Bethany, Conn.—Laticrete recently donated a large amount of tile installation products to a major hospital construction project in earthquake-ravaged Haiti.
The National Teaching Hospital in Mirebalais, Haiti, is being built under the direction of Partners in Health, a not-for-profit, Boston-based organization that specializes in providing health services and facilities to those in need worldwide. According to Peter McKeon, Regional Sales Manager for Laticrete, “Boston’s Shawmut Construction and Partners in Health work very closely with each other. For the National Teaching Hospital, a construction team consisting of workers from both of those organizations was put together under the direction of PIH project director, Charlie Henriques. That group then spoke to Troy Bickford of Contract Flooring in Raynham, Massachusetts, who almost immediately offered the services of his firm to prepare the hospital’s flooring to be tiled. Being a top Laticrete MVP installer, Bickford then approached us. We responded immediately, offering a great deal of product.”
In addition to the Laticrete materials contributed, more than 70,000 square feet of floor tile and 40,000 square feet of wall tile were provided by manufacturers Fiandre, American Ceramics and Dal-Tile.
“We began the project on July 1st of 2010,” stated Charlie Henriques. “Completion of the hospital for the Phase “A” Opening is slated for early 2012. Nothing could have been done without donations. Laticrete in particular, was not only generous, but very accommodating, efficient and informative. We asked the people there what was needed, and they made intelligent recommendations. Right after that, they arranged for the products to arrive. There was a ten-week lead time to get all materials into the sea containers, and Laticrete certainly didn’t make us wait,” added Henriques.
“Everybody wanted to help,” said McKeon. “Right after we made our commitment, we went to our friends at United Distributors, who promptly agreed to donate all tools needed for the project.”
Laticrete, which supplied 100% of the tile installation materials needed for the hospital project, donated over $50,000 worth of product. This included Laticrete 816 LatiPatch to skim the substrate; Laticrete 86 LatiLevel self-leveling for floor preparation and a number of pallets of both Laticrete 4-XLT adhesive thin-set and Laticrete PermaColor™ Grout.
“We’re starting the floor prep in November and December of this year,” Troy Bickford commented. “Our company is very committed to helping the Haitians. My brother, son, two nephews and I will be in charge of getting the substrates ready, and we’ll be teaching Haitians how to use materials. We’re all looking forward to it,” he continued. “I’ve worked on a number of very diverse tile installation projects for many years, but never in a third-world, post-earthquake environment. This is for a great cause. Everybody’s talking about it. I’m so glad we could get the family involved.”
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