Home for the Holidays
What is Dry Rot?
Coatings, Caulkings, and Regular Maintenance
Communication as a Community Manager
A Sprinkle of Misunderstandings
When was the last time you let a sprinkle of rain get in the way of a big project?
A common scenario regarding project proposals is similar to the following:
B. Taylor Account Manager: “Good morning, I am following up to see how the board meeting went the other day. Did the project get awarded? Were there any questions regarding the proposal? When can we start?”
Client: “Hey, Thanks for calling and following up. No, unfortunately, the painting project didn’t get signed or awarded because the board felt that the rainy season was upon us, and they decided to wait until next year!”
After a phone call as such, we hang up and ask ourselves why the board waited until quarter 1 of the new year to sign a paint project? When they could have signed it in quarter 4, it leaves us a bit perplexed.
Our confusion stems from the simple fact that it takes (sometimes) months’ worth of time for us to prepare the project. Plus, we are able to paint in the wet months, especially interior projects. We work around the weather to complete exterior paintings as well.
A timely signed contract allows us to get it scheduled, prepare pre-production paperwork and our workforce. Projects added to the calendar of future work are the ones with signed contracts.
As a team, we keep everyone posted on future jobs. The labor force enjoys knowing what projects they are slated for next, just as much as leadership loves planning each project. We believe it is best to be fair to our team members in the field by offering them a peace of mind in regards to their workload and stability of their job, as they have families to support.
During the wet months, if our clients procrastinate in the process of getting contracts signed, there is no guarantee there will be a workforce immediately ready to beautify their neighborhood. This is a key reason contacts need to be signed months in advance.
Our leadership team is best equipped and prepared to exceed client expectations when we can schedule projects and plan each one appropriately with ample time. At the very least, when a project gets signed a couple of quarters ahead of time, you are allowing the contractor to order some material, mockup the property, and get the right paint and paint colors on the wall.
Business partners, do everyone a favor and make plans now to sign contracts in quarters 3 and 4 this year for all your contractors in 2021.
The Palette Bandwagon
- BLUE – Peace, quiet, and serenity. Blue can sometimes be viewed as a depressing color, however if you mix up the shades, you will find it can signify loyalty, authority, or strength.
- YELLOW – Happiness, energy, and playfulness. Yellow can be a scary color to use for some people, yet if it is used correctly and in the right shade it can give a bold, delightful statement.
- RED – Passion, excitement, aggressive, and important. This is a color you may use with caution or play with the shades of red to find the perfect fit.
- GREEN – Life, prosperity, nature, and vitality. Green is always a wonderful option for an accent color.
- BROWN – Natural, rustic, and honest. Often paired with green, brown can be a great match for a rustic setting or just as a neutral color for your property.
2020 Summer Painting Season
Too hot to paint? No way.
Painting in the heat is different than during the cool, wet seasons, however, our service never changes. Our team has the expertise to ensure each project is done with high-quality workmanship and the correct products are used each time.
Success in the warm months:
Just like an art project, paint typically dries faster in warmer temperatures, than it does in the cool winter months. Painting apartment complexes and commercial buildings is not much different.
As in any other time of the year, success begins with the prep. This includes the need to provide adequate downtime (or drying time) after pressure washing the substrate. During the summer the water will evaporate faster and more forcefully; therefore, if a coating is applied too soon it will bubble as the vapors try to escape but are trapped by the film once dried. This is especially true on wood (or engineered materials) as it absorbs water deeper than any other substrate, but in general, it’s a rule that must be followed regardless of the substrate.
For metal, workability lies on the surface temperature. It must be painted early in the morning before it heats up. If that is not possible, the coating must be applied very thin so it will not crack as it dries from the inside out or surface to ambient air.
Since the paint dries so quickly in the heat it cannot be worked or handled much, if it’s overworked it will show spray and roller patterns. The key is having skilled tradesmen, a foreman that knows not only how to spray the material, but what equipment is needed and how to properly use it. The right tip and pressure on the spray rig go a long way when spraying paint during the hot summer months. A skilled, experienced foreman will know what he’s working with and will adjust his spray pattern accordingly to vanish spray lines and leave a uniform finish without having to do the same task multiple times. Skilled and experienced painters/journeymen know how much they can work the material and how long they have until the roller and brush begin to leave stipples and brush marks.
Types of paint to be used in the heat:
The question is not whether or not it’s the correct paint. Rather, it is whether or not the application method is proper for the coating and substrate.
Most coatings are engineered to be used in the heat. However, not all are applied or worked the same way. High solid coatings are more likely to show patterns if overworked or if they are applied with the incorrect equipment and unskilled workmanship. Two-component coatings have a shorter pot life in the heat and stains are susceptible to “shinners”. Once again, the key is to have professional, experienced tradesmen handling the materials.
