right. I mean, you know, I think that that's not just a less expensive way of addressing a driveway issue, it's also a more, you know, environmentally friendly and a conservative way of doing it.
Speaker 3:So not only that, but you know to tear out your driveway, you're looking at minimum. You know you're going to be looking at at least a week for everything to be taken out. You're not going to be able to go in your driver, you're not going to be able to go into your garage and then, once they reinstall it, you're supposed to wait another week before you can drive on it. So that's two weeks that you don't have a driveway. When we come in and repair it and resurface it, usually you're back on your driveway within two to three days. Matt.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know I think that time. Time is money for people, right, so that's an important part. Can you think about any myths or misconceptions that might be out there? I mean it sounds like the biggest one is people just don't know about all the options, but anything else that you've run into.
Speaker 3:Before I learned about the resurfacing material that we use for the driveways. It's basically cement and polymer fortified material, so there's a lot of glue in there, and I didn't know about this stuff when I was researching it and, with my previous concrete finishing experience, I thought you can't just put a coating or a thin layer of cement on your driveway. It's gonna chip off. But I didn't know that these materials existed. Where it's gonna glue onto your concrete, it's gonna stick. It's gonna stick really well. And so I experimented on my own driveway, thinking, okay, we're gonna debunk this because I don't think it's. I don't think it's gonna stick. It'd be great if it worked, but I don't think it's gonna stick. We did it four years ago and it still looks brand new and it has not come off.
Speaker 3:So I've heard of other companies that use this stuff, from Phoenix Arizona, and they're doing public sidewalks and driveways and they've been doing it for over 10 years and it's still sticking. So the myth that cement can't be repaired, concrete can't be repaired, can't be resurfaced, is not a true myth. Now, that being said, there are some products that you can get from big box stores I won't mention any of those blue or orange stores but if you buy those materials, those most likely will not stick. Or if the prep isn't done on a concrete properly, the material will not stick. So although it's a myth, it is true if it's not done properly.
Speaker 2:Got it. You know, as an entrepreneur, I'm sure you've had some challenges along the way and I know people kind of like to hear about it, like to hear how you've come out on the other side, any of those hurdles that you can share with us today.
Speaker 3:Well, we did start in 2020. So, if you recall what happened right around 2020? Little COVID action. So we not a good time to be starting a business, but we hung in there and got through it and so I think the biggest hurdle right now is just people not knowing about our services and what we do. I think if people saw it and they knew about it I mean with the driveways it's a great value and it looks like brand new concrete with a pebble epoxy.
Speaker 3:It's a great solution for decorative resurfacing. We also do rubber urethane, which is a great option for cool decks as well. So there's. I mean, I think the best thing is look at the website and see what we do, see the pictures, because when you see what we do, you'll think, wow, I've never seen this before, but this looks amazing and we just wanna get that on people's properties or commercial. We just wanna get that out there so people can see it.
Speaker 2:Awesome, awesome. Where can folks find it? Can you share your website and Facebook and all that kind of stuff?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's pebblestoneprosecom. Pebblestonecom was taken, so pebblestoneprosecom, and all the information is there. We have links to our social media as well, and that's just under pebblestone, and just look at the pictures and find a lot more on the website, though, so check that out and feel free to contact us if you have any questions or comments. We do free estimates and, if anything, we come out and just give you some good free advice.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Well, thank you so much for chatting with me today, John.
Speaker 3:You bet. Thank you so much, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast, milton and more. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpmiltoncom. That's gnpmiltoncom, or call 470-664-4930. Clockwise. Or join a club, or check out thebeepinghamcom new hit.