Concrete Restoration Technologies

08/10/2023

Getting the floor ready for the main event. ARDEX Americas

07/28/2023

When you want a blank pallete to keep focus on the chosen displays white is a clean inviting yet high quality look to draw the traffic in.

07/19/2023

EPOXY & THE POLYMERIZATION PROCESS

First, how does epoxy work?

Epoxy works by the epoxide reactive process, which involves the opening of the epoxide rings in the resin and their reaction with the hardener molecules. This creates a thermosetting polymer, which means it cannot be melted or reshaped once cured

What is Polymerization?

Polymerization is a chemical reaction in which small molecules, known as monomers, join together to form large, interconnected branch chains called polymers. In the case of epoxy flooring, the monomers involved are epoxy resins. These resins contain multiple epoxy groups that enable them to link together and create a robust network when triggered by a catalyst, typically a hardener.

The Crosslinking Process

During polymerization, the epoxy resin molecules undergo crosslinking, forming a three-dimensional network structure. Crosslinking occurs as the resin reacts with the hardener, which acts as a catalyst to initiate the chemical reaction.

As the epoxy resin and hardener combine, their molecular chains intertwine and form covalent bonds, resulting in a dense and interconnected network. This crosslinked structure grants epoxy flooring its strength, durability, and resistance to various environmental factors.

Importance of Polymerization in Epoxy Flooring

1. Strength and Durability:
The crosslinked network formed during polymerization enhances the mechanical strength and durability of epoxy flooring. This enables it to withstand heavy loads, resist impact, and endure harsh environments.

2. Chemical Resistance:
The tight-knit, cross-linked structure of resinous material allows it to have excellent resistance to chemicals, including acids, solvents, oils, and biohazards, and the spread of bacteria. This feature makes epoxy floors not only suitable, but preferred for a wide range of applications, including industrial, commercial, and medical facilities.

3. Adhesion:
Polymerization ensures that the product has strength and durability for the many environmental hurdles that it may go through. Strong adhesion between the epoxy flooring system (primer, build coat, topcoat) comes from polymerization. The chemical bonds formed during the crosslinking process create a solid bond that minimizes the risk of inter-coat delamination and aids in the long-term integrity of your resinous flooring system.

4. Versatility:
The polymerization process allows for customization and versatility in epoxy flooring. By adjusting the epoxy resin formulation, hardener selection, and curing conditions, we can tailor the final properties of the floor to meet specific requirements, such as rapid curing times, UV stability, and chemical resistance, to name a few.

Knowing the why your chosen medium works, where to use it, and where not to use it, is the first step in becoming a Professional Resinous Tradesmen.

07/12/2023

Before and after
We restored this set if old stairs off Montgomery in SW Hills of Portland, the change is drastic. We were able to breath a breathe of new life into them for many more years of easy to clean use.

07/03/2023

Restoring some stairs in NW Portland. Almost got it. Pre treated after grinding with Sinak SG, then Ardex Cp, CD-Fine

05/25/2023

A bit of Polycrete SLB going down at a new Hillsboro School in 15 or so bathrooms. Micro Flake, 4" self-cove.

05/23/2023

Thanks you to Pure Floors for the wonderful tournament, and happy 20th anniversary. It was so very nice to see a bunch of the guys and gals I grew up with hitting the links. McNulty's you're just as fun as you were when we were.... Thank you! Robert Cruz I beat you!

05/20/2023

Hotels are the worst but, hopefully no footprints till dry. Love these easy days.. Ardex CD with some CG. When anti-slip coating is needed make it simple and durable use the exact same product that is used on parking garages, Vegas sidewalks, stairs, repairs, and even driveway squares. 😉

03/17/2023

This 2.5k sqft remodel and addition at the Oregon Coast is in one of the very nicest stretches of the coastline between Cannon Beach and Astoria, where ‘Goonies’ was filmed. This house is just a quick walk to Subset beach, where you have an endless 25 miles of beach to drive on (during low tide of course). With a lake as your immediate backyard and the golf course behind that, it truly is a beautifully designed and well built home.
Travis Weedman and associates designed an open, very FLW style layout and lines. We were very happy to be a part of the process, with Hamish construction as the glue that brought all this custom work together. it will be awesome to have our work on this house grace the pages of a few magazines. It was a challenging floor, to say the least - as we started with a wood framed substrate. They then installed hydronic heat and gypcrete to lock it in. It was my turn next.
They wanted a museum style concrete floor that had the look of polished but not as shiny. We nailed it, using, Ardex products. First up was ep2000 with a broadcast of sand to consolidate the gyp. But, also, to strengthen and provide a layer of rigid aggregateto bond K22f. Which is, a gyp/portland hybrid with fiberglass, to act as a bridge from weak gyp to the pull of the finish topping of K520. We added E25 additive for extra flexural strength, for the expansion/contraction of this breathing house. After all that, we ground, then honed it up to 50g and sealed once with Sinak Matte 20, to lock in and seal off the light color. Then, we sprayed down a coat of Coval Matte to make it all blend in and give it added protection. Enjoy the pictures…

02/09/2023

The customer of this basement in Lake Oswego was wanting a new easy to clean look for her basement. There was carpet previously down that revealed a once in the past polished slab that was green. Not the color they wanted so off it came and down with a new color. Nice results from the crew 400g polish.

