Annapolis company seeks to make concrete pretty

Posted: 12:17 pm Tue, February 14, 2012
By The Capital of Annapolis
Shantee Woodards

ANNAPOLIS — Lynn Schutt is experiencing the outdoor version of the man cave, and he owes it all to concrete.

Last year, the Schutts were renovating their Virginia home off the Potomac. They envisioned an outdoor kitchen with ocean-colored countertops and cabinets, but were unsure of where everything would go. They were referred to Annapolis-based Hyde Concrete, which took up the task last year. In seven weeks, Lynn and Cynthia Schutt got what they wanted, with conch shells added into the design. By taking up the project, the Schutts became part of a growing contingent of consumers who are seeing concrete as more than plain, gray slabs.

“It’s incredible,” Lynn Schutt said. “When you look at ours outside, that’s three and a half tons of concrete out there, so nobody’s stealing it. It’s not going anywhere. It’ll last forever.”

The durability is one of the things Gregory Hyde Hryniewicz stresses when talking about the value of concrete. His Hyde Concrete office is made out of his product, from the polished floors to the desk, which is made up of black concrete. The company has won awards for its double swooped sinks and concrete bar at the Two Rivers Steak and Fish House in Pasadena, as well as the acid-stained floors and concrete bar tops at the Bridges Restaurant in Grasonville. It is not unusual for the company to use products such as stones, mussels, oysters or shells to finish a project.

“As my wife says, whenever you want to make concrete pretty, talk to me,” said Hryniewicz, owner of Hyde Concrete. “The Pantheon is 2,000 years old and it’s made out of concrete.”

The Concrete Network — an online service that educates the public about concrete — found that customers are opting for the decorative form because of the durability and reduced energy requirements. A 2009 survey from the site listed the top 10 areas where decorative concrete was being used, based on the inquiries in the site. At that time, Houston and Dallas took the top spots. Across the country, architects, landscape designers and city planners have been opting for it. In Rochester, N.Y., decorative concrete was used in a bridge reconstruction project and an urban renewal district.

“Decorative concrete is one of the hottest trends today,” The Concrete Network president Jim Peterson said in a statement on the site. “The more understanding a contractor has about what consumers are spending big money on, the more successful they will be. That’s why we supply this valuable data to the market.”

Hryniewicz recognized the value of concrete at a young age. The engineer’s son grew up in Puerto Rico, where much of the architecture is made out of concrete. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and later earned his masters of business administration. In 2005, he launched Hyde Coating, using the middle name his father gave him and his siblings in case they wanted a shorter surname for the business world. Eventually, he realized that decorative concrete was a growing field so he launched Hyde Concrete.

Hryniewicz’ staff works from a building located near the Naval Academy, at the David Taylor Research Center. He has 10 staffers in the field, along with an operations manager, part time assistant and K9 office assistant, his dog Asha. On a typical work day, Hryniewicz can be found preparing samples for future clients, overseeing ongoing projects or checking on an inventory that can include salt and pepper aggregate, conch shells and glass. The size of the project is a factor in the cost, and the company charges as low as $3 per square foot for smaller pieces, on up to $30 to $50 per square foot for larger ones.

“For the right project, (decorative concrete) might be a very financially smart choice,” Hryniewicz said. “It’s not always the cheapest, but the total cost of ownership might be quite equitable.”

Fred O’Fiesh solicited the company for his upcoming restaurant, Poncho N Peppe’s. Located at the former Jasper’s site in Crofton, O’Fiesh wanted to do something different with the floor, other than put new carpet down. Hyde Concrete was the only local company he could find, and they produced his stained concrete floors with a burnt colored finish. The company also did the restaurant’s bathroom vanities.

“It just turned out beautiful, it just makes the whole restaurant,” said O’Fiesh, whose restaurant is expected to open in early March. “I wasn’t skeptical, but I really wondered what they would be able to do with an old slab. It really just turned out beautiful.”

Hryniewicz also takes his work home with him. He collected the leaves from his Japanese maple and stained them into the concrete floors of his Annapolis home. Each project is different, and he noticed that sometimes that comes out visually.

“Not everybody is cut out to have concrete,” Hryniewicz said, adding that there are sometimes imperfections but that doesn’t affect the durability. “Is your glass going to fall over? No. That’s what the client has to understand. These are human hands making this.”