Dive summary:

• When officials were planning the renovation of Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, Grand Prospect Corp. owner Steve Rose spent eight months consulting on flooring and got the job of ripping out old, dark carpeting and creating a polished concrete floor to brighten the terminal and bring color to it.
• There were several physical challenges after getting out the carpet and removing leftover glue, including the floor's lacking flatness and the discovery that its hardness varied and got as high as 9 on the Mohs scale of 1 to 10, but Rose's crews dealt with those, including having a range of abrasive equipment shipped to meet the varying conditions.
• Perhaps the hardest obstacle was not concrete but the design team's deciding that after 80% of sections with red coloring had been laid that the color just didn't work, which the team handled by careful removal and then installation of a new sepia color – success that has led to more airport work for the company.

From the article:

"The design undulates in and out, thick and thin, back and forth -- it has very crisp lines that are saw cut in the concrete, so it's not like we could just do over a big square area." ...