Concrete Blog

Trade Tool Innovations had a pile of “skymiles” saved up, a little time to kill around Thanksgiving, and one of our great customers on the island of Oahu… a marvelous combination!
Tom and his “crew” took off for sunny Hawaii for a little R&R after a busy summer. One of the highlights of the trip was an opportunity to stop in and see Steve Yuhl of Triton Marine Construction. Steve has purchased a couple of our TTI Screedright Pro’s for his company to use on the highways and byways of Hawaii.
Triton Marine has interstate deck repair down to a fine science. They water jet the damaged concrete off the surface of the existing deck, lay a quick-drying concrete down and then screed it off using the Screedright Pro. The concrete they use is a fast drying mix. Steve said that the mud sets in about 20 minutes and is ready for traffic (3000 psi) in about an hour. The screed is intrumental in striking off the slab quickly, with accuracy and with little manpower. The screed rides on rails that the crew sets down in order to keep the new surface level with the existing slab.
The company has done a couple of modifications to the screed. They attach a magniesim 2″ X 4″ bar instead of a wooden 2X4. They also fashioned a longer handlebar on the screed. The longer handle bar allows for a operator to screed off a 10 foot deck without having to step in mud that has just been layed… not a good idea in quick setting mud… even if it is Hawaii!

Sorry all. Much has happened since the date of my last post. It has been a busier-than-ever summer for us here at Trade Tool Innovations. New building addition, lots of work from the University of Wyoming, several screeds sold.
I thought I’d focus on the last category today. I’ll catchya all up on our building addition and the projects at UW in later posts.
It seems to me that TTI has it’s own version of the “election day map”. You know, those techinicolor, interactive, creations of the mass media that every major network now sports on election night. They are computer generated visual aides for all of America to glue their eyes to as the election results began to pour in. My personal favorite was NBC’s Ann Curry “green room” experience. Fake charts, real results.
But back to the thought at hand.
As most of you know, Trade Tool Innovations is a tightly run ship. We like to keep our costs down so we can pass it on to our customers. Today, the day after election day ‘08 and just 24 short months until we begin to hear rummblings of election day ‘12, I will locate our own TTI “tracking map” on the toolsbytom website. The prototype model is hung in the corporate office/den at 21 Hidden Springs Rd.
The “shade” states represent those states where a TTI Screedright Pro was sold and sent from our shop. The states that are not colored in represent the places where we have not sent a TTI Screedright Pro, yet. If you live in one of the “non-red” states… give us a call, order a screed, and recieve free shipping (offer ends Jan 1, 2009, unless we decide to extend it).

I’m Karen Gabriel, and I endorse this blog message.

One of my “blog intentions” was to highlight small business, like ours, who keep the economy churning. In the course of building our concrete screed, we enlist the help of other businesses. The TTI Screedright Pro is almost entirely powder coated. Powder coating is a durable finish that adheres to the object and is heat finished it is a paint finish made from finely ground solid resins and is usually applied electrostatically and then heat cured.
Several years ago, when we did our first run of concrete screeds, we found Front Range Powder Coating in Fort Collins Colorado. Mitch did a great job at a super price!
We were feeling a little hesitant to take our business across state lines though. We should have NEVER been hesitant!
To make a long, excruciating, exhausting, and embarrassing story short… we “tried” two different “powder coaters” in our home state of Wyoming… bad move. Each of the next two runs was, to say the least, disastrous. Not wanting to name any names, I would definitely stay away from Wyoming’s Capitol city when seeking a powder coater.
It is WELL WORTH the drive for anyone in Wyoming, Nebraska, or Northern Colorado, to take their stuff to Front Range Powder Coating! A little secret… your check book will thank you as well!
To finish the story… we sought out Mitch again… and he took us back! His work is impeccable, at a more than fair price. I even received a phone call today from him. Apparently, we paid him twice… he promptly tore up the second check. One doesn’t find that kind of honesty and integrity to much anymore!
Front Range Powder Coating
Mitch Sherburne
970-484-9149

The concrete footers for our building addition are nearly complete. Three of the four sides are done. Tom will pour the fourth wall along with the floor slab.
The building is coming along, between other shop jobs. We have had great luck with the weather, as Laramie is the perfect place to be in the summertime.
The building package is here and ready to put up as soon as we can get the concrete complete. Insallation should arrive in a couple of weeks.

Hi all! Thought you’d like to little tour of the shop. We are beginning to get geared up to put on the new addition. As you can see… it is a much needed addition! Enjoy the tour…

It is time once again, at least in the northern part of the country, to lay a little concrete! I have passed by several sidewalks that are formed up and ready for concrete. I have also noticed that many small and large companies still use the old 2X4 to screed off wet concrete.
After looking through several “Youtube” videos… I have noticed the same thing.
What is your prefered method of “striking off” wet concrete?
Also… I have noticed a tendency to use very wet concrete. Doesn’t wet concrete make weeker concrete when it drys?
Reply back and tell us your opinion!

