Participants at the "Installing polished concrete floors" seminar, hosted by PROSOCO -- (L to R) Dana Rickerd, Ace Concrete by Design, Salem, Mo; Deb and Jim Carson, Unique Concrete LLC, Sioux City, Iowa
We’ve got company today.
About 40 or 50 contractors, distributors, consultants and manufacturers, all who are involved in polished concrete flooring or who would like to be, are attending the year’s fifth professional seminar and hands-on demo “Installing polished concrete floors.”
PROSOCO is hosting this edition of the seminar here in Lawrence. We’re providing info on hardening/densifying, coloring and protecting polished concrete floors The program’s other sponsors are Metzger/McGuire and SASE.
Metzger/McGuire will teach participants about joint installation and protection and floor repair. SASE is handling the grinding and polishing.
SASE's 1,050-pound PDG (Planetary Diamond Grinder) 8000 is one of the pieces of gear participants will get hands-on experience with during the polished concrete flooring seminar.
“This is not about sales,” Joe Reardon, of PROSOCO’s Concrete Products Group, says. “It’s for education only.”
Along with demonstrating basic techniques for making a gleaming colorful floor out of a rough steel-troweled concrete surface, the seminar leaders will discuss with participants many of the commonly encountered problems and situations encountered in this work.
“Color situations are an example,” Joe said. “High moisture content in the concrete can affect appearance. So can high atmospheric humidity. We’ll talk about how to deal with those and other problems.”
Though the seminar is free, participants still pay to attend, in terms of travel costs, and time away from work.
Deb and Jim Carson, Unique Concrete LLC, Sioux City, Iowa, drove 300 miles to attend.
“We do mostly overlays and countertops,” Deb said. “We want to expand into grinding and polishing.
“I’ve seen some horrible work in our area. I know with my attention to detail we can do better.
“Most of the polished concrete floors I’ve seen are just boring single colors. I want to bring some design and movement to our polished concrete floors; make them more artistic.”
Dana Rickerd, Ace Concrete by Design, Salem, Mo., does acid-staining. He’s here to learn the basics of polishing and water-based dyes.
Dana, Deb, Jim and other participants will get hands-on experience on a concrete floor. PROSOCO and Deco-Pour, Snohomish, Wash., put down a 12 by 20-foot overlay Wednesday for the seminar.
Deb Carson wrangles the half-ton PDG 8000 planetary diamond grinder during the "Installing polished concrete floors" seminar, Nov. 2.
“The overlay went atop of an old slab we’d poured back in 2008,” Joe said. “Actually, it went over another overlay we poured two weeks ago as practice for our upcoming World of Concrete demo.”
The overlays work just as well as a slab, but give you a fresh surface on top of a slab that’s badly damaged, Joe said. They’re also good for topping floors covered with mastic or old adhesive that you don’t want to go through the time and trouble to remove.
This is the fifth edition of “Installing polished concrete floors.” It’s previously been hosted by SASE at locations in Tennessee, Texas and Pennsylvania. Another seminar was hosted by PROSOCO distributor CPD in Ontario, Canada. About 400 concrete professionals have participated in the seminars, including today’s program here in Lawrence.
Though this is the final seminar for 2011, another round is planned for 2012, Joe said. The first of them is set for Feb. 16 in Kent, Wash. Check the “Latest News” column at www.consolideck.com for updates and information on how to register.
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Marcus Turek, SASE, one of the seminar instructors, displays the heads and drum of the PDG 8000. "Planetary" refers to the fact that all three heads revolve in one direction, while each individual head rotates in the opposite direction. The double motion minimizes the chances for gouges and "cornrows" during grinding and polishing.
