Foreword

June have been a pretty eventful month here in GYMS Pte Ltd. We welcome a new colleague in Miss Praise Poh, our purchasing consultant. She will be in charge of providing you with timber flooring solutions to your projects. If you have any problems, do drop her an email at praise@gymscms.com.

We have expanded our social media presence. We are now on Tumblr, our regular blog that gives you an idea into what we see or hear daily in our lives. It will be written by all members of the GYMS Pte Ltd family. We also have Twitter account that we send out news to our followers. We have also started uploading our pictures onto Flickr account. Our monthly newsletter is also being put up onto enwoodfloorsjournal.blogspot.com. We are doing all these in order to stay in touch with you and at the same time keep you updated with what is happening in our company.

This month, we have completed 4 small- to mid-sized projects and clinched a hotel project. Our Classique range of EnWood Floors, the wide boards are specified and confirmed. I will be doing a very close update on this project once it start work to show to you how amazing EnWood Floors are.

Another thing that we will be doing moving forward is also the fact that we will be purchasing new equipments for our flooring installations in the coming months. I realize that Asian installers are usually not productive enough as compared to Europeans or Americans mainly because the tools that they are using is not the best tools available. 

So after some thoughts, I have decided that we should change our tools for the flooring installation and we should be using the right tools for the right jobs. I believe that once we are well- equipped, we will be able to increase our productivity level by another 10-20%. 

Whenever we get a new tool, I will showcase it and show you how they will be able to assist us in our installation better and safer. We want to be one of the best in the industry, thus we have to own one of the best tools in the industry as well!

Lastly, looking at the contracts that we have secured over the last month, next month will be another busy month for us! Looking forward to it! And of course the World Cup Finals as well!

Cheers!

Michael Ong

Director

GYMS Pte Ltd

Construction News

World's First Recycled Plastic Bridge!

International engineering consultants Parsons Brinckerhoff have designed the world's first recycled plastic railway bridges for the US Army at Fort Eustis, Virginia, USA.

The bridges use Recycled Structural Composite (RSC), a thermoplastic material manufactured by Axion International Holdings from recycled domestic and industrial plastic, which can support up to 30 tonnes.

Axion's RSC technology was developed in conjunction with scientists at Rutgers University, where it was patented.

RSC technology represents another truly historic event for both structural engineers and environmentally-conscious individuals across the nation. Utilising RSC technology, structures are built with cheaper costs compared to similar steel, wood or concrete structures. 


Furthermore, the bridges require very little maintenance and have the same life expectancy as conventionally-built ones.


The recycled plastic bridge has completed trials last May and commercial applications are expected to start in June 2010.

A Window That Serves Dual Purpose

Sunlight is an endless source of energy. Solar panels have been around for many years and are usually installed on the rooftops to generate electricity. In a new twist to solar panel structural applications, Hua Qin has produced solar panel windows. These solar windows are capable of generating 2 Watt per square feet.

They are slightly foggy and can replace conventional glass windows.The windows can come in slightly hazy to opaque. Generally, the lower the transparency of the window, the higher the power output of the solar windows.


For more information, please visit: http://www.wareground.com/articles/hua_qin_solar_glass_generates_electricity_lets_most_of_the_sun_shine_in

Self-healing Concrete

Michelle Pelletier, a University of Rhode Island master's degree holder from Woodsocket, RI has invented a new form of concrete that can “self-heal” when damaged. By inserting a micro-encapsulated sodium silicate agent into a concrete matrix, the concrete is able to self-repair itself when tiny cracks form. These tiny ruptures break the capsules of sodium silicate which form a plug to seal the cracks.

The sodium silicate reacts with the calcium hydroxide naturally present in the concrete to form a calcium-silica-hydrate product to heal the cracks and block the pores in the concrete. The chemical reaction creates a gel-like material that hardens in about one week.


There a two unique features about this material. Firstly, it can have a localized and targeted release of the healing agent only in the areas that really need it. Also, Pelletier's healing mix recovers 26 percent of the original strength of the concrete block (after being stressed to near breaking) compared to just 10 percent recovery by current repair methods using standard mixes.


This self-healing concrete will help to extend the life of the structure, helping builders save cost in the long run.

For more information, visit: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100524143421.htm

Real Estate News

Newly Launched property

Waterfront Gold

Developers: Frasers Centrepoint and Far East Organization,

Location: Bedok Reservoir Road
Apartment Type: Condominium
Tenure: 99 Years

Boasting an 8,000 sq ft observation-cum-exercise skypark on the 16^th floor of the 361-unit Waterfront Gold, residents would be able to enjoy the waterfront resort-style living with reservoir-fronting view and breezy fresh air.

A MRT station is also in the pipeline, with the Down Town Line opening in 2016. Buyers can choose from one bedroom-units of 581 sq ft to four-bedroom units penthouses with a maximum area of 3,057 sq ft.

Units available:

• 1 bedroom (581sqft)
• 2 bedrooms Compact (667sqft)
• 2 bedrooms (872- 893sqft)
• 3 bedrooms Compact (1012- 1055sqft)
• 3 bedrooms (1195- 1346 sqft)
• 4 bedrooms (1378 - 1464 sqft)
• 4 bedrooms Penthouse (1927 - 3057 sqft)

Fix-It!

Welcome to the first installment of Fix-It! In this section, we will highlight various DIY tips that you can do around the house as well as showcase nifty new gadgets that can enhance your DIY experience.


In this issue, we will kick off with a gadget that has immense use in wood flooring installation. As we all know, there are many factors that affect a wood floor installation process. One of the key factors to consider is the moisture content of a concrete sub-floor. As most of us live in high-rise apartments, a concrete sub-floor or screed is usually the default floor that is given to us upon key collection. A newly-completed house usually has a concrete sub-floor with a high moisture content as the water in the sub-floor may not have enough time to evaporate out. This is a problem as most wood floors need a sub-floor moisture content of between 10-12%. This is even more important for solid wood flooring products such as parquet and solid wood long boards.


Failure to heed to the manufacturer's recommended moisture content specifications may lead to warping and cupping of the floor boards. This is especially so for parquet floors where the strips are shorter in length and more susceptible to water absorption from the concrete sub-floor.


There are many moisure test kits out there, but the cheaper paper-based ones tend to be inaccurate. It is also a problem if you have to test the moisure content in a few areas to ensure moisture content consistency. So how would we solve this problem? Enter the portable moisture meter...

The one shown here is the Lutron MS-7003. It has both a digital readout as well as a coloured graphical indicator to show the moisture content of a particular material. It has 2 modes: Concrete and Wood. This comes in handy when doing wood flooring installation as a it allows you to test both the concrete sub-floor as well as the wood flooring itself.


Some of the more advanced functions of this particular moisture meter is its ability to record maximum and minimum moisture content over a particular area. This is handy when trying to determine the average moisture content and to detect locations where there is a higher concentration of water.


Usage of the instrument is pretty easy. Simply switch the instrument on, select the material, and stick the 2 pin probes into the material to be tested a minimum of 2mm below the surface. The digital readout will show the exact percentage of moisture content (accurate to 1 decimal place).

Quick and easy determination of moisture content is important in wood flooring installation, and the Lutron MS-7003 is one such instrument which makes an installer's life a lot easier!