Meet: Crystal O'dea, founder of Refine Concrete Services
Rapid Set® user since: 2016
Products: Asphalt Resurfacer, Cement All®, Concrete Mix, CR Concrete Resurfacer, DOT Repair Mix, LevelFlor®, Mortar Mix Plus, TRU®, TXP™ Fast Epoxy Primer, Water Stop, Waterproofing Mortar, WunderFixx®
Describe your business.
We launched Refine Concrete Services pretty much from scratch. We started with epoxy floors, which we still do, but that’s branched into general repair -- curbs, parking lots, joints, bollard replacement – and concrete floor repair and restoration with LevelFlor®, TXP™ Fast epoxy primer, and TRU® polishable overlays.
Clients include Kroger (grocery retail), Mod Pizza and Starbucks (restaurants), Tractor Supply Co. (big box retail), public agencies (City of Pasadena fire training facility), and schools (Stephen Austin High School).
What applications do you use Rapid Set® repair products for?
We resurfaced the exterior of a Texas A&M University building during a renovation. The concrete façade had deteriorated, and after patching we smoothed the surface with WunderFixx® before it was painted. We’ve done the same thing at auto dealerships.
We also use a lot of CR Concrete Resurfacer. For instance, we fixed pavement spalls, popouts, and broken curbs at Texas Children's Hospital’s parking lots with Concrete Mix and DOT Repair Mix. We plugged cracks in a leaking retaining wall there with Water Stop, then redid the whole wall after that with Waterproofing Mortar.
I'm excited about Asphalt Resurfacer. Schools and subdivisions that fill potholes with regular asphalt patch keep redoing them. They’re asking, ‘What if we invest a little more money at one time and have it last longer?’ The samples we’ve put down have lasted two years. These potential customers haven't moved ahead on larger projects, but I know they will once their budget allows it.
With many other repair products out there, why do you choose Rapid Set® products?
I wouldn’t use the products if they weren’t reliable, but there's also so much support. Our sales rep, William Deal, reached out within about a year of our founding and has been supporting me technically ever since.
He helped us in our first LevelFlor® underlayment job. Every time I do something for the first time, he's been there to help me. His technical expertise and willingness to share his knowledge make it easy to use your products.
I ask my suppliers a lot of questions, and do business with the people that have answers to all those questions. That's a huge confidence builder, one of the best parts of working with CTS. I know I'm going to have the technical support for the win.
What differences would you say you see in Rapid Set® products versus other products on the market?
Time, return to service, and reliability. Rapid Set®’s high strength in a short time period and low shrink are especially important with floors. You don’t want to use something where you’ve got to wait forever for it to cure. I can use your products and coat or polish the next day and it doesn’t shrink away from the sides, making unsightly transitions. And I have a lot of confidence that the product’s going to last.
Accessibility is big for me, too. If I suddenly need more product, I can run and get the same product from Home Depot that I could get from my distributor when I'm ordering ahead for a large job. If I need something, it's accessible right now.
