The MJA Company of Buffalo, N.Y., rented the 480-volt, three-phase electric Spider CP 9200 from DecoPrep, a former supply company in Austin, Texas. MJA’s Richard Htun pilots the machine.
The MJA Company The MJA Company of Buffalo, N.Y., rented the 480-volt, three-phase electric Spider CP 9200 from DecoPrep, a former supply company in Austin, Texas. MJA’s Richard Htun pilots the machine.

The MJA Company isn’t sure how Thermo Fisher is using an old Kodak warehouse in Rochester, N.Y. Like most biotechnology developers, the company played it close to the vest during consultation. Representatives didn’t say much beyond what they wanted the concrete floor to look like, and MJA respects that. It’s one reason the 30-year-old contracting company has restored 39 miles of concrete over the last six years.

Thermo Fisher told MJA the floor must be smooth enough not to break fragile items being moved around on a forklift. The surface was in bad shape; in addition to the usual crack and joint repairs, metal track imbedded in the slab had to be cut out, filled, and smoothed to minimize jarring bumps. MJA recommended an industrial finish, its term for a surface that’s not too shiny and fully refined but may still have small imperfections. To show the client exactly what that looks like, the contractor did three mockups: one a medium-grit industrial finish; one a fully repaired and grouted, high-shine retail finish; and honed concrete with a penetrating hardener, a low-shine surface Thermo Fisher decided didn’t reflect enough light and might require too much maintenance to remove forklift tire marks.

At 235,000 square feet, the project is among MJA’s largest. When the general contractor gave the polishing contractor 10 weeks to finish, MJA rented a massive ride-on grinder/polisher to supplement its SASE Co. walk-behind grinders. The 5-ton machine wasn’t cheap at $5,000 to $7,000 a week but, capable of polishing up to 10,000 square feet per day, got the job done.

Choreographing Completion

The loading dock at the 235,000-square-foot facility with a recently completed section in the foreground. MJA divided the floor into 20,000-to-25,000-square-foot sections and got off the finished floor as soon as possible so the general contractor could store materials.
The MJA Company The loading dock at the 235,000-square-foot facility with a recently completed section in the foreground. MJA divided the floor into 20,000-to-25,000-square-foot sections and got off the finished floor as soon as possible so the general contractor could store materials.

“We’d never rented a machine like that before,” says Vice President Tim Kudla. “We didn't even know ones like that existed.” He found the Spider CP 9200 at DecoPrep in Austin, Texas, as recommended by polishing consultant David Stephenson. Former DecoPrep owner Chris Bishop sourced and delivered the machine and taught MJA employees how to operate it. “I'd estimate it was an hour of instruction followed by a full day of getting used to the controls,” says Kudla, who describes the machine as finicky. “With the machine's vacuums and hydraulic pumps and the mechanical grinding, it’s also fairly noisy.”

To meet its deadline, MJA had to do 4,500 square feet to 5,000 square feet a day. “That kind of production has to be ramped up,” Kudla says. “You can't just start and immediately produce that much on the first day.” Teams of technicians worked 10-hour shifts at staggered start times, each performing a different step:

1. Joints and cracks designated by the client as well as larger holes, defects, and protruding bolts were repaired using Metzger McGuire ColorFast products. 2. Line stripe removal with an SASE PDG 8000 planetary grinder. “Layers were built up higher than I'd ever seen and were the Achilles’ heel of our schedule,” Kudla says. “The Spider couldn’t remove them all at once, so we ran a machine with scrapers to remove as much as possible first.
3. Grinding. The Spider was used for the metal bond diamond stages. “One way to maximize daily production is to increase area size and minimize tooling changes. The Spider is the equivalent of three large machines, so it was time-consuming.”
4. Honing and polishing. Two or three SASE 780s or PDG 8000s were used with an application of Prosoco Inc.’s Consolideck LS/CS as a penetrating hardener.

Another Satisfied Customer

Once they were up and running, says Kudla, “we averaged eight to 10 crew members per day.” Crews worked in 20,000-to-25,000-square-foot sections, getting off the floor as soon as possible so the general contractor could get back on.

MJA finished the project within the 10-week deadline. The contractor terms the final product an industrial finish: not too shiny, not too dull, with some small surface imperfections remaining.
The MJA Company MJA finished the project within the 10-week deadline. The contractor terms the final product an industrial finish: not too shiny, not too dull, with some small surface imperfections remaining.

The Spider was a significant investment, but it won MJA more work at the jobsite. The customer added 5,000 square feet of polishing and removal of 3,000 square feet of a 3/16-inch epoxy system that was no longer needed.