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Concrete People: Arlo Simon

ARLO SIMON and TOP COVER have been partners with IDEAL WORK for about ten years now and have done wonderful and unexpected jobs with MICROTOPPING.

The elevator door opens: Arlo walks out holding a piece of a bench. He takes it to a pile of similar pieces, two dozen or so. He snorts, his colleague Daan snorts too and then they both burst into laughter.
“I didn’t expect this job to be like this!”
“At least this was the last ride. This is where the fun begins!”
“How did they manage to convince us?”

 

Arlo and Daan are sitting in an office. On the other side of the desk, someone is showing them the visuals of a series of benches and tables set in open space.
“This is the effect we want to achieve: they have to look like natural stone. And we intend to use Microtopping.”
“We couldn’t ask for better.”
“It will be challenging.”
“We’re not afraid: we’ve covered an old bus with Microtopping and we’ve turned it into a cocktail bar.”
“I didn’t mean this.”

 

The two of them, again. In a warehouse, this time: they’re dismantling benches and tables making them easier to load them onto the truck that will take them to the building site.

“This is what he meant by challenging!”
“Let’s hope we got the elevator’s measurements right.”
“I’ll never play tetris again in my life!”

 

In the wide room lit by large bay glass windows, the skeletons of various pieces of furniture have taken shape. Beside them, the two are mixing powders and liquids to start Microtopping application.
“After the last elevator ride I thought the worst part would have been done.”
“Are you nervous?”
“Just a little bit.”
“Are you excited?”
“Yes!”
“If you mix the two in the right ratio, the result will be astonishing!”

 

In the wide room lit by large bay glass windows, work is proceeding. A considerable part has already been completed. The two are kneeling down, absorbed in their work: they’re spreading the compound on the surface with a trowel. Next to them, on the floor lie other rollers and tools that are necessary for the following step: making Microtopping look like natural stone.
They stand up straight almost simultaneously to stretch their sore backs and their gaze lingers over the bench they have just finished.
“I pictured it exactly like this”
“All things considered, the elevator part has actually been the worst.”
“I agree. From now on: only stairs for me!”
They laugh out loud.
“Wait until you get home and your kids ask you to play tetris!”