Safety first in the heat:
On top of proper coatings, applications, and quality workmanship – we hold safety to be our #1 priority all the time, with an increased focus during the hot months. We make sure there is ample water supply for our team members on the job sites and breaks are taken in the shade. If it is an option to paint earlier in the day before the peak temperatures, we change the time of day we paint. Lastly, leadership members train foremen to recognize the signs of heatstroke and there is always a plan for emergencies set in place prior to starting each project.
B. Taylor Painting would love to be your trusted contractor for all painting projects. If we can help you, contact us today at www.btaylorpainting.com.
Vapor Abrasive Blasting
Written By Ashley Kenny
Gilroy, California, is known as the garlic capital of the world. With enough production to warrant a July festival in honor of the “the stinking rose,” there’s plenty of processing facilities to keep contractors busy.
In November 2018, B. Taylor Painting was working at a Gilroy processing plant and seeking alternative methods of surface preparation. Mechanical removal would do more than protect employees from going home smelling like a greek food truck – it would change the game for the service of B. Taylor Painting.
“This project actually entailed doing light gauge steel, sheet metal covers on equipment and where the belting and belt system move, there’s a lot of intricate pieces,” said Brian Taylor, President of B. Taylor Painting. “One of the benefits of a media blaster would be that it allows the metal to stay cool enough to where you don’t have it warp.”
Taylor connected with Don Gonneville of Gonneville Inc., a West Coast Graco EcoQuip blaster distributor. With more than 20 years of experience in the business, Gonneville showed up to the jobsite ready to demo the EcoQuip P model.
“We blasted in a real time environment and they actually bought it on spot and they’ve used it ever since,” Gonneville said. “Brian told me that on the first job they did, it paid for itself.”
This is no everyday sand blaster nor an average water blaster – it’s actually the lovechild of the two.
“Our unit has a blast pot into which you put water and abrasives together,” Gonneville explained. “Our system is pressurized with water. In other words, as the user blasts with the system, the water and abrasive that is ejected from the pot process is replaced by water being pumped back into the pot to maintain pressure in that pot.”
As for specifications, the EcoQuip’s blast pot is two cubic feet and can run on a 185 cfm compressor. But you can also attach a 400 cfm compressor to achieve even more production, Gonneville said.
From an engineering perspective, this blaster gets big points. Traditional blasting pots are compressed with air as they expel abrasives out. An empty pot means nothing but air.
“It has an uneven blast because as the air compresses and expands, compresses and expands, it changes the velocity of the abrasives being ejected from the system,” Gonneville said. “Water, on the other hand, since it cannot be compressed, will have a consistent pressure throughout, where the blast is very steady. So we use less abrasive and it provides a more consistent blast.”
The most significant improvement made by Graco since purchasing the EcoQuip line eight years ago is the design of the pot’s overhead dome, Gonneville said.
“The old design, rather than being convex, was concave on top and it trapped air around the rim on the inside,” he said. “When you went to pressurize the pot, you had to wait until the air was expelled before the pot would start pressurizing, which wasted some time. With the system we now have, since there’s no air trapped in that pot, as soon as we start introducing more water into the pot to pressurize, it pressurizes almost immediately.”
Time is money
Quick pot pressurization isn’t the only thing that will get your budgets excited.
“The No. 1 cost is labor,” Taylor said. “Anytime we can introduce a mechanical form of removal, it’s going to bring that cost down. In our experience using this, for a year and a half now, we’ve found that this media blaster brings that labor down the most.”
Just how much does it save time on surface preparation? Pedro Cazares, B. Taylor Painting general manager, talked about a project in Marina, California, where his team was doing surface prep for ten housing units, two stories each. The metal railings sit close to the ocean, meaning the salt water in the air oxidizes the metal and in less than six years they needed a makeover. On that project alone, the use of the EcoQuip blaster saved more than 300 hours of labor, Cazares said.
Taylor said that kind of cost-cutting may not happen on your first job, but it’s worth it.
“The first time you go out and use this stuff, you’re not going to go cut your labor bill in half, because you’re still learning how the equipment works,” Taylor said. “But over time, you train your employees on how to use it and people get familiar with what it’s capable of, what situations it’s effective and what situations it’s just not. If we can get the equipment in there, this new blasting system is by far the quickest, most-efficient way to do it as far as labor is involved.”
Safety second to none
Proper training is less for the sake of your pocketbook and more for the safety of the operator. Contractors in every trade constantly seek ways to protect their people and maintain or exceed OSHA standards – and dry blasting rivals twelve-packs-a-day when it comes to lung health.
“It creates an awful lot of dust,” Gonneville said. “That’s one of the reasons why vapor abrasive blasting is gaining a lot of popularity. Because it reduces the amount of dust airborne particulates by almost 95 percent.”
An impressive number, but that doesn’t mean you go commando. In case you haven’t made dry blasting your favorite summer time activity recently, here’s your reminder that California heat and full body PPE aren’t exactly the best match.
“When it’s hot, the operators like our system a lot more because they don’t have to wear as much protective gear,” Gonneville said. “They do have to maintain breathing protection, eye and ear protection. That’s pretty simple.”
This system keeps your general managers smiling, operators safe and accountants as happy as they get. The EcoQuip’s ability to please doesn’t stop there.
Anyone in charge of paperwork shuffling will be happy to hear this also saves on your printer ink, at least in California, Gonneville said.
“In California, if your ratio of water to abrasive is at a certain level, the blast pot does not have to be permitted by the air quality management district or the air and resources board in Sacramento,” he explained. “A dry blast pot over a certain size has to be permitted and the user of that pot has to keep track of how much abrasive is being used. Our system does not have to be permitted. That’s one big advantage of the mix between water and abrasive.”
Cleanliness is next to godliness
Gonneville, Cazares and Taylor all agree – the EcoQuip blasts the competition when it comes to executing a clean job.
Cazares explained how B. Taylor’s team uses two layers of plastic around the blast areas to catch all of the broken glass used as an abrasive. This media is the most economic choice for B. Taylor Painting and 100 percent reusable, he said.
The president of the painting company agrees, going into more detail.
“We can actually funnel all that debris to an area where we can filter the water back out and contain all those particulates,” Taylor said. “Then sweep it up later or actually drain it into a bucket if you’ve created the proper funnel system, you can drain all of it.”
Environmental Benefits
This cleanliness translates into environmental stewardship as well, Gonneville said.
“It makes it a lot easier to measure how much abrasive you’re actually using in the process,” he added. “This means that our system uses a lot less abrasive because it can be metered or adjusted a lot easier than an air-compressed system.”
Gonneville said B. Taylor Painting is a “professional in surface preparation” – in part because they use the best equipment available in a way that is environmentally sound and friendly.
“Obviously, it often comes down to money,” Gonneville said. “But customers also need to consider how clean the job is going to be, how well it is going to be done. Of course, the result is very much a function of the equipment that’s being used.”
Workmanship
As general manager, Cazares’ chief concern is that of service quality. In the case of surface preparation, this means achieving a perfect profile.
“Grinding it or machining it by hand will leave a really smooth profile and will leave the metal really polished,” Cazares said. “When you apply coating to a really polished hard substrate, it does not stick. What we’re trying to achieve is dimpling in the metal that allows the primer and the coatings to adhere properly. In this case, with the team and system that we’re using, we’re aiming for at least a 2 mil. profile.”
The crew at B. Taylor Painting uses broken glass on metal, but there’s many options to send through the EcoQuip, Gonneville said.
“We use garnet on steel because it cuts very well,” he explained. “It’s denser, harder and it removes the coating quickly.”
Workmanship doesn’t pivot around the abrasive. It comes down to the user and the equipment. In the case of the EcoQuip, the machine is customizable depending on the project’s needs.
“We can blast anywhere from 40 PSI to 130 to 135 PSI,” Gonneville said. “Depending on the job we’re doing, for example, if someone is blasting wood, which is a lot more delicate, obviously than steel, they want to blast at a lower pressure so they don’t damage the wood. With steel on the other hand, you want to blast at a higher pressure because not only will they do the job faster, but also, it creates that profile.”
Doing the job
Whether it’s sandpaper or the latest model of a vapor abrasive blaster, tradesmen have always optimized their resources to get the job done. However, what sets a tradesman apart – a company apart – is how they use the tools they pick up.
“The biggest thing is that it allows us to differentiate ourselves from our competitors and allows us to give peace of mind to our clients using this machine on the metal,” Cazares said. “The prep that we’re doing on the metal is going to hold up longer.”
Taylor chooses to work with people like Gonneville and companies like Graco because of the service they provide – which is why his clients, in turn, choose to work with B. Taylor Painting.
“We’re tradesmen, brought up in the trades,” he said. “Our company was founded on the principles of doing the job, you know, painting and providing service in the painting industry. But when we talk about getting a job done as efficiently as possible, it comes through experience and it comes through the fact that we’re rooted in the trades.”
Keeping Social
Work may look a little different, you may still have several projects to do, but do you feel isolated?
As a country, we have been asked to social distance – that does not mean social isolation.
As a team, we are reaching out and touching base not only with each other, but with our clients as well. Although we are an essential business and still performing some work in the field under California and CDC guidelines, our main goal is to keep in touch with our business partners and friends.
How are you doing? We want to know how YOU are doing during these times. You may have a great idea or a schedule you are sticking to. Possibly you are trying new recipes at lunch or you have discovered how to meet your residents’ needs. We would love to hear it!
A few of our business partners have teamed up with us on Thursdays at 1 p.m. to virtually visit about life and how their business has been impacted.
Whether you want to join a Zoom call, send us a text, or give a team member a call – we are here for you. We are in the trenches with you and we get it.
Email us here if you would like to schedule a meeting to visit, vent, cry, laugh or catch up! WE are looking forward to it!