8/20/2017

For the fifth time in 18 months, SilTanium has completed terrazzo tile and grout cleaning and DFE polishing at an Express Women’s Clothing store, this one in Orlando, Fla.

We began the DFE process with a deep scrub and pressure/extraction cleaning of grout joints. Then we honed and refined the surface with our specialty DFE diamond polishing process. Finally, we finished the floor with SentryGuard, which permits future maintenance without additional use of diamonds.

As we previously had at some other Express Women’s Clothing stores, we also refinished the wood floors. The entire job, including both processes, encompassed more than 6,000 square feet and we completed it just three and a half days.

To learn more about our DFE process for polished concrete, contact your sales and service representative. If you do not yet have a representative, please call 770.387.2728 or email [email protected].

10/13/2017

Once every few years, SilTanium takes on a project that presents new difficulties, and those difficulties inspire us to learn new techniques. Renewing the porcelain-tile lobbies on the first, second and third floors of the bursar’s office at Georgia Tech was just such a project.

Although porcelain tile does not absorb water, it is very porous and cleaning with strong acids causes the pores to enlarge. As pores hold soiling, failure to remove acid cleaners before drying causes two things to happen. First, as the water diluting it evaporates, the cleaner’s acid pH drops (gets stronger), increasing the chemical strength and making pores even larger. Next, soil locks into the pores of the tile and becomes difficult to remove.

The soiling of this particular substrate locked on to the tile surface. Both acids and degreasers would remove soiling with melamine pads, but only if used on a heavily weighted orbital machine. Our friends at Pacific Floor Care had the right machine, the FM20ORB, so we purchased it and it worked like a dream.
Since the pores in the floor were so exposed, we coated the tile and grout with SilTanium Supreme for a fast-dry, low-sheen protective solution.

To learn more about SilTanium Supreme for tile and grout, contact your sales and service representative. If you do not yet have a representative, please call 770.387.2728 or email [email protected].

10/6/2017

It took just one evening to rejuvenate the marble tile floor in the main entrance of the Bill Moore Student Success Center at Georgia Tech. The speed of the process resulted in limited disruption of activities in this very busy building. SilTanium employed its DFE system to accomplish the job.

We cleaned the floor, then honed and polished it with SilTanium’s proprietary DFE process. Once polishing was complete, we applied SentryGuard to protect against stain and wear and to improve the coefficient of friction.

Now, Georgia Tech donors and fans coming to enjoy football games from their skyboxes will walk on SilTanium SentryGuard, which is tougher and easier to maintain than the original marble.

To learn more about SilTanium’s DFE diamond polishing for natural stone, contact your sales and service representative. If you do not yet have a representative, please call 770.387.2728 or email [email protected].

9/29/2017

You may see the word “guard” in many reports of SilTanium projects. For example, when we employ our DFE system on terrazzo, we top off the job with SentryGuard. Since the word appears so often, perhaps you would like a little history on the subject.

Many early craftsmen who developed the diamond polishing business did not like the use of guards, which originally were promoted as stain blockers. The early guard formulas, however, acted more like a coating, helping to hide poor workmanship such as blemishes and scratches from diamonds. The coating-like features of guards allowed relatively untrained and unskilled polishers to hide poor performance — at least until after they cashed the check. Problems appearing later, however, could stain the reputations not only of poor-performing workers, but also of hardworking craftsmen who took their time and did the job right.

Eventually, as the industry learned from its mistakes, guard technology and methods of application improved. Low-cost, poor-quality guards remain on the market, but there also are exceptional ones. The good ones not only reduce staining but also increase coefficient of friction and create a wear surface that, with proper maintenance, negates the need to re-polish. Cleaning, burnishing and adding more guard as necessary keeps those floors looking great.

SilTanium uses SentryGuard, the top-quality product for terrazzo. Two years ago, we employed the SilTanium DFE system on a floor and recently, that customer asked us to check the floor and re-polish it if necessary. Our examination showed that the only action needed was to auto-scrub the floor with a red pad and mild cleaning solution (ReVitalize), then burnish it with a diamond pad. After two years, the SentryGuard was still hard at work, so there was no need to re-polish. 

To learn more about the advantages of using SentryGuard, contact your sales and service representative. If you do not yet have a representative, please call 770.387.2728 or email [email protected].

9/22/2017

ColorBond Supreme offers a yearly ReFresh cleaning program that will extend your warranties by one year. Just sign up for the program and we will professionally clean the tile and grout where ColorBond Supreme was installed. If there are coating issues, necessary repairs are included in the ReFresh cleaning cost. If you ReFresh within the first year of the initial application and within one year of every subsequent ReFresh cleaning, your warranty will extend indefinitely.