02/09/2023

Here is K520 honed to 100g and then sealed with matte 20 from Sinak. The customer wanted a darker grey color so we sprayed Ameripolish colorsolve grey down then to dull it down and seal it off even more we hit it with Coval matte which really gave it a nice finish. This project started about a year ago with options and samples, then it was figuring out how to get the floor they wanted over an existing wood substrate. It has hydronic tubes that heat the floor so keeping it cost effective at the same time as durable (being at the beach) we landed on a system I've used a few times with great outcomes.

01/02/2023

It's time to buckle down and get some accreditations renewed and add some skills to the inspection side. Always need to keep exploring new services to offer. 3D scanning, CSP and levelness mapping. Imagine a crew being able to have a 3D map of the jobsite before starting, being able to zoom in on problem areas at the shop and prepare accordingly. Having zero waste in estimating and product ordering, and being able to sell your renderings to the GC or other subs once it's collected. That is the future.

12/10/2022

We finally were let out of jail, just visiting to help renew the walls in the dorm showers. It's been over 2 years since we did the floors in both the shower and bathrooms, and now we become one with the painter in us. This is a fiberglass epoxy and polyaspartic vertical system made specifically for those spaces that need to stay together even when being picked at and tested day in and day out for weakness. Dur-A-Flex, Inc.

12/09/2022

Must be a super flat slab with very good waterproofing. Good luck

10/21/2022

A TRU PC job we just completed at the Lululemon in the Washington Square Mall. There was massive amounts of prep that took place to get the floor where it is today. We tore out 2+ inches of fill material that was too weak to attach the overlay to. The back of house is next, it too has the weak fill material and is supposed to get a grind and seal. We are up to 600 bags so far, I'm guessing 1k bags when it's all said and done.
Thanks Mark, and Tim, and team XRQ, yall know just the type of job I like.

10/16/2022

Keeping up with the flow

09/18/2022

Had a fellow member ask if we could get a floor ready for his thin mil UC. We thank you for the work Brandon, and hope the application goes smooth. C.R.T is always open to team up and collaborate on any project. We won't try to steal your client, or job, we are happy to help on any aspect of the process, be it grinding/shotblasting, leveling, mitigation, consulting, problem solving or equipment rental. Call or message us, we're here to keep your job moving forward.

09/03/2022

From the day we show up to the day we finish, you can count in CRT to use the best practices for any medium we use on your surface. We will also use equipment that will make our stay with you short, and efficient- while always leaving your job cleaner than when we arrived. Please give us a call for your project. We will satisfy our scope of work with you. And, if a problem were to arise at the end of our scope of work, we will work to mitigate it at no additional cost to you, if it was stated in our contract. ( sometimes we do it even if it wasn't). We like happy customers, and repeat business. So, again, let us help you make up time and stay ahead of schedule. This is 20k sqft of leveler at a 1/2" average to flatten and smooth the floor to leave it at an 1/8" in 10'. This makes every trade that comes after, jobs easier, therefore faster, and overall cheaper. Start to finish 4 days, 1200 bags 4-6 guys.

08/28/2022

This is how we pour Ardex V1200 self leveling cements.
We are on the 9th floor of the Veterans Affairs Hospital up by OHSU, 12k sqft at 1/2" average. We will be moving down to the 2nd floor for some more leveling after we finish up on Monday. Have a great week.

08/19/2022

A little floating dock repair at Columbia River yacht club. This is a interesting job, they are floating concrete docks with an inner core of Styrofoam and 1.5" of conc encapsulating it. They salted the docks back when, they had someone come in and refresh them a couple years ago which sealed in any trapped moiture from salt migration and the result is as shown, it ate the concrete till it was a powder, signs of efflorescence in layers throughout. We took off the bad then treated the remaining conc to stop the cancer from spreading and used Ardex Artifix with sand to help consolidate,CP to rebuild and CD, to finish it off, then sealed with sinak SG to prevent any further attacks from the environment.

08/12/2022

ARDEX K22F at 3/8" to make this gypcrete ready for a polishable overlay.

08/10/2022

Check out this and other case studies at ardexamericas.com. We are happy to be a part of the case study club and it couldn’t be a better product to showcase- 25 years in the making.

07/17/2022

07/17/2022

This is a photo dump of this last month's jobs. I really need to keep up with the business page. We ha e some kennels for a vet hospital in tigard. Then a boiler room with elastomeric epoxy at PSU, followed by a couple restrooms at USPS downtown with seamless cove, a garage for a good contractor we work with, some SDM micro topping in southpark seafood downtown, a grind and seal for a new speakeasy on 23rd, then a moisture mitigation job with 1/2" cap to level out the place, and urethane cement at the Justice Center 10th for kitchen. Just a few of the highlights that represent some of the diversity of applications we specialize in.
If there is a project you're needing specialized coatings, fixes, or just consulting for the best practices and material we can help. Where others say it can't be done, chances are we've done it, fixed it, and specified it. With over one hundred years of combined experience working in the field we've seen alot, we're just a phone call or email away.

04/16/2022

This is the final finish of the deep V1200 pour that went from 0-5" deep where the rock is. We came back in after a few days of drying and ground it all smooth and topped it with 3 tight coats of Ardex SDM then sealed with Concrete guard for a fantastic hidden mancave bunker floor.

04/07/2022

Pour day off Edgecliff Just outside Lake Oswego. Pumping some V1200 to level out a basement.

03/27/2022

Our latest adventure. Knife River training facility in Albany, Oregon. This is where they train all the guys on concrete trucks, pump trucks, grading, mix design and so on. They had a very badly cracked slab throughout and needed a quick fix since rip out and replace wasn't an option with it being a newly finished building. After being referred to them from my distributor Jeff Brookman at Mason Supply here in Portland I had an onsite walk and came up with a solution for them. Ardex K523 with a grind and seal to give it that seamless terrazzo look while treating all the cracks and joints so they would have an easy to clean visually pleasing floor.

03/16/2022

Laying down some Duraflex Polycrete SLB, 3/16" overall thick Urethane cement floor made for the abuse I'm sure it will get at Professional Auto Transports new Portland maintenance shop. Busy week, we will finish this 6500 feet up on Thursday and head down to Albany to install 7k sqft of Ardex K523 and polish it up at Knife Rivers new training facility. It should be an eye catcher pics will follow.

03/09/2022

A quick Duraflex SLB 2 day system turnaround- left pic is ground and joints filled with epoxy. Second pic- SL put down with V-notch squeegee and spiked roller with quartz broadcast. Topcoat applied second day…

02/14/2022

A recent grind and seal that was done to freshen up this space that we originally did 3 or 4 years ago. During the original build out they went with a quick and cheap waterbased acrylic, it did its job and protected the floor but the owner wanted it to be shiny and smooth. We went in over a weekend since it's an occupied space that rents film equipment to TV shows and movies shot here in Portland to do a quick grind to remove the old and put down the new waterbased epoxy with a urethane topcoat. Client is thrilled, as are we to keep a good relationship happy. Thanks Koerner Camera.

07/25/2021

A recent application of Ardex V1200 we are doing at the New Urban High school. Wavy floors need to be flattened out for the intricate marmoleum tile design. Thank you to Zavala group and Rubenstiens for keeping us busy busy.

07/09/2021

I know I usually do a fast paced pour video, here is real time. We placed 30 bags of V1200 at a 1/4" over 700 sqft.

06/18/2021

It's been awhile since I've posted our work and I'll be trying to catch up and showcase some of our recent projects. This was a Urethane Cement install using Polycrete SL from Duraflex for Oregon State Universities new Facilities headquarters in Corvalis. It's going to be a nice L**e shop.

02/05/2021

Urethane cement install

01/30/2021

A quick time lapsed view of V1200 being poured over an ARDEX MC/sand broadcast moisture system at a nursing school. Short and sweet...

01/27/2021

A recent personal install. Custom Metallic epoxy.
We have unlimited color options and designs for residential, commercial, and industrial settings. Get a 30 year floor, do it once, and feel good you have a second generation company standing behind every job we do. Or take your chances with a lifetime warranty from a new company. The choice and outcome is in your hands. We hope to see you soon. Call Chris Nath President, applicator, and I'll answer all your questions with years of experience.

11/07/2020

MMA application

09/18/2020

Pouring 3k sqft of ardex V1200

07/13/2020

Ardex MC Rapid applied to Whiteaker Middle School in Kiezer Oregon was the choice for a quick 4 day turnaround due to a moisture issue with the previous wood gym floor, after removal of the existing wood floor we found tar paper that had adhered to the concrete slab. It took a little extra effort but we removed all the paper and then scarified and shotblasted the remaining tar from the slab to achieve a clean profiled surface for the moisture mitigation epoxy to adhere to. It is now ready for the new wood floor to have many years of use without a thought of moisture issues.

06/17/2020

Ardex k523 application polishing to proceed tomorrow.