Growing a business Q&A - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

BulldogMedia · 10-19-2009, 02:54 PM

May be a good topic for us smaller guy's here that what to take their business to the next level or even bigger. Hopefully guy's like Benny, Paul, Geno & Blastpro will be willing to giving some advice like they always do now.

I for one am looking to add a bigger pot and compressor. I have been thinking it may be time to add industrail coatings also. I have so many question about just starting to gathering info that I will need on what I need to do. I already have a a account with Sherwin Williams Industrail for my powder coating and have had to get paint from them for some steel beams we blasted and painted in the past.

panderson2414 · 10-19-2009, 06:47 PM

Tony, this one is going to take some time I dont want to ramble on about some things that dont matter. I spent the day