Preparing for the cold weather
As winter will soon begin, we’d like to share a few tips to help you be successful during the cold months.
Looking for work to keep your crews busy during the winter months? Here are two areas to consider.
Bring your crews indoors and make weather a non-factor when performing warehouse floor repairs.
Shutting down a busy warehouse or production line is not an option for most industries. When repairs are required, they must be carried out without the need for costly shutdowns. For this reason, Prime Resins developed a line of durable chemical grouts and epoxies that cure in minutes. These products allow repair crews to quickly stabilize and repair broken and spalled joints with minimal disruption to the facility.
Floor Repair
Spalled concrete is concrete that is chipped, cracked, and deteriorating. This often happens at a joint. The best way to provide concrete crack repair is with an epoxy or polyurethane mortar. The fastest way to repair a spall is to use Floor Fix polymer resin and a mortar made with resin and oven dried sand. This material is traffic ready in 10 minutes.
Joint Protection
If the slabs are not moving, the solution to prevent further damage is our Joint Shield line of epoxy and polyurea joint fillers. The materials will support the sidewalls of the joints and bridge the gap that currently allows the traffic to beat up the joint edge.
It is important not to confuse these materials with typical joints sealers that are only on the surface. These are full depth materials that are strong and flexible enough to withstand continuous traffic, but not so rigid as to weld the joint together. Joint Shield 5500 polyurea provides a fast turnaround (traffic ready in one hour) and the ability to shave the joint flush.
If your crews are already performing crack injection, send them inside during cold weather by offering residential basement waterproofing services.
Basement waterproofing uses similar techniques and equipment to repairing tanks, culverts, tunnels, etc. This means any investment in training and equipment would be minimal in order to begin work. If you are located near a metropolitan area, elevator pits in high rises are also a great option.
The Revolution Pump itself cannot be winterized or otherwise stored long-term because of the reactive nature of the A-side material. We do, however, offer a flushing procedure for your heated hoses that allows you to remove and store them. This may save you from replacing a heated hose due to incomplete recirculation during downtime.
We strongly recommend leaving at least one gallon of material in the tanks of your Revolution at all times. The Revolution pump is a sealed system that, with good (i.e. blue) desiccant tank dryers, will not allow moisture to contaminate the A material. Bi-weekly recirculation of the material in the tanks ensures you do not have material crystallizing in the system.
Supplies and steps needed to prepare your hoses for storage using your Titan flush pump can be found here.
Cooler temperatures do not necessarily mean you have to discontinue use of the Revolution pump or Precision Lift foams. As long as the ground is not frozen, you can still work.
If possible, keep the machine in a heated space overnight, or drape an electric blanket over tanks and extra pails of grout to keep these warm during the overnight hours. An extra tarp or blanket over the electric blanket will help hold the heat down towards the tanks. Another method would be to build a small blind or box using sheets of foam board with a blanket or heater inside to hold the heat. If hauling to a jobsite in an open trailer or truck, cover with a blanket and tarp to keep wind chill off of the unit.
Once on the jobsite, consider placing materials not in use in the cab of the truck, with the heat turned on if needed.
Plan ahead for longer delivery times. Inclement weather may cause products to take longer to arrive. Also, with Christmas falling on a Wednesday this year, delayed shipment the week of December 23rd is something to keep in mind. Prime Resins will be closed Tuesday, December 24th and Wednesday, December 25th in celebration of Christmas. We will resume normal business hours on Thursday, December 26th.
We would like to wish everyone a wonderful holiday season.
