A long awaited product, Target’s new Vertical/Overhead Repair Mortar has been in formulation and testing for over three years. Helen Zeng (R& D Senior Materials Engineer) had managed to formulate a product that was sticky enough to be applied overhead yet still be workable that it could be troweled and finished to a smooth appearance. The question… were there enough sales to justify it’s existence?

The answer came by way of a phone call from Phil Beedle, Senior Construction Engineer from BC Hydro to Jack Torok (Target’s Industrial Sales Technical Representative). BC Hydro’s power station, The Cheakamus Power Generating Station, 10 kilometers west of Squamish, was constructed in 1959 to supply the timber mills of Squamish and send excess power to Vancouver. By 2005 it had grown to supply power to the entire communities of Squamish, Whistler and still send excess power to Vancouver. Unfortunately the exterior of the plant was left largely neglected and was in bad need of refinishing. BC Hydro originally bantered around Shotcreting the wall, but this would be next to impossible considering they are situated on a salmon spawning river. The V/O Repair Mortar made perfect sense. The first trial of the V/O Repair Mortar was done in October of 2004 on an exposed concrete wall at the plant to determine if the product could withstand a cold winter along with the varying temperatures that occur in that valley. After a site visit in January and again in May, the product came through with flying colours. BC Hydro was sold on using the V/O Repair Mortar. They ordered up 5 pallets of the material and began and completed the entire job in little over a week. The application crew stated that they have never used a product that mixed up as easy and was as quick to use with excellent results as Target’s V/O Repair Mortar.