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caused the least amount of disruptions." He continues, "We had access to the site 24/7, but epoxy needs 15 to 16 hours to cure." Able to tap into the resort's power, the crews ran 250-foot power cords from the ceiling into each work space to handle three- phase power. "We then hooked up transformer boxes and ran our power tools," says Rader. This meant that the crews saved time and effort, and did not have to set up generators — or worry about fumes from gas-powered equipment. Since they would be unable to remove the existing tile floor, the crews first had to prep the tiles for the coating application. Using 30-inch SASE 780 dustless griders, they diamond-ground the glaze off of the tile in the main sections of the floor. The glaze around the edging, plus any tight areas they removed by hand using seven- inch Metabo diamond grinders. RUWAC 500 model vacuums attached to the grind- ers insured that dust did not reach any of the resort's guests. A SHELTERED COVE Once the floors had been ground and the glaze removed, it was time for the crews to lay out the chalk line design and stripe patterns for the new floor. Rader describes the process: "Using the specs, the team measured the floor and laid out chalk lines between which a predetermined color of the Dur-A-Chip liquid polymer epoxy resin would be poured on to the floor. But before we could start applying the main flooring surface, we first had to install cove bases around all of the floor edges." The PremUS teams used Dur-A-Flex's Ultra Clear Cove-Rez on both floor covings. A thixotropic resin, Ultra Clear is specifi- cally designed for vertical applications, with a fast, eight-hour dry-to-touch cure time and no odor. "We hand-troweled the epoxy onto the edge where the wall and the floor join to form a sloping cove rather than a hard angle. In all, the coves are six-inches high, 1/8 of an inch thick. Next, we hand- troweled Dur-A-Flex modified base coat blend epoxy into all of the diamond grind- ing and grout joints. Then we were ready to apply the Dur-A-Chip system to the floors," says Rader. The coating system had already been tested — and modified — by the owner's engineers during the specification process. Applied at a thickness of approximately 35 mils per 200 to 300 square feet per gallon, the coating had to be heavy enough to seamlessly float over the tiles. And the seamless nature of the product was an asset because, as it turned out, the owners wanted the floors to literally be seamless. "The Dur-A-Chip system is designed for seamless application, which was perfect for this project because the owners didn't want any grout lines or control joints to show. We hid them between the colors. We worked one color at a time." First, the crew members manning the mixing station would slowly blend batches of Dur-A-Gard resin and hardener, transfer- ring the coating into buckets. "The system was highly modified to Write in Reader Inquiry #41 January 2009 J www.coatingspromag.com 37