Commercial Projects - Irvine Auditorium

Irvine Auditorium

William B. Irvine Auditorium
University of Pennsylvania
3401 Spruce St.
Philadelphia, PA

Work By

SandFree-Philadelphia
116 Cricket Ave.
888-202-3794
Mike Helmle

Before

This was a maple floor that had been sanded, and stained red, 20 years ago.  In more recent time,  the floor had been waxed once a year, with a liquid, dyed wax. In addition to be dull and lifeless, the wax had become sticky, especially on hot days.

In addition to a generally, lackluster appearance, the floor had discoloration and scratches throughout.  But although it was unsightly, and had been expensive for the University to maintain over the years, the beauty of the wood was apparent underneath the finish.

Phase 0 is our process to remove wax.  You can see below how effective the process is.  We made 3 passes over the floor to remove all of the wax.

The result is the reddish/blonde floor below.  The Penn administration, who were not familiar with the process were concerned, to say the least, that the floor had lost color.  Our contact convinced them to wait until tomorrow before they got nervous.

After 2 coats of a custom ColorMagiQ color, the floor again had color (below).  It took 2 coats of color to achieve uniformity in the floor.

The final project with 1 coat of Phase 4 (bonding) and 2 coats of Phase 5 (urethane with no sheen) is shown below.

One Note of Caution:  This project worked out beautifully because there was a wax finish that we removed.  We were working on raw wood. If you have a harder, more durable finish - varnish or urethane for example - the results will not be as dramatic because we will be working on top of the finish, not the raw wood.  When ColorMagiQ is in contact with raw wood, the color is intense and dramatic, with limitless possibilities.  The intensity of the color is reduced when ColorMagiQ is applied on top of finish.