The high-gloss floor we created in Tyrolit’s showroom with my new HTC 950 RX. This was ‘hiding’ under the showroom carpets, proving it’s never too late to switch to polished concrete.
December and January are incredibly busy months for Geocrete. We have the increased activity leading up to Christmas that most businesses experience, with many clients keen to get their polished concrete floor started or completed.
We also take on special projects during holiday periods, when manufacturing plants usually close down for a couple of weeks. This Christmas-New Year, my team will be working at Kenworth in Bayswater, Victoria, to grind and polish 2000 square metres of plant floors.
The Toughest Job
This is easily the hardest job we’ll do this year. These floors are covered with epoxy paint and epoxy resin sand that is up to 30mm thick in places. It hides metal DynaBolts and steel rails that can shatter the diamond pads on our grinding heads and even rip off a grinding head – a very unusual occurrence.
Over nine days and running seven grinding/polishing machines, my nine-man team will work 14-16 hour days to get the job done in time for the reopening of the plant, so that no production time is lost.
My Favourite Toy!
I’ve even bought a new machine to help get the job done: a HTC 950 RX grinder, which is now my biggest and newest machine (I do enjoy my ‘toys’ – I’m a grinding machine man rather than a car man!)
This will be my third job with Kenworth, which is so pleased with its new polished concrete floors that it intends to get all its plant floors done over time – that’s another 15,000 or so square metres!
Another smaller job I am squeezing in before Christmas is one that I am very proud to have been asked to do. The Australian distributor of HTC machines, Tyrolit, is ripping up the carpet in its showroom and has asked Geocrete to polish the uncovered concrete.
Of the 40-50 concrete polishers in Victoria, Tyrolit asked Geocrete. I’m rapt! I’m going to use my new ‘toy’, the 950 RX, for this 180 square metre job. The concrete is standard black basalt aggregate in grey, and I’m going to run a time lapse camera and a grinder-mounted go-camera to capture the work. Watch out for the video – I’ll announce when it’s loaded into the site.
So Christmas for me is all grinding and polishing, which I get to do with my 950 RX (yes, I’m like a kid on Christmas morning when it comes to my 950 RX!)
Finally, I’ll have something pretty exciting to write about in the new year. Geocrete is taking a star turn on a popular television building show. When I can, I’ll tell you all about it!
Happy holidays!