Things here at Trade Tool Innovations have been busy! This spring (as soon as the ground is thawed) we will be embarking on a building addition. It is hard to believe that the process for our current shop/house began nine years ago on April 15, 1999. Tom was on his tractor leveling out the dirt while the snow still was flying here in Laramie. It took 2 1/2 years to complete what is now our shop/house combination. Since then, we have bought and sold several machines, done a TON of machine work, built many interesting project, shuffled our girls back and forth from elementary school, oh… and sold a few concrete screeds along the way!
We will be posting the progress of our new addition on a new website: www.tipsbytom.com. Don’t worry, our old toolsbytom will remain up and running. We will continue to sell our signature tool, the TTI Screedright Pro, and field questions about the concrete and building industries. Hope you all join us along the way… we’ll try and add photo’s and maybe even a little video!

Lamborghini. The ultimate name in luxury and success. The company began in the 1960’s by Ferruccio Lamborghini, a profitable tractor company owner. He debuted his first car in 1963 at the Turin Auto Show. Legend indicates that Lamborghini had a “falling out” with his friend Enzo Farrari and vowed never to drive a Ferrari again. The rest, as they say, is history.
While the company has ebbed and flowed throughout the past 40 sum years, they have survived because they turn out cars individually and with great care. A few websites I visited noted that just a hair over 2,000 Lamborghini’s were sold in 2006. That’s world wide. One site said that 2007 numbers looked like they may reach 2400. That’s world wide. And those are “record-breaking” numbers.
Each car means something. Each car is carefully and meticulously, built, detailed, delivered, and presented to it’s new owner. Each car will require a six figure check! Doing another simple “google” of “Lamborghini prices” leaves ones mouth open. For the price of a house… you too can own a Lamborghini… did I mention they were “sold out” for ‘08?
If you are the type who really would rather not LIVE in your car… (although, we are talking about a Lamborghini here)… maybe you ought to consider your options.
Trade Tool Innovations would like to think of its self as “The Lamborghini of the Concrete Screed World.” While we didn’t get into the business due to a dispute with anyone… let alone swear off Ferrari’s… we had in mind the same business model as Lamborghini when we rolled out our first prototype concrete screed in 2004. It was blue, and was demoed right here in our hometown. The first one we sold went to New Jersey!
Since then, we continue to manufacture, box and ship each one from our shop. If you want one then you’ll have to call us. While we probably didn’t sell as many concrete tools as the “big guys” last year (just a note… we had our own “record breaking year as well) each one we sell has a name and location associated with it.
We only make so many per year. That’s the way it is. Concrete season is just around the corner. I suppose you could either look into buying a car you’d have to live in… or buying a tool you could make a living with.
Consider it your personal “Lamborghini” of sorts.

Not long ago I received an email from Katie. She had read the piece I wrote several months back on “Concrete that Changes the World”. After mentioning that she enjoyed reading about how concrete helps in the area of handicap accessibility and our camping adventures, she drew my attention to another website: WWW.ConcreteThinker.com . I must say I was immediately intrigued by the name of the site. I like to think of myself as a bit of a “thinker”.

Anyway, I located the site and started to do a little digging through it. First of all… one CAN’T miss the “Sim City” demo on the home page. A great little click- on window that highlights concrete and it’s many environmental benefits. The entire site is dedicated to the challenge for us to think of concrete as a “sustainable resource”. I had to go to my Merriam-Webster tab to look up the word “sustainable” and found this:

1: capable of being sustained2 a: of, relating to, or being a method of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged <sustainable techniques> <sustainable agriculture> b: of or relating to a lifestyle involving the use of sustainable methods <sustainable society>

Concrete Thinker is an enjoyable website. In addition to lots of information on how people are looking at and using concrete in today’s “green sensitive” world, there are real case studies and stories of buildings and structures that are up and alive.

Here is their opening invite to explore the rest of the site:

Welcome to the Concrete Thinker web site, a resource to help design professionals make sustainable design a reality through the durability, versatility and energy performance of concrete. I like it! Love it, Live it, Think about it!

An interesting note:  I just checked our “stats” for our web site, www.toolsbytom.com.  It seems that concrete-types were online yesterday!  Maybe you guys wrestled the computer away from your wives.  The media thinks that the Monday after Thanksgiving is the big day for cyber shopping…. but our stats YESTERDAY jumped two fold! 

Maybe the weather is getting colder, maybe it just that time of year to look for new equipment, maybe it was simply your turn on the computer.  Who knows! 

On a related note… I have pictures that I have been meaning to add to the site… I guess it’s time.  Also seems that you all like to pa-ruse the pic’s along with your turkey leftovers!