Can You Turn a Problem Into a Business?

Can you turn a problem into a business? Steve Perez of Boulder Creek, California did. Read on.

In Boulder Creek, the average rainfall is around 60 inches a season. Steve Perez found water pooling on his smooth concrete paver patio, making it dangerous to walk on for most of the winter. Perez combined his engineering background, his artistic talent, and his problem-solving nature to invent KnotStones® concrete pavers.

Unique Configurations Possible with Concrete Pavers

Knotstones are concrete pavers that can be assembled to form a continuous custom weave pattern. No matter which way you arrange the pavers, you end up with a unique woven design reminiscent of various Celtic knots.

This flexibility gives a homeowner or landscaper the creative freedom to make different designs for different applications, using the same basic pavers.

Perez wanted to replace crumbling old patio stones at his house, “I thought it would be fun to create a paver that could be assembled with variable results, depending on the orientation. I also wanted to make pavers with drain-through holes for installation over a gravel drainage area. Here in the mountains, we’re very concerned with water management. Any roof or paved area is a water collector.”

Aerospace Engineering Experience Comes in Handy

Using his experience as an aerospace design engineer, Perez developed a weaving method that would result in a continuous pattern no matter which way he turned the stones.

“Once I figured out the method, which I have patented,” says Perez, “I found it would work on any tiling element that could continuously cover a surface. This includes squares, hexagons, equilateral triangles, and other more complex shapes.”

Steve Perez spent many childhood hours drawing detailed designs of cool cars. He drew the first full-size Knotstones design on graph paper. He then transferred the design to wax and carved the three-dimensional elements of the weave pattern.

Molding Process Provides Custom Quality

Perez learned the molding process, “…by trial and error. I made lots of mistakes at first. For example, I used latex rubber for the first mold, but it shrank too much, and the design looked goofy when assembled into a pattern. I also had to learn a lot about working with concrete and clay.” According to Perez, each step of the process presents its own challenges.

“In making the molds, you have to learn how temperature affects styrene, and how to eliminate bubbles from the plastic forms. Concrete and clay both have similar requirements when it comes to temperature, not to mention how to deal with the acid in concrete, how to reinforce with steel, what clay to use for tiles suitable for use in a kitchen or bathroom, and how much surface roughness to allow for use in different applications.”

Despite the sophisticated engineering that went into designing and building KnotStones, the results are whimsical and eye-catching.

“I’m working on several different applications, including standard-sized fired tiles for bathroom and kitchen counters and backsplashes. I have also produced small tiles with Celtic knot designs.”

Steve Perez is building KnotStones, the business, carefully in his spare time, making sure to learn as much as he can about all aspects of the business as he goes. At the KnotStones website you can play with an interactive Web-based tool to move virtual stones into different designs and learn more about the unique pavers.

Is there some problem that you can turn into a business?