Concrete Blog » Tools of the Trade

US-YELLOW Yellow Pages

Tom — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 23:38:50 +0000

I wanted to include a short article on a scam that many of the concrete companies may experience. If you get a notice in the mail from a company “US-YELLOW” Yellow Pages, please be aware that it is somewhat of a scam.

The paper work looks like a simple form to fill out to update your company information for publication in a Yellow Book type phone book. The company even goes so far as to include “walking fingers” in the logo. This is not the old “let your fingers do the walking” Yellow Pages we all remember as kids.
If you fill out your “updated” information, and mail back the form in their postage paid envelope, you will receive a bill in the future outlining how you owe them around $229 for advertising fees. The “agreement” is in very small print. The even have the nerve to mail you back a copy of what you “signed” along with your bill. I will post a picture of the yellow page scam on this page.
I suppose I have come up with the philosophy that I am not going to pay to be in ANY type of directory. I often receive another notice from some sort of Manufacturer Directory and find that the story is the same there. I simply let people know that I am not interested in paying to be in a directory, book form or internet.
There are easy ways to list your company for free on the internet, so people can find you through search engines like Yahoo and Google. Also, stick with a few local phone books as well.

Trade Tool Innovations visits Triton Marine Construction

Tom — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:13:59 +0000

I finally put a video together of our stop-in to see Steve at Triton Marine Construction in Oahu Hawaii. We had a great trip and one of the highlights was certainly seeing the screed on the job site. Enjoy



JB Concrete Construction
Tom — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:07:58 +0000

Here is a recent email we received from Jason Bales of JB Concrete Construction.  Thanks for the great feedback Jason!
Tom,

Thought I would take a moment and get you some feed back about your screed machine. Here in Indiana, been a little cold so had some time to do the things that should have been done this summer. Anyways, I contacted you about the screed machine early in the summer, and our crew kicked the idea around whether we needed it or if it would even perform.  We finally decided to give it a whirl.  The machine arrived the day before we were to start a 9000 lineal feet side walk pour for a city curb and sidewalk renovation.  We put it together that night and had it on the job in the morning. First truck of 10 yards arrived at 7:00 A.M., by 7:20 we had 10 yards down, striked off, consolidated and closed off. Wow!  Any ways we normally pour 30 yards a day in sidewalks, not bad for a four man crew, but by noon we had 30 yards on the ground.  The driver was not able to unload as fast as we could strike it off. All said and done, less fatigue by the user, faster finish time, more controlled concrete.  Even the ready mix company commented on the machine. Said it got their trucks in-service faster, which meant more concrete out the door for them that day!  Time is Money!!

Again THANKS!!! for a great product.  We did pour almost 3 miles of walk with it this summer, and still going strong.. Paid for itself the very first day!! 
Jason Bales

JB Concrete Construction LLC

jbconcrete1@kconline.com



Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!
Tom — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 21:51:41 +0000
 
 
Our little company is swimming in the big pool!  Companies that supply specialty tools for companies and individuals who build the world are up against all kinds of “big box” people.  Something as simple as ordering engines in the good old USA can be a bit tricky for a small company. 
We recently completed another run of our concrete tool, the TTI Screedright Pro.  Steel parts come from a shop in Fort Collins Colorado, nuts and bolts are ordered from various manufacturers, the “owners manual” is printed at our local print shop, and the whole thing is assembled at our shop. 
All except the engines… engines are not made in America anymore.  After waiting and waiting for the “slow boat from China” to FINALLY get here, our next run of screeds are boxed and ready to go… just in time for the winter season.�



How to Buy a Tool the Old Fashioned Way!
Tom — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 22:19:57 +0000
We here at Trade Tool Innovations experienced a first this past weekend!  We sold our first concrete screed from our shop!  We have been plugging away in the past couple of years, advertising on the internet, making a few phone calls, and don’t get me wrong… we’ve shipped many out!  They have gone up north to Olympia Washington and as far south as Tortola (in the British Virgin Islands).  Everytime we ship a concrete screed out, we put a little pin in our map on the wall.  Over the years it has been exciting to see where they have shipped out and to hear from all those who purchased one.  We had, however, not had a “customer at the door” yet… except for our prototype that Dean Mercil purchased after trying it out for us:).
Back to the story…
It was a snowy Saturday morning in March… the phone rang… it was Mike from Torrington Wyoming, in town for the weekend.  “Can I come over and see your screed”?  He asked.  “Sure” I said.  And the rest is history.
Trade Tool Innovations is about “boxing” your tool for you… not “big box”.  We enjoy staying in touch with those individuals and companies that purchase our screed.  It is a different business model from most companies out there. 
We give Goshen County Construction a big hello and wish them well in all their concrete adventures.  More than that… we LOVE hearing how things are going!



Anatomy of a Concrete Screed
Tom — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 19:34:33 +0000
There is really ONLY one way a true tool is invented… out of necessity… or frustration.  When someone is finally frustrated by how things are going… that someone is more than likely to start thinking of better ways to do what ever it is that is frustrating him/her.

 This was a familiar site to young Tom G.  He has been helping his dad pour concrete since he could stand and hold a bull float.  You see, LeRoy, Tom’s dad, is no dummy.  He had three sons and one daughter.  And when it came time to pour concrete… you guessed it… LeRoy would hand two out of the four the dreaded “screed bar”.  So everyother turn was Tom G’s.
As the years passed by, Tom G thought to himself “there MUST be a better way!’  Especially because, I forgot to mention, Tom G was the youngest out of the four syblings and it seemed as if HIS turn at the end of the screed bar came a little more often than his brothers or sister. But enough of sybiling rilvary… it doesn’t play much into the over all story.
Tom G. began to draw out and design his new “better way”!  Sure he’d seen other concrete screeds come and go.  He’d seen the big one that utilizes a couple of 2″X4″’s… his dad even had a notion to use one once when he picked one up at a local auction.  It was a bit big though… kind of awkward to handle. 
Then there were the little “weedeater” type screeds.  Light weight, aluminum board…etc.  But Tom G being the cheapo he is wasn’t about to drain his savings to purchase screed board after screed board so he had the correct length for each pour.
Back to the “better way”… a heavy duty all steel frame (Tom G could weld it himself) that utilizes one wooden screed bar that can be trimmed to the specific length of each pour.  He’d even include a little ditty he made up called “crown clamps”… (his wife affectionatly calls “clown cramps”) that would give a little bend to the board if one needed to slop the slab a bit.
The first TTI screed was born… I guess you could say a boy… it was blue.  Small improvements have been made here and there to help create a lighter weight machine (58 lbs) yet not so light weight that it blows away in the Wyoming wind.  It is a solid “man’s screed”.  The origional screeds shipped out in three separate boxes… but Tom G redesigned the newer red model to ship in one standard size box (did I mention he is a cheapo?).

“Concrete Screed in Grass”