Earthblog

As we move into the 2nd quarter of the year, we’re noticing that financing is once again becoming easier to secure.  For the last 6+ months, it’s been tough for some contractors to get loans to purchase equipment.  Actually, to clarify, for the last 6 months or so, it’s been difficult for contractors with anything other than superb credit to get a loan.

Mike Arness, from Clearview Financial, tells us that we should notice a continuing loosening in lending.

It’s been frustrating for us and for our clients, as those that have the ability to expand and grow their businesses were being stifled by tighter credit. 

Based on what we’re seeing in terms of call volume and what we’re hearing from customers, the market out there seems strong, and demand for grinders and scrapers is high.  But, without credit available, our sales suffer, and our clients businesses suffer because they don’t have the equipment they need to grow.

For those with credit cards, there is an option (although it can be very expensive).  I don’t know that we ever charged as much on credit cards for big purchases (over $5K), than we did last month.  That’s expensive for us, and potentially for our clients.

But, as the credit eases, we can go back to doing lots of equipment financing through the good guys over at Clearview, and helping flooring contractors around the country with all their equipment needs.

After a very forgettable February, it’s nice to see that March has been nice and busy.  This, of course, is a trend we’ve seen over the years.  But, with all the doom and gloom you hear in the media, the middle of a slow month can be a scary time.  Your mind can mess with you, making you wonder if there is light at the end of the tunnel.

As we like to say in the removal game, “what goes down must come up!”.

And, we’re seeing that with a good start to March.  Our clients ar telling us that they are starting to see more work come in, which is why they’re buying equipment.

Not sure if it’s starting to pick up yet where you are, but, on the whole, looks like things are on the upswing.  Enjoy, and take advantage!

We’re all just a few weeks away from the start of the “busy season”….that magical period of time that runs roughly from April through August, where it seems like there aren’t enough hours in the day to do all the work that needs to be done.  Grinding, polishing, removing, installing, one job flowing into the next. 

Well, now is the time to make sure you’re ready to go.  We get calls all the time from guys that need a machine for a job that starts “yesterday”.  Sometimes, of course, that’s unavoidable.  There are always going to be things that pop up, and maybe catch all of us with our guard down.  But, there are also often opportunities to avoid finding yourself in that last minute pinch.

If at the end of last year, you swore to yourself you were done renting that old, beat up walk-behind scraper for $x a day, and were finally gonna buy one next year, do it.  Don’t wait until you blow more money renting the same old machine for the first couple of jobs this year before you get fired up enough again to remember why you wanted to buy in the first place.

Also, right now, we’ve still got show special pricing from the trade shows we just did in Vegas.  Both Surfaces and World of Concrete were earlier this month, and the show specials are available all month, whether you made the trip or not.

And, lastly, there’s the used equipment market.  As you may have read in previous blog entries, the demand for used scrapers and grinders doesn’t come close to matching the supply,  So, if you’re thinking about a used unit for yourself this year, contact us now and let us know what you need so we can let you know when we have something available that meets your needs

Addressing your equipment needs now can help you enjoy an even better (and maybe less stressful) busy season!

We’ve made the decision to put together an inventory of factory refurbished planetary grinders, and floor scrapers.  This section of our website will be up soon.

All refurbished equipment sold will come with a full, 1-year warranty, just like a new machine.  They’ll also come with the same tooling packages as new machines, and all tooling included will be brand new.

This inventory will come from pools of demo equipment, trade-ins, and warranty repaired equipment.  Again, each used unit will be factory recertified, and come with the same warranty as our brand new machines.

If you’d like to receive updates when we get equipment in stock, just enter your E-mail address in the form above, on the right side of the page.  We’ll send out monthly lists of available inventory.  On the other hand, if you’re looking for something now, or if you’d like us to notify you individually as soon as a refurbished unit is in stock, fill out our contact form, and include what you’re looking for in the notes.

We’ve gotten many questions about used equipment over the years, and are very proud to announce this new program for our clients.

Here’s to a great 2009!

It’s a funny fact of life, but it sometimes seems that opportunities are more abundant the more prepared you are.  We hear all the time from our clients that as soon as they bought a piece of equipment, the “demand” for them to do that kind of work went up.

For example, a guy gets an opportunity to bid removal jobs every once in awhile, and would just rent a machine if and when he ever actually was awarded the job.  Then, he wins a big job, decides to buy his own machine rather than rent one, and all of a sudden, he’s finding more opportunities to bid removal.  And, the other thing he notices:  now that he has his own machine, he’s actually winning more of the bids.

It’s interesting how that works out, isn’t it?  I’m not sure if it’s a different mindset when you own the machine, or if the fact that you own your own equipment communicates a level of competence and experience to your potential customers.  But, there’s something at play here, and the results cannot be denied.

Maybe you simply start getting more work because you’re not as intimidated when bidding jobs.  When you own your own equipment, you now know how quickly you can take up the floor, allowing you to bid more accurately.  Being able to more accurately asses the job allows you to bid more aggressively, since you don’t have to put in that “fudge factor” or a cushion.

Floor removal can be hard, and making business decisions can be hard.  Lots of guys are out there either renting or subbing out work, not taking in to account the extra business that you can pick up when you have the equipment in house.

