March 12, 2010

CONTEMPORARY CONCRETE SOLUTIONS

Polishing concrete takes skill and the right equipment, but the results can be varied and beautiful.

FEATURE | Concrete/Masonry

Graduate took a shine to polishing concrete

PETER KENTER

correspondent

For Lucas Rolland of Grimsby, Ont.-based Contemporary Concrete Solutions, each concrete polishing job is a business card for the company’s next project.

After earning a degree in sociology from Brock University, Rolland realized he’d enjoyed the summer construction jobs he’d been taking on more than he imagined.

“I was pouring concrete,” says Rolland. “I enjoyed working on foundations, retaining walls and concrete forms.”

But while Rolland has good things to say about the skills of the people for whom he worked, he wanted to avoid the pitfalls of some smaller contracting firms.

“It wasn’t a lack of work, but problems with running a business,” he says. “I wanted to work for myself in a concrete specialty that had few competitors.”

Rolland chose concrete polishing after reading an article in a trade magazine. While some contractors offered concrete polishing for large areas, they were bypassing smaller commercial and residential contracts of 5,000 square feet or less.

“They were mostly doing industrial buildings,” says Rolland. “Because their equipment required three-phase power, they would need to rent a generator in order to power their units, and that made the bids uncompetitive.”

To exploit the niche in the southern Ontario market, Rolland embarked on a series of courses in concrete grinding and polishing offered in Knoxville, Tenn. and launched his own company in 2007.

Polished concrete is the result of mechanical grinding and polishing using industrial diamonds. To achieve a smooth surface, some of the “cream” of the original concrete surface is ground away and those dust particles combine with a chemical grouting system to seal the floor.

Among his early contracts was a car dealership, Rockstar Motorsports in Cambridge, Ont.

“We found that the concrete used on the floor of the building involved two different grades, one in the centre and another around the edges where the building had been expanded,” he says. To unite the two surfaces, he devised a flame design in coloured concrete around the floor’s perimeter.

“You won’t get rich on every job, but if you do good work, people will see it,” says Rolland. Potential clients often show him photographs of his own projects, asking him if he can perform work of that calibre.

After cutting his teeth on smaller jobs, Rolland invested in three-phase equipment and bid on larger contracts, while maintaining his niche in retail and residential surfaces. One of his first major contracts was McMaster Innovation Park in Hamilton, Ont., a renovation job of 100,000 square feet located in an old Westinghouse facility.

“I’d been cold-calling architects and was invited to do a sample section at the facility,” he says. “They liked what they saw and I got the contract. The concrete was impregnated with steel shake, broadcast over the entire floor surface. While the initial effect of grinding looked awesome, I pointed out the exposed iron would rust in a few days, so we brought it up to an 80-grit clear-coated surface that preserved the look of the metal.”

The same architect hooked him up with the floor of the Royal Botanical Gardens expansion in Burlington, Ont. That was followed by a contract for the production offices of Copps Coliseum in Hamilton.

More recent projects include a 9,000-square-foot Pharmasave store in Hamilton, where the client wanted LEED points by using local materials and foregoing floor coverings.

The company will pour some floors itself, or work with contractors on such special effects as installing fibre-optic strands into concrete. “Ideally, we can get in early in the game with mix design to try to achieve the look the client is after,” he says.

Today, the company employs five workers. Its next major job is a LEED-targeted City Hall renovation for the Town of Grimsby.

The sociology degree? Rolland says it holds him in good stead. “I work with architects, contractors, designers and clients each day,” he says. “At the heart of it, the job is about human relations and helping people achieve their dreams and visions.”

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