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.
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 preferred method of “striking off” wet concrete?
Also… I have noticed a tendency to use very wet concrete. Doesn’t wet concrete make weaker 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!
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.�
Building Companies are one of the last great family owned and operated businesses in the United States today. The reasons are obvious. It’s fairly hard to send work overseas that gets done right in our own backyard. In fact, after reading Thomas Freedman’s “The World is Flat”… (a great read, by the way)…it seems that the ONLY companies left in America in a few years WILL be family-run, service-type businesses. SO if YOU are in the family-run contracting trades… your ahead of the game!
In the coming blog posts, I will highlight some of the great small businesses that still gather around the turkey table every Thanksgiving. These are the brothers, sisters, dads, moms, aunts, uncles and cousins that work, live and play together. If you know of a great small company… let me know! I’d love to tell their story and create a link!
You can check out our story ( the Trade Tool Innovations Story) at http://toolsbytom.com/floor-machine-screed/aboutus.htm�
On our travels through Utah on the way to Las Vegas we stumbled upon a great place to eat. St Helen’s of Washington is a little coffee house and sports grill off the beaten path in St George. LOTS of construction, by the way, in St George Utah. St. Helen’s is an established establishment and runs like a well timed concrete truck. Kwan was our server and did a suburb job of keeping our beer and salsa (home made) flowing.�
Great selection: Philly Steak Sandwich. I also tried the Greek Gyro. There was also…. get this…. FREE CAKE! I asked Kwan if there was some “special occasion”. He said “no”. Free Cake is a regular occurance at St Helen’s.
All those driving down to the “World of Concrete” in January should make a stop at St Helen’s.�
395 E Telegraph St
Washington, UT 84780
�
On one of my many “google” searches on the word “concrete” (and it’s many cousins… “concrete construction”, “concrete contractors”, “concrete tools”, “decorative concrete”….etc) I came across an interesting website. Domain name: www.concretechange.org
Honestly, it stood out among the rest for one reason. All you other guys out there do have great sites… lovely floors, pool decks, counter tops and the like. But this site stood out because it reminded me of the wonderful substance concrete is in and of itself! Eleanor from Concrete Change explained the site to me with this quote:
“Concrete Change is a network of people working in their locales for a universal, basic level of disability access to houses. The goal is for at least three features to become the norm in nearly all new houses; at least one zero-step entrance (at the front, side or back), wide interior doors on the main floor; and a bathroom on the main level. …”
Concrete is a great medium for allowing such building! Contractors today are taking steps to help develop ways of promoting handicap friendly homes, businesses and recreational availability to all people.
Case in point: This past summer we took off for a few days on a local camping trip. Something simple for our family… none of us are in a wheel chair. When we got to our campsite in the Snowy Mountains, I noticed that there were handicap accessible facilities… zero entry…. thanks to concrete! Such an easy solution to what could be a pressing problem!
Granted, they aren’t the most luxurious accommodations… but I am SURE those of you out in the concrete business have come up with stunning examples of beautifully done concrete that also serves as functional for all people… send your photos in!�
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