Joe Starling's Blog: Spotlight: StoneCoat Transforms Building Surfaces into Limestone

There are plenty of home and building improvement products available in the market. But there aren’t many that can actually transform a home or building’s surface into a different substance. But that’s just what StoneCoat is meant to do. Read more about the company and its offering in this week’s Small Business Spotlight.

What the Business Does

Transforms vertical surfaces into limestone.

Sam Hance, President of StoneCoat told Small Business Trends, “Originally developed in Europe to restore old historic buildings, StoneCoat is a proprietary blend of limestone and other natural stone materials and minerals specifically designed to be blown onto walls.”

Business Niche

Offering a versatile blown limestone solution.

Hance says, “Because our product is light-weight, it can be blown onto almost any vertical surface – including brick, cinder block, wood and even sheetrock – thereby offering huge advantages over heavier quarried stone. Once applied, it is able to be carved, shaped, and colored in a variety of ways, including Austin chalk, flag stone, cast stone, and many more.”

How the Business Got Started

Because of a home remodeling project.

Hance explains, “Our founder, Ken Morrison, discovered a specific type of limestone called hydraulic limestone while looking for a remodeling solution for his own home. Hydraulic limestone is only found in a few quarries in Europe. The unique quality of this limestone is that it does not set immediately which allows for it to be applied and then carved and colored to produce any desired natural stone look.

“Once hardened, it becomes a seamless, breathable wall of pure limestone. Ken quickly realized this product offered not only the perfect solution to his remodeling project, but also that this could be a game changing product in a multi-billion dollar industry. Ken formed StoneCoat in 2010 and has spent the last 6 years perfecting the formula and application process while building the company into the dominant player in the Dallas-Fort Worth market.”

Biggest Win

Starting a franchise program.

Hance says, “This process started over 12 months ago and since then we have built a truly unique franchise model which includes low startup cost, low monthly overhead and high profitability. StoneCoat can now offer the opportunity for anyone to own their own business which features a true game-changing product in a multi-billion dollar industry.”

Biggest Risk

A large project early on.

Hance says, “We were contracted to convert a seven story tower into stone. A poor performance on such a visible building could have been very damaging to our future. Fortunately, we pulled it off and produced a building that has been showcased in ads across the country.”

How They’d Spend an Extra $100,000

Improving the franchise model and marketing.

Team Philosophy

Iron Sharpens Iron.

Hance explains, “Our management team believes in the old saying “iron sharpens iron” so we are pretty brutal with each other (in a good way) about any ideas for the business. We always keep in mind that we make decisions that will affect not only our lives but the lives of our employees and franchisees. Luckily we are all still great friends!”