Klindex training course October 2024.
Well it all started at 4am, collected a couple of guys to join me on our journey from Yorkshire down south to London Stansted airport.
Met up with the rest of the lads then through security and off for a full english breakfast and the obligatory pint ( for some of us ) then off we flew to Pescara in Italy.
In Pescara we were met by Nino the trainer from Klindex who kindly took us to the factory to meet the owner Ercole Bibiano. Mr Bibiano gave us an insight as to what was to come over the next few days and told us a little about how Klindex evolved.
Back to our hotel and settled in to our rooms, dinner at 7.30 which was lovely and a few beers then off to bed for some much needed sleep.
Off we go for our first day of training....
We were shown a wide range of Klindex machines and it was explained to us what their capabilities were, then the grinding of a marble began, first of all, we went through the process of using the Elica pads from 0 to step 7 which finally provided a beautifully polished finish. We all were offered to try the grinding and polishing process as we went along and got a feel for how the machine felt and performed.
It was interesting to see the different methods used for grinding and polishing natural stone floors, Elica pads, Tripads and then the use of a planetary using diamonds and resins, all create different degrees of polish and each method took different lengths of time to achieve the results.
Using a floor polishing & grinding rotary machine for the first time can be a bit daunting, I can only describe it to finding the biting point on a clutch in a car, once mastered, you can relax then the machines are much easier to manage.
I tried an oscillating machine which for those people who cannot get on with a rotary machine, is incredibly easy to manoeuvre but are much slower in achieving results than using a single disc rotary machine or rotary machine with the use of a planetary.
We watched a demonstration of using a steel wool pad with the smallest amount of crystalliser on Terrazzo, the result was remarkable, the floor had clearly been polished previously but had lost its lustre and needed bringing back to life, this did the job perfectly and was incredibly fast to achieve.
Next lesson was carrying out a repair to a damaged floor using Stucco mastic, most of the group had a try with this product and since returning home, one guy has put this in to practice and repaired a customers floor who was left delighted with the results.
We had a tour of the factory which was fascinating, we saw how the diamond discs were manufactured, how the branding is applied to the Tripad polishing pads by laser, how the floor rotary machines are assembled and the electrical components are installed to each floor polishing machine, we saw the huge amount of stock, components and deliveries ready to go to customers, the whole experience was an eye opener and a great opportunity.
We were taken to a restaurant for lunch on both days, in the past, we used to eat in the onsite canteen with staff and management but since Covid, new rules came into play meaning guests were no longer allowed to eat on the premises. Never the less, we were treated to more delicious Italian food along with wine and beers which were all welcomed and very much appreciated.
Day 2 we spent in a marquee, this time was to have a go at grinding a concrete floor, most of the group enjoyed playing with the larger machine, Nino demonstrated colouring the concrete and showed how logo’s can be inpregnated into the concrete too.
We also played with the Waterfire, for those of you who have not seen this incredible machine, this is a heavy handheld machine with capabilities of getting to those hard to reach places and right up to edges where the larger machines cannot get to, this handheld machine can also grind, polish, clean and sand floors and counter tops.
Then there is the famous UFO counter top machine with its own built in planetary for grinding and polishing along with the mini orbit which is prefect for cleaning and polishing stairs and hard to reach areas.
Over all, we had a very informative training course and touched on many techniques, we all know how boring training can be but Nino is such a character, he made the days fun and interesting.
What I like about this course is that we keep the groups small so that the guests can make the course their own and can ask as many questions as they need to.
If you have never ground a natural stone floor back and brought it back to a polish, it is a technique worth mastering and can command a decent price on a job, this technique is also useful for floor preparation projects and adds another dimension to the services you can potentially offer to your customers.
We will be offering more dates during 2025 to attend this free 2 day course, if you would like to be added to the list for notifications then please drop us an email at hello@repolished.co.uk
Below are some photos and videos from our latest training day
Thank you for reading