Georgia Tech and many of our other great customers claim this great value year after year. They know ColorBond Supreme delivers premium aesthetics and low-cost maintenance. The fast dry allows immediate reopening for customer use while low gloss on tile and a high coefficient of friction improve safety. All these advantages are available at a cost below other premium tile and grout coating systems.

To learn more about SilTanium’s concrete repair capabilities in manufacturing, distribution or retail environments, contact your sales and service representative. If you do not yet have a representative, please call 770.387.2728 or email [email protected].

9/15/2017

A Major International Retailer is back in the news at SilTanium after calling on us to repair joints and flatten concrete at one of its South Carolina distribution centers. To allow safe, rapid movements of forklifts and other inventory equipment, expansion joints must periodically be cut out and refilled with high-quality expansion joint material. This prevents the slowdown in productivity that can occur when surface inconsistencies cause inventory to dislodge.    

Constant exposure to heavy equipment or liquid spills also can cause concrete loading-dock surfaces to degrade. SilTanium prevents degradation by grinding the areas flat and smooth, then hardening the concrete with WR Meadows LiquiHard Ultra, a lithium-based densifier.

We accomplished these remedial processes at the same time employees were loading and unloading hundreds of trucks. The project required a great deal of planning and management on the part of both the Major International Retailer and SilTanium, but the Major International Retailer does whatever it takes to keep stores stocked for its customers, and SilTanium does whatever it takes to serve our customers.

To learn more about SilTanium’s concrete repair capabilities in manufacturing, distribution or retail environments, contact your sales and service representative. If you do not yet have a representative, please call 770.387.2728 or email [email protected].

9/8/2017

Children’s Healthcare in Atlanta has completed construction of two new wings this year. For both projects, the hospital Chose SilTanium’s GrouTanium as the coating system that would make tile and grout both safe and attractive in the new Comprehensive Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit.

GrouTanium uses a deep-cleaning process and installs ColorBond grout color sealer with Intercept^® anti-microbial, before coating the tile and grout area with SilTanium T&G, the glass clear coating with a three-year warranty.

Children’s Healthcare has used SilTanium T&G for almost a decade in patient rooms, public restrooms and the cafeteria serving area. Not only does GrouTanium simplify daily maintenance, it also requires little to no long-term coating replacement and repair such as that required in competitive systems.

To learn more about using GrouTanium on tile and grout, contact your sales and service representative. If you do not yet have a representative, please call 770.387.2728 or email [email protected].

9/1/2017

In a project that took less than a day, SilTanium both repaired and improved concrete floors at a Major International Retailer in La Vergne, Tenn., bringing uniformity to slabs poured at different times. DFE eliminated the need for the expensive, time-consuming process of removing existing material and pouring new concrete.

SilTanium’s DFE process uses 110-battery power equipment, no 440 three-phase power cord or propane-driven devices to repair problems and enhance floors. The result is a consolidated surface that can be maintained at the lowest possible cost.

To learn more about our DFE process for polished concrete, contact your sales and service representative. If you do not yet have a representative, please call 770.387.2728 or email [email protected].

8/25/2017

Georgia Tech leads the way again in choosing SentryGuard to make natural stone floors in Tech Tower administration offices both beautiful and safe. Fast-drying SentryGuard made it possible to complete the project in one night. The low-gloss finish offers the benefits of easy maintenance and a high coefficient of friction to reduce the danger of slip-falls. As a bonus, SentryGuard maintains the designer-specified matte finish of the honed marble.

SilTanium began the process by cleaning with an auto scrubber and StepOne degreasing solution. Next, we removed residual grout haze from tile edges as necessary, then applied four coats of SentryGuard. The floor was open for use the following morning.

To learn more about SentryGuard for natural stone, contact your sales and service representative. If you do not yet have a representative, please call 770.387.2728 or email [email protected].

8/18/2017

Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga, Tenn. has completed initial testing of SilTanium Supreme-V in a high-traffic hall beside the ICU. Sodexo, manager of the hospital’s environmental services, approved the performance of Supreme-V, which was applied over a coat of DieHard Floor Finish. No soil permeated the surface, and the coefficient of friction remained higher than the adjacent floor finish. Burnishing with a diamond pad left the shine as great as the day the coating was installed. Supreme-V reduces maintenance costs while maintaining the high gloss required on VCT.

The Erlanger test and evaluation prove again that SilTanium Supreme-V delivers both cost savings and exceptional appearance. The innovative technology gives Sodexo a competitive advantage over its competition in the maintenance of resilient flooring in hospitals — one of the costliest components of Sodexo’s service package.

To learn more about SilTanium Supreme for VCT, contact your sales and service representative. If you do not yet have a representative, please call 770.387.2728 or email [email protected].