Shmuseum - Westwood Liquid Technologies Ltd

This unique project was made possible thanks to the qualities of PMMA liquid-applied membranes and the highly skilled team at Cure Group. The brief was to create a dream garage on behalf of British car vlogger and YouTuber, Tim Burton, also known as ‘Shmee150’. With a vast social media following across the world, including 2.54 million YouTube subscribers, Shmee is widely known by car enthusiasts as well as serial ‘hypercar’ purchasers. Named the ‘Shmuseum’, the 1,000 sq. m garage was to house Tim’s cars, automotive memorabilia and other car-themed items so they could be displayed to a vast social media audience. It would also provide an impressive backdrop for content to be made.

A Unique Design Brief:
Tim had a very specific design vision for the floor, which centred on emulating a famous corner of a grand prix racetrack at the Nürburgring in Germany. This had to run through the centre of the space, extending from the entrance of the garage, in the same width as the shutters. The track features both a left and a right turn with red and white curbing inspired by the Nürburgring.

Cure Group advised Tim on using cold-applied liquid waterproofing from WestWood to create this bespoke floor design as well as a very robust surface. Multiple colours and finishes had to be achieved to make the track look as authentic as possible.

Overcoming Challenges
Adhesion tests were carried out on the original, polished concrete floor, which revealed that some areas would not be suitable for the originally specified primer. This meant the top layer of the entire concrete floor had to be removed, requiring the whole garage to be emptied including circa 20 supercars. 

The concrete floor was sanded which saw the team vacuum the surface throughout the process to minimise dust. The surface was then prepared using Wecryl 176 – a fast reacting primer used as a barrier on absorbent substrates. This two-component primer is easy to apply and extremely fast to cure, with excellent adhesion qualities on porous substrates.

Adding design flexibility, WestWood’s Wecryl 488 was selected to achieve the different colours of the racetrack. This PMMA-based resin provides a high-grade, mechanically durable finish that can match any RAL colour and achieve a variety of special finishes to meet aesthetic requirements.
Its rapid curing properties allowed work to continue on different parts of the floor design without long waits. This also enabled the supercars to be taken back into the garage after the first part of the installation had been completed.

An Intricate, Highly-Skilled Installation
Prior to installing the PMMA waterproofing resin, Cure Group created templates of different parts of the track, including one of the red and white curbing, and one of the main track. Following advice from Cure Group, the track was designed with decorative chips in two different colours to provide a more authentic tarmac appearance. 

As well as ensuring the team could test – and agree – the colours and finishes with Tim, these templates enabled the team to practise the very precise installation needed to realise the design vision.

The shape of the track was meticulously marked out in the garage ensuring the curves met exact measurements and were precisely located. Specialist installers from Cure Group then applied WestWood’s Wecryl 488 PMMA solution. 

The curbing was a particularly challenging element of the installation. On each side of the track, a strip of the PMMA resin in dark grey was applied first followed by a PMMA resin in bright white following the curving required. As part of this process, a 36mm piece of masking tape was carefully laid. This was then peeled back to reveal the small grey strip that runs alongside the curbing on both sides of the track. 

The ‘curb stones’ were measured out in square sections and the PMMA resin applied in both red and white to achieve the desired result. The meticulous use of tape ensured perfect lines and curving.
A darker grey PMMA resin was used for the main racetrack. The decorative chips were then carefully scattered throughout ensuring they were evenly spread before the PMMA cured.

In addition to the racetrack, various structures and awkward shapes within the garage, including the legs of the car lifts, added to the complexity of the installation. 

The process was filmed by Tim for his Shmee YouTube channel where he commented online:
“The racetrack is complete and my mancave is coming to life! I cannot believe how good it looks with the motorsport theme for the garage flooring. The dream is becoming reality and this process with Cure Coatings and WestWood has added a HUGE transformation to how it looks! 

“This former milking parlour on a farm outside of London is undergoing a huge change to become my dream garage and home to the Shmeemobiles. Taking inspiration from many garages that I’ve visited across the world in recent years, I’ve designed my ultimate setup and we’re now making that reality! From the offices, lounge and halo space housed in the Grandstand, through to the Racetrack that will be painted throughout, this is something I’ve been excited about completing for years.
‘A huge thanks to Cure Group for the ideas and putting together this plan.”

Speaking of the project, Paul Davies, managing director of Cure Group, said: “The client wanted to do something creative with the design, so we worked closely with WestWood to deliver something which would fit the brief. Not only is WestWood’s PMMA solution extremely robust for heavily trafficked areas and aesthetically versatile, it is also very reliable. 

“At Cure Group, we are WestWood Premier card holders which is the highest level of specialist installer, based on skill and experience. This project was a fantastic opportunity for us to deliver a truly unique job, in a way only a PMMA system could deliver. WestWood was the perfect choice for this project as its systems are fast curing, solvent free – and the specialist technical team provided support throughout the entire project. Because of this, we were able to replicate the exact design, and achieve the desired outcome for the client.”