Slippery Rock Gazette

Bob Murrell 

Special Contributor

Photos provided by Bob Murrell

This should be a busy season for restoration pros as people prepare their homes (and stone floors) to look their best. New M3 Majestic XXX Shine is a premium polishing powder that will add the “wow” factor to your next polishing job.

Folks in the Stone Industry work hard, and it’s important to have an outlet that involves family, friends, or perhaps a hobby. I have all three covered.  My apiaries (honey bee hives) and boating with my family are my hobbies.

I hope you had a successful 2015, have a safe and wonderful Holiday Season, and I hope we all have a blessed and prosperous 2016.

Summer is long gone and we are approaching the end of another year. I hope that everyone has had a good and profitable 2015. We have covered many topics this year and I hope that my input has been beneficial in some way to you. If so, I would consider that as having accomplished the goal. 

So far this year we have discussed ceramic tile, quartzite and sandstone, polished concrete, a customer spotlight, grinding and honing, use of hand tools, polishing granite- type materials, operational costs, and managing customer expectations. Hopefully these were some helpful topics and next year we will try to do many more.

There should probably be an increase in restoration projects and maintenance in general during this time of the year as both commercial properties and homeowners alike want their installations to look good for the upcoming holiday season.  

Of course, as we know, most will require only polishing but some may need some light honing first in the most worn traffic lanes. At M3 Technologies, we have just come out with our latest polishing powder which is called Majestic XXX Shine. It is a premium polishing powder for professional contractors and works really well to produce a high degree of gloss without leaving etching or swirl marks. This pre-holiday season would be a great time to give it a try.  

So go clean that grout, hone those scratches and etches, and re-polish those traffic patterns. Now is the time to tidy up and polish so that all applicable stone installations shine like the top of the Chrysler Building. Oh, yeah – and hopefully it will help bring up those year-end revenues too.   

Finishing on some personal notes, my honey bees are hopefully ready for winter. I have four hives, two of which are very strong and the other two are so–so. We will see if they make it through the winter. 

The last few years I have suffered about 50% losses, which is about the average for most of the smaller apiaries like mine. A small parasite called the Varroa Mite is a major culprit in their demise. These nasty little critters are kinda like ticks on a dog sucking the life blood while spreading viruses and bacteria. I proactively treated for them this fall, so hopefully next year will be a banner year for my bees and honey. My fingers are crossed. You are probably asking, “Why should I care about honey bees?” 

Honey bees and other pollinators are responsible for helping produce 1/3 of all the food crops we consume. 

Without them, we could have serious food supply issues for the world’s population.

My other favorite past time is our family boat which is being winterized as I type. I am really looking forward to next summer on the lake. The bees and the boat are how I help clear my mind.

I have selected and marked standing dead trees in my woods for the fireplace fuel, as I do every year. I still fell, cut, and split my own wood for the fireplace. It is getting harder as I am getting older but I still enjoy the process– plus I figure I need the exercise! Even though it is probably not very efficient, our fireplace really helps make the ambiance of the den in the colder months. I am sure many of you will agree. 

A few dreaded yard chores remain like blowing and mulching of the last leaves, removing all water hoses and installing the spigot insulation caps, and uprooting any annuals still hanging on to till the ground for next year. But mowing season is almost over, thank goodness (oh and I still use a walk behind mower too).

For now, I am looking forward to spending the Holidays with my family and friends. I have always liked this time of the year as I expect many traditionalists do. For those of you who don’t, “Bah, humbug!” I have also discovered that if you wait too long to get into the spirit, you may miss out on it. Don’t forget the reason for the season either.

My youngest child is eleven (even though I am probably the most juvenile), so Christmas is still very special in the Murrell household. We have decorated the same tree for about 20 years now. It holds an ever growing eclectic ornament collection that represents each year of our lives as a family. I feel that I am a truly blessed citizen of these here United States of America. 

So bring on the pecan pie, turkey and dressing, ham and yams, and those wonderful yeast rolls! Oh the rolls! I’ll worry about getting back to my svelte self (ha) in the spring.

I hope you had a successful 2015, have a safe and wonderful Holiday Season, and I hope we all have a blessed and prosperous 2016. As always, please consult your distributor or myself anytime we can be of assistance. Happy polishing to you, and I’ll see you next year. 

Bob Murrell has worked in the natural stone industry for over 40 years and is well known for his expertise in the restoration and maintenance of natural stone, terrazzo, ceramic tile, and decorative concretes. He helped develop some of the main products and processes which revolutionized the industry. Bob started one of the largest and most successful training seminars in the industry with thousands of contractors having attended his school over a 25 year period. He has written technical articles for many industry publications and is currently the National Sales Manager for M3 Technologies based out of Cohasset, Massachusetts.