If you’ve been on the fence about buying your own removal equipment, or a grinder or whatever, don’t forget to account for “The Law of the Prepared”.

If you’ll be in Las Vegas for World Of Concrete in February, be sure to pay us a visit.  As you know, World of Concrete is where you can learn all about new products, techniques, and trends in the industry.  Demolition equipment, grinders, and floor scrapers, are on display, along with tools for cutting, drilling, chemicals, coatings, and more

To view the industry leading Renegade 5700 All Day Battery ride on floor scraper as well as the new revolutionary Renegade 5600 Propane riding scraper, you can visit your SED sales representative at the World of Concrete National Surface Preparation Equipment booth (# S13905) or the National Carpet Equipment booth at Surfaces (#5742) on February 3-6.

We’ll be happy to discuss these scrapers, as well as other equipment, products, and services we can provide your company.  At SED, we take pride in the depth and breadth of knowledge possessed by our team of experts, and our ability to assist our clients before they make a purchase, and long after, through the lifetime of the equipment, including disposal of used floor removal equipment.

We look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas, at WOC.

It’s fairly common for us to get calls from production facilities looking to clean up industrial excess.  In a production environment, it’s common for stuff to spill or fall onto the floor and build up over time.

Whether it’s latex, rubber, wax, paint, or other soft materials, you can often take it up with a walk behind floor scraper, rather than a diamond grinder.  It’s a simpler process, less that could go wrong, and less expensive to run the machine over time.  Plus, depending on the floor that you’re removing the materials from, a scraper is a safer option.

Grinding stuff like this off a floor will wear the floor down over time.  This is especially true if you’re going to be forced to grind the same spots over and over and over, while not touching other parts of the floor.

If you’re thinking about a floor grinder for this kind of “industrial clean up”, you may find that a walk-behind scraper is actually the better option.

Just to clarify from the last post, finding small floor equipment is much easier than the riding floor scrapers or heavy duty floor grinders.  Local rental centers, and some Home Depot and Lowe’s locations will often have small walk-behind floor scrapers, spud bars, and even small floor grinders.

Rental fees will vary tremendously by location, but our experience in talking to guys is that a small walk behind scraper, that is NOT self-propelled, will typically be $30-$50 per day.  At an average of let’s say $40/day, you can get a machine similar to our Renegade 550 walk behind, which sells for $1300.  So, you’ve got about 3% of the purchase price for every day of rental.

It’s not uncommon for guys to get sick of renting, and contact us to buy one.  It’s not only the cost of renting that eventually gets to them, but also the hassles that may be involved.  Having to go pick up the equipment and the pressure of needing to have it back by a certain time to avoid over-charges and fees gets old pretty fast. 

The other point we hear is that guys that own a machine are free to use it whenever they want.  Often, if you run into a smaller job, you would definitely use the machine IF you have it.  But, if you don’t own it, it may be hard to justify the cost, and headache of going to rent one for such a small job.  So, you end up doing alot of those smaller jobs “the hard way”.

Again, it’s very hit and miss out there as far as rentals go, but, if you really are in that “once in a blue moon” situation where you need a smaller machine, call around, you might get lucky.

At least once a week we get calls from contractors who’d like to rent a riding floor scraper locally as a result of a job that popped up.  Most of the guys that need a rider several times a year already own one, but lots of guys that don’t run into floor removal that often don’t have a machine.

It sure would be nice if we could just give you the number of a local Sun or United rentals and you could head on over there and grab a machine for a few days.  Unfortunately, those rental centers don’t see the value in adding a riding scraper to their inventory.  Over all the years we’ve been doing this, we’ve sold maybe a handful to rental centers.

Maybe one day, we’ll implement a rental program on our own?  We could ship the machine to a locataion and let the rentor use it for a few days and ship it back.  We’ve had discussions about it, and while some of us think it’s a good idea, others think the machines will just get too beat up, and the risk isn’t worth it.

Maybe in 2009, we’ll experiment with this?  Until then, not sure what to tell all the folks looking for rentals.  Check your local rental center, but remember when doing so that you probably have no more than a 5% chance of finding one.  An option that’s more likely to work for you is to find a local contractor that owns a machine, and hire them to do the removal for you. 

Is that a great solution?  Not really.  But, it’s better than taking up 7,000 sf of ceramic tile with a roto hammer.

We get calls all the time from contractors out there looking for used grinders and floor scrapers.  Unfortunately, this equipment is pretty tough to find out there.

Every once in a while a client will contact us with a used Bronco or Renegade and tell us they’re looking to sell, but it is very infrequent…maybe one or two of these calls a year.  The other alternative is we’ll sometimes have access to a factory demo unit, or a piece of refurbished equipment.

If you’re looking for a used floor grinder or scraper, feel free to call us.  We’ll see what we can dig up.   But, don’t get hopes too high expecting to find something.  As Rory likes to say, used floor scrapers are as rare as “hen’s teeth”.

But, if you have a piece of equipment you’d like to sell, maybe something you only needed for one particular job, let us know.  We’ll see if we can’t help you turn your used flooring equipment into cash.