Projects Category: Education

Customer: UMASS Library Building, Amherst MA

 

Customer info and needs: 

This project takes place in the Du Bois, Library building. The building is not only a library but houses priceless,  special historical collections and archives. These collections take up the entire 25^th floor. The problem is that the entire 26^th floor houses the buildings air conditioning units as well as other water piping. The concrete floor had never been sealed and had numerous housekeeping pads on it.  Over a weekend a pipe burst and water soaked through the cracks in the floor and leaked into the archive rooms. Thankfully nothing was damaged but it was too close. We were working on campus for the physical plant on a different project. They asked us to engineer a solution and install it right away. The area was approx. 14,000 sf.

 

Our recommendation: 

We specified a fiberglass reinforced, waterproofing membrane. We also specified that a 4-inch cove base be troweled around all walls and pads. All floor cracks and joint would have to be prepped and sealed.

 

Our scope of work:

• Shot-blast entire concrete floor.
• Cut all joints and cracks, fill with a flexible membrane.
• Trowel apply a 4-inch epoxy cove base.
• Apply an epoxy water proofing membrane to entire floor and up the cove bases.
• Imbed a woven fiberglass mat into the membrane.
• Apply a saturating epoxy waterproofing membrane.
• Apply a flexible, chemical and slip resistant urethane topcoat.

 

The system came out great and the customer was very happy.

This project went from specification to a finished floor in two weeks. We have completed dozens of project for the university over the course of 20 years.

The installation team that installed this floor was from our Southwick MA Location.

 

Customer:  Bristol Elementary School, Bristol VT

 

Customers info and needs:

Bristol Elementary is located in Addison County VT. The schools hallways were covered with VCT. The tile was at the end of its life and the costs to maintain it were becoming too much. They decided it was time to upgrade to a polished concrete floor. To save money, the school dept. removed all the tiles on their own. They just needed us to remove the adhesive and polish the floor. The total sf of the hallways was 11,000.

 

Our recommendation:  

The school had already decided to upgrade to upgrade to a polishing floor. They had also already decided on us as a contractor after seeing our work in a local market. Our estimator inspected the concrete once the tile was removed a recommended that the joints be restored and the holes be filled.

 

Our scope of work: 

 

• Grind entire concrete floor with 30/40 grit diamonds.
• Saw cut and fill all joints with a pigmented polyurea.
• Patch all holes and voids with an epoxy repair matrix.
• Polish the entire concrete slab using 60/80 and 120/150 diamonds.
• Apply a concrete densifier.
• Polish the entire concrete floor using 100,200,400 and 800 grit poly diamonds.
• Apply a polishable concrete stain guard.
• Burnish floor with a propane powered burnisher.

 

This floor came out amazing. The customer was thrilled. This project was completed using a crew from our Southwick MA office.