Client Background
This food industry client, in business for over 50 years, is an iconic Chicago business. The company now operates five plants, including facilities in a western and eastern US location, making products for food distributors and food service operations.
Facility Description
Located in suburban Chicago, the 185,000 sq. ft. plant operates multiple production lines with state-of-the-art equipment and areas for the production, freezing, and distribution of bakery goods.
Operations normally run three shifts, 7 days a week, and the company strives for as much maintenance as possible to be done in phases and during non-peak times to avoid shutdowns.
Requested Maintenance
Concrete floor repair and polishing in multiple discrete sections ranging in size from approximately 500 to 19,000 square feet, with the work to be done in several phases, during regular and off-hours as needed.
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Decision Driver and Timing
Floor coating failure was the primary decision driver for this concrete polishing project. In addition, as a food producer, the company’s facilities must meet standards for regulatory compliance and be audit-ready for maintaining its SQF (Safe Quality Food) certification for food safety and quality.
Scope of Work
- Work Area Protection: Protective coverings and cautionary marking of work areas.
- Polish Refresh: Polish refresh where needed with cleaning, densifying, burnishing, sealing, and buffing.
- Joint and Crack Repair: Repairing failing joints, cracks, spalls, and holes involving cutting, vacuuming, filling, and smoothing.
- Eight-Step Grinding: Eight-step grinding with increasingly fine grit diamonds.
- Surface Hardening: Hardening with LS Densifier.
- Final Polishing: Two polishing steps followed up with sealing.
- High-Speed Burnishing: High-speed burnish for final shine and extra durability.
- Cleanup and Restoration: Removed waste and all project materials for full return to service.
Notable Details
No Facility Shutdown Required
While operations in specific areas were necessarily disrupted, the overall project was performed in phases, during regular and off-hours as needed, to avoid a full plant shutdown.
Equipment and Line Protection
While dustless grinding procedures were used, maintenance areas were also shielded by curtains. Movable items were removed and fixed equipment was covered, with the flooring below it protected by a joint cut to establish an edge along the polishing area.
Time- and Cost-Saving Advanced Preparations
To save time and money, the client did some of the advanced preparation work: removing movable items, hanging curtains around fixed equipment, and provisioning power hook-ups as needed for grinding and polishing equipment.
Multiple Projects in One
As the concrete polishing was done over multiple, discrete flooring areas, the work involved a series of short (24- 48 hour) mobilizations, each one requiring the dialing up and dialing back of the production lines and resulting in several sub-projects with different missions and characteristics.
Client-Contractor Partnership
As an embedded contractor, Painters USA has a strong existing relationship with the client, giving us a solid understanding of the facility’s features and operations. The plant manager helps by facilitating maintenance projects, meeting both Painters USA’s needs and the client’s production line schedules with minimal disruptions on either side.
Safety
Work was performed following OSHA guidelines, the client’s LO/TO (Lock Out / Tag Out) procedures, and Painters USA’s own procedures for use of proper PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), placement of safety cones and caution tape to alert employees and other patrons, and crews trained and certified to safely operate the equipment needed.
Client Satisfaction
Having worked with us on other projects, the plant manager knew he could rely on Painters USA to maintain a safe work environment, manage the project professionally, keep open lines of communication, meet deadlines, and deliver quality results.
Why Painters USA
Painters USA has had a relationship with the client since 2016 for a variety of facility maintenance services:
Along with our safety record and flexible scheduling to minimize operational downtime and disruptions, Painters USA has been a preferred contractor because of our ability to offer single-vendor accountability and convenience for multiple maintenance services and our WBENC-certification as a woman-owned business.