Outstanding Etched Grape Leaf Artwork Shines;
Plus a Bonus: Significant Maintenance & Energy-Lighting Cost-Savings
Anthony Allen, owner of Linganore Wines, the largest winery in the state of Maryland, knew that he wanted a very special floor for his newly-renovated winery tasting and banquet rooms in the old keg hay barn which used to be part of a dairy farm.
Allen also knew that he wanted to research a new concept called polish concrete which he had read about earlier. But, he didn’t know whom to contact. So, he took his search to the internet and searched for “polished concrete.” The search led him to the Concrete Polishing Technologies (CPT) and Perfect Polish web site where he found a contact phone number on one of the recent company news releases and the rest is history.
As a result, when Linganore Wines celebrated its 30th anniversary in August 2006, it’s guests and visitors were welcomed into the brand new restored wine tasting facility and banquet rooms featuring sparkling polished concrete floors. Approximately 5,000 square feet of the nearly 7,800 square foot facility are polished concrete.
The incredibly beautiful floor is basically colored Indian red with 2’x2′ panels scored on the diagonal for both floors. The banquet room, however, features an etched border dyed black with relief carving. Coordinated into the winery theme, the carvings consist of decorative grapes and grape leaves creating a perfect setting for a feast.
David Padgett, vice president of marketing and business development for CPT and Perfect Polish, headed up the project with the talented craftsmen from Perfect Polish. They polished 3,150 sq. ft. on the upper banquet floor and 2,000 sq. ft. downstairs in the wine tasting room.
Padgett said, “The Linganore floor, which was poured in 2005, proved to be exceptionally hard concrete even for a new floor. Since we are used to working on all types of concrete floors – from soft to hard, from perfect to damaged – this wasn’t a problem. The second level floor was the same hardness, but contained radiant heat tubing throughout the floor for heating the upstairs area. This too was not a problem proving how adaptable the concrete polishing process is, since it handled the heated concrete system with ease. The important thing here is the contractor had better be aware of its existence before the initial grind. ”
The Perfect Polish team began polishing using an 80 grit diamond grind moving up in various increments to a final polishing grit of 3,000. Then hand-held jack hammer air guns were used to carve in the grapes and the leaves in the border using Engrave-A-Crete templates. Finally, the entire job was finished off with a high-solid sealer. The CPT Perfect Polish crew took just under 2 weeks to complete the job.
Anthony Allen, the owner Linganore Winery, said that he is delighted that he persevered and found both Perfect Polish and concrete polishing resulting in the incredible beauty of the floors, the ease of maintenance, and the improvement in lighting.
Allen said, “that with the old floor, they would broom sweep the floors and then vacuum them, but now all it takes is a wide dust mop and you’re done. The new floors offer additional cost-savings since they can now be cleaned in about 20 minutes in what used to take an hour. In addition, under the old system, we had to put down coatings every 6 to 12 months which proved to be very costly due to materials, man hours as well as the downtime due to drying time for the coatings. I’m pleased as punch with this new process.”
Concerning improved lighting conditions, he said that “from June to July, energy costs were up 74 percent (from 6.4 to 11.3 kilowatts). Prior to polishing, the banquet room used 4,000 watts of electricity for lighting, and now the comparable period is 80 watts. You can actually see the lights in the ceiling being reflected up and used again, so there is no waste, just an increase in lighting.”
Linganore Winery is located in Mt. Airy, Md., between Frederick and Baltimore. Linganore has grown over the past 30 years from the smallest winery in Maryland to the top five percent on the eastern seaboard. Not bad for a winery that started off in a corner of an old dairy barn 30 years ago.
Concrete Polishing Technologies, Inc., based in Knoxville, Tenn., is an international leader in dry diamond concrete polishing. CPT, and its subsidiary, Perfect Polish, will continue to be dedicated to the total polishing process by providing the industry with cutting-edge research on the polishing process, utilizing state-of-the-art diamond grinding and polishing equipment, and developing the industry’s most highly skilled craftsmen.
