Metallic Epoxy Floors and the Smiling Contractors

By Jack Josephsen

For a brief change of pace, imagine for a minute you were handed application notes by a manufacturer that included Step 1: Start smiling!

It just so happens that I was reading the instructions on a bottle of calming bath foam (my wife's by the way) and the usage instructions kicked off with this rather unusual request. I couldn’t help but laugh when considering what sort of reaction the same instruction would get in the typically dour epoxy industry. Everyone would probably think the manufacturer had gone mad!

When I thought about this idea a little further, there’s only ever been one epoxy field I thought could legitimately include smiling as part of the instructions. In fact, I actually saw grown men turn giddy like school kids during a training course I was conducting!

Industrial epoxy contractors weren’t smiling

Before I go into details, I’ll firstly say that I’ve worked with a lot of different contractors over the years and many were in the ugly end of industrial epoxy flooring. I’m talking about aggressive chemicals, horribly corroded concrete, and demanding conditions with high-pressure shutdowns. The only time I saw an industrial epoxy contractor come close to a smile during these times was when they got paid for the job. I must say, I didn’t find too much to smile about myself when doing that sort of work!

Metallic epoxy contractors were smiling

Anyway, all this changed when we entered the decorative field and started conducting epoxy training courses for our metallic epoxies. For the first time ever I had contractors hanging on my every word and eager to give absolutely everything a try. I don't know if it was because they could see themselves doing something other than boring, thankless grey floors or what? Maybe they had some untapped artistic talent buried deep down and this was their chance to finally let it out. Whatever the reason, these guys became genuinely excited and were beaming the whole day.

Chase your smile!

This experience was a real mind-opener for me personally on the wider topic of job satisfaction and enjoyment. Despite what the industrial epoxy flooring field had previously taught me, watching the transformation that came over the participants that day proved there’s no reason why epoxy contractors can’t love what they do as well – it doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom!

In my opinion, the key is to keep learning and keep trying new things. From what I’ve seen in my epoxy training courses, metallic epoxies tend to have a similar affect on everyone and bring out a real creative passion that can border on addictive. Of course, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll be the same for you; you might even love the nitty gritty stuff. The point is, if you’re not smiling with the work you’re currently doing, you’ve simply got to get out there and find a better fit. Who knows, you too might be able to start work every day with a smile.

How you can take action...

• Products - Use genuine decorative epoxy resins and metallic pigments that are designed specifically for these types of projects:
  - Artepoxy Liquid Crystal - Clear Decorative Epoxy Resin
  - Artepoxy Liquid Marble - Metallic Epoxy Floor Coating
  

• Systems - Specify specialist decorative systems with proven performance:
  - Resin Marble - Metallic Epoxy Flooring System

• Learning - Learn more about decorative flooring, and much more, with our online courses:
  - Epoxy Flooring How To Videos
  - Epoxy Flooring Short Courses
  - Bronze Card Course
  
  
• Ask a question - If you have any questions you'd like to ask us about this topic, hit the support button below:
  
  

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