Sikafloor helps stamp out a badly damaged floor
Restoring a damaged concrete floor is always a challenge, one requiring the proper preparation equipment, years of professional experience and the right supplies. But when a new, unexpected variable is thrown into the equation, the job can become especially demanding. Such was the case in a recent floor restoration at ODM Tool & Manufacturing Co., Inc.
Located outside Chicago in McCook, Illinois, ODM Tool & Manufacturing Co., Inc. has grown from a neighborhood tool and die shop to a global leader in precision metal stamping, primarily as a supplier to the auto industry. By offering a range of value-added services along with state-of-the-art stamping capabilities backed by an unwavering dedication to quality, ODM has thrived in a highly competitive market. Its embrace of the “lean manufacturing” concept, with emphasis on eliminating waste to enhance responsiveness to customer demand, has helped the company fend off aggressive rivals while increasing customer satisfaction.
Plant Manager Mike Bowler concluded that a badly damaged concrete floor in the company’s 100,000-square-foot manufacturing facility tarnished ODM’s stellar reputation. The facility serves as home to the company’s stamping, welding and assembly operations, and as a storage area for its WIP and raw materials. The building also contains a quality lab and tool room.
Time had taken its toll
“Years of heavy manufacturing had taken its toll on our floor,” explained Bowler. “It was layered in oils, grime and other residues. Even more troublesome, thousands of small metal slugs from our stamping operations were buried in the oil and dirt.”
Bowler commissioned Sika Industrial Flooring preferred contractor I.C.E. to tackle the flooring job. With decades of experience repairing and restoring damaged concrete floors, I.C.E. has developed methodologies that focus on the ideal solution for the problem at hand. Moreover, it provided expertise in scheduling the job into several phases to minimize costly disruption to ODM’s manufacturing schedule.
“After the first site visit, my initial thought was that the floor was in really bad shape, probably the worst I’d ever seen,” said Rob Sypniewski, owner of I.C.E. “My second thought was that this was an extremely busy production center that could not afford to be interrupted by our restoration operations. We ended up scheduling different phases of the job during holidays, beginning on Christmas 2004 and finishing Labor Day 2006. The coating phase was over 20,000 sq ft. Each other phase was 8,000-13,000 sq ft.”
Dealing with a grimey mess
The job’s added “variable” was the oil and metal slugs. They made it impossible to use a shotblaster to give the concrete the needed profile to bond to a primer. As every installer knows, the trick behind a closed circuit shotblaster’s effectiveness is that its pellets are pulled back into the machine after striking the concrete surface. 
Because of the floor’s oily residues and the metal slugs, the pellets from I.C.E.’s shotblasters stuck like glue.
This called for Plan B, said Sika Industrial Flooring Technical Represenative Jeff Fleming: “Scarifying the floor with wire brush heads was the only answer. This mechanical abrasion method removed the oil, grime and original coating leaving behind a non-slip surface ready for primer. About 1/32nd of an inch of concrete was removed.”
Total transformation
Once the scarifying was complete, Sikafloor Epo-Rok® epoxy-based mortar flooring was laid down. Suited for heavy traffic and industrial environments, Epo-Rok was the ideal solution for ODM’s severely eroded concrete floor, providing excellent chemical, abrasion and impact resistance with a compressive strength up to three times greater than concrete.
Adds Fleming: “ODM settled on oxford gray as the color for two reasons. One, they wanted to brighten their plant. And two, although its lighter, the oxford gray hides oil and dirt amazingly well.”
Fleming also convinced ODM to extend the resurfacing to its loading dock. Upon visiting the facility, he saw that dirt from the unfinished dock was being tracked inside on lift truck wheels and on worker’s shoes. Epo-Rok was used on the dock with excellent results.
The installation of a 1500-ton punch press that required raising the roof of ODM’s building and lowering a section of the concrete floor by more than 20 feet further complicated I.C.E.’s restoration. I.C.E. worked around the installation, overlaying the newly poured concrete with Epo-Rok in the short period of time between the pour and the first phase of setting up the new machine.
After the Epo-Rok resurfacer system was down, I.C.E. applied a pigmented Epo-Rok Top Dressing to enhance overall chemical and wear resistance. The dressing’s higher viscosity closed the Epo-Rok in just one coat, helping I.C.E. with its tight deadlines.
As a final measure of protection, Sika Industrial Flooring's environmentally friendly urethane coating High Wear Ultra, was applied. High Wear Ultra is perfect for areas exposed to heavy industrial traffic like that at ODM.
With the final phase now complete, ODM’s Bowler is pleased with the results. “ODM is a world-class manufacturer that takes pride in every element of its operations. Now we have a floor that we’re proud to show off to customers and that our employees find cleaner, safer and better to work on.”
In all, this seamless, heavy duty flooring system is easy to clean and maintain and will withstand the rigors of ODM's day-to-day operations.
Before
After
FACILITY:
- ODM Tool & Manufacturing
McCook, IL
- EPO-ROK® EPOXY-BASED MORTAR FLOORING
Nominal 1/4 " trowel-applied (or power-troweled) 100% solids epoxy/modified polyamine concrete floor resurfacer. - EPO-ROK® TOP DRESSING
Epoxy finish coat. - HIGH WEAR ULTRA
Semi-gloss, modified aliphatic urethane coating. Extremely low odor. Superior chemical resistance, UV stability, abrasion resistance. Designed for areas subject to heavy industrial traffic and/or strong chemical spills.
PROJECT TEAM:
- I.C.E.