Project Description
Location: Helensavle
Project Size: 60sqm
Ash Grey full flake epoxy floor installed w/ Urethane top coat.
Flake Epoxy Garage Helensvale
Lessons Learnt A New Year Awaits
What a year we had last year!
I made a conscience design to effectively grow the business last year, handing my website and marketing over to a 3rd party company and reaping the rewards of what I sowed.
On paper, everything was fantastic.
In reality, it was only a lesson learnt to pull the reigns in again.
You see, I have focused my business throughout on quality over quantity, always taking the stand point of making sure the workmanship and quality of materials is first class, then worrying about the exact profits later.
However, I fell into the all too common contractor trap of just taking on as much as work as I can, putting in 60+ hours on the tools each week to keep up, then wonder why not only the quality started to drop away, but also the back end of the business effectively failed completely.
Now don’t get me wrong, my quality of work towards the end of the year was still quite acceptable, but mistakes were creeping in that not only cost money in repairs, but also kept me up at night kicking myself and just begging for the year to end (end of the current workload), so I could step back, re-evaluate everything and get back on a more solid path.
I took 3 weeks off at the end of the year. For the first time in what seems like a decade, I actually switched my phones and computers off and simply just took time for me and my family without any concern for what work had to offer.
This was the absolute best thing that I could have done, not only for my business, but also for my mental health and well being.
You see, I’m not a live to work kind of person. I’ve had my business since my early 20’s and have always strived to be better in life, but I have always been well aware that I am only on this earth once and if I lose myself in work too much, I’ll miss the journey along the way.
Last year for me was a great milestone to reach. I finally discovered exactly what I could earn and achieve, as well as having the negative aspects blatantly slap me in the face to bring me back to reality.
So the year to come and hopefully the remainder of my working career….
Balance.
I’m going back to basics. I will maintain the good marketing that I have put in place and continually strive to better my business, but I have also decided to set very specific working hours and anything outside of those hours, see’s my phones and computer turned off, my tools packed away and me spending time with loved ones and activities outside of the work place in general.
This will also see me going back to basics of one job at a time, done properly. Something I’ve always been a fan of.
I start a job, I finish that job 100% to satisfaction, then move onto the next project.
This is going to see some clients having to wait a fair amount of time for my services, but not only will it put my mental well being back on track again, it will also see my much more refreshed and able to provide my clients with the quality of workmanship and customer service that has seen my business thriving and receiving 5 star reviews in for the past 15 odd years.
I’m really looking forward to what this year has to come and I feel refreshed and enthused to grab the bull by the horns and get back to the basics that have seen my business successful throughout.
If you’re after a quote or a new client, I look forward to seeing your work. If you’re a client who has had work completed by me previously, thank you for your business and I hope you all had a great end of year break.
Cheers to a new year ahead.
Concrete Surrounds & Resurfacing Oxenford
Project Description
Location: Oxenford
Project Size: 160sqm
New concrete pathway up side of house in plain grey, rear concrete shed base installed, then full resurfacing of rear entertaining area and front driveway.
Full Grind Back
Base: Modified White to remove old deep stencil design
Main: Coal
Borders / Diamonds: Oatmeal
Flecking: Oatmeal
Concrete & Resurfacing Labrador
Project Description
Location: Labrador
Project Size: 150sqm
Plain concrete extension of the existing driveway along with the rear patio section, then full concrete resurfacing both front and back to match the recently renovated black / white style of our clients home.
Blanket colour of Graphite with a Natural Fleck throughout.
Concrete & Resurface Package Jacobs Well
Project Description
Location: Jacobs Well
Project Size: 140sqm
New home build at Jacobs well. Concrete poured for tile base around pool area, side path and front driveway was poured and then resurfaced with a solid, flecked colour with borders and border inserts at joints. One of my favourite simple designs that breaks the space up really nicely.
Base Colour: White
Main Colour: Natural
Border / Inserts: Blue Mountain
Flecking: White / Blue Mountain 8mm
Always a big thank you to our clients for your business, all the best with your lovely new home.
Patio Refurbishment Mudgereeba
Project Description
Location: Mudgereeba
Project Size: 54sqm
Relatively small little resurfacing project down here at Mudgereeba. Our lovely clients here just had their patio extended and some new concrete installed leading to the clothes line. We then attended and completed a full resurface with the following design.
Base Colour: White
Main Colour: Fossil
Flecking: White / Truffle
700mm Tile Pattern
Thank you again to our clients and all the best for Xmas and the New Year.
Structure Base Carrara Markets
Project Description
Location: Carrara Markets
Project Size: 160sqm
Back to the Markets we shall go! We haven’t been back here for a while now, the Markets have been working on other areas on refurbishment in the mean time, but we returned last week with a lovely little slab for a new attraction they have in plans.
I’m not going to leak exactly what it is, but it’s something the kids will love and to be fair, something I don’t think I’ve seen anywhere else in Qld.
As always with the Markets, we are working with existing surfaces and structures trying to make everything blend and work in with each other. Dave did a wonderful job this time guiding the machines to get the site level while we were away on another site, leaving us an easy (for a change), installation.
Working on roughly 125mm of concrete throughout, with a level slab, typical steel reinforcing and a very light brush finish to allow for no slipping if it gets wet.
The enclosure however will be completely built in from now on, getting everything ready for the new attraction.
I’m not sure exactly when the open date will be, but keep an eye on if you’re in the area, it’s certainly something I’ll be taking my daughter to.
Thanks for you on going work and support Carrara Markets, was a pleasure as always.
New Driveway Entrance Maudsland
Project Description
Location: Maudsland
Project Size: 105sqm
Our client for this project approached us needing a new entrance installed at her lovely Maudsland Acreage property.
The previous entrance, was a little too far up on the hill and when someone was wishing to turn in, the road in front could not be seen in full, which unfortunately, was the result of an accident in which somebody lost their life.
After showing some great patience waiting for us to get through Saturday Gold Coast traffic in pouring rain, we went through options for installation and a plan was made to allow much better and clearer access to the property.
When we return, our machines excavated a brand new driveway area with an 8m front curved access, running flat and guiding in back to a 5m gate entrance, then proceeding down the hill over a new drain installation to allow for natural water flow, then of course meeting up with the old driveway.
After all the prep work was completed and the drain installed with plenty of crusher dust surrounds, the 120mm thick driveway was poured with a pump, in which we finished with a stiff broom allowing for surface traction whilst highlighting the edges and control joints.
We hand sculpted entrance and exit points to the drain, had a few beers and laughs and called it a day.
Thanks very much to our client, a few carton of eggs and a cast of beer at the end of the job with a smile the entire time. It really is lovely working for country minded people, I’m from the bush and it makes me smile getting away from the city attitude.
Tint Seal Refresh Helensvale
Project Description
Location: Helensvale
Project Size: 220sqm
Last week I dubbed the “Week from hell”. Well this week was only slightly less than that, but with the added twist of having to fix mistakes that were made during last week’s murder week.
To start the week off, I began by brush / acid cleaning this 220sqm existing stamped concrete project out at Helensvale. The stamp pattern on this concrete was lovely, with most of it still in good condition, expect for the pool surrounds and pathway leading to the house, which had weathered and required a little more attention.
After our cleaning to remove mould and open up the concrete pores if you will, I applied two liberal coats of HiBuild sealer throughout with a “Fossil” tint through the mix.
The pool and front pathway then required a third coating to make sure the colour held true and we were all finished up with this project.
A simply rejuvenation process for existing stamped concrete, but still a very effective result leaving an even colour throughout and bringing back the house surrounds to life after 20 years of weathering.
Full Flake Epoxy Garage Pimpama
Project Description
Location: Pimpama
Project Size: 42sqm
“Stage 3”: The….Week…..From….Hell.
The third section of this nightmare freaking week, funnily enough coinciding with Halloween…go figure, is our full flake epoxy floor in “SnowFlake” we installed for our client out at Pimpama.
This one actually had me a little disgusted with my industry. Now don’t get me wrong, none of us are perfect, we all make mistakes and not all of our work is 100% perfect, 100% of the time….but this garage floor substrate was fucking horrific. (Sorry younger readers, but you’re reading the blog of a concreter…deal with it).
Now this is a great lesson for everyone to learn…who doesn’t know it already.
Builders provide bottom dollar quality tradies to complete work for their clients. You may quote me on that shit.
Take for example, the going rate, (roughly), for exposed aggregate concrete, is around $95/sqm starting rate for a direct contractor like myself. A customer can expect to pay a builder in the vicinity of $140/sqm for their exposed aggregate. Most builders, due to negotiations, will pay their sub-contractors in the vicinity of an $80/sqm starting rate.
Needless to say, builders don’t get contractors like myself working for them, because they pay peanuts and I’m not a frigging monkey.
The same goes for your house slab. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying sub-contractors installing works for builders are bad concreters / contractors, I’m just saying you get what you pay for, and those sub-contractors are not going to provide top quality workmanship and materials for basement value prices.
This sometimes can’t be avoided by the clients…mostly, as something like the house slab is considered a normal inclusion in a house contract, but at least our client in this situation had the common sense to boot the builder to the curb and find someone who actually gives a shit.
I quoted this garage site unseen and when I rocked up to start the epoxy, there were literally cracks EVERYWHERE. Now, I’m 20 years in the mud, my off sider is pushing 40 odd years, both of our first reactions…..boys on the piss pouring in the rain. The splintered plastic cracking throughout, with low spots all over (literally swimming pools), a surface that came off with a finger nail wipe and a fall that headed straight from the garage entrance to the hallway door (backwards) just so, you know, clients can wash their hallway while cleaning out the bloody garage.
Ok, ok. I’ll end my little rant here. But please for the love of Bhudda, learn from this client here and contact a contractor directly, you’ll get a much better job completed.
So back to the story.
After grinding out cracks for what seemed like a good hour, these cracks were in filled with epoxy and sand and let sit over night. I returned in the morning again to apply more epoxy to the cracking before coming back later in the day and applying our epoxy flooring.
Of course the floor was primed in the process as well and left sit for a full day before applying our main coatings.
We wanted to match our new epoxy floor in with the Salt and Pepper exposed driveway we were installing, so I decided to go with a Light Grey epoxy tint and apply a 100% “Snow Flake” over the top.
After our application was complete, I returned the next day to chip away the excess flaking, vacuum up all the loose flakes and finally apply a full coating of Urethane Sealer over the top for a full gloss, lovely epoxy flake floor…..man I love working with this stuff.
Thanks again as said before to our lovely client. See you soon for the pool surrounds. You guys have been great to work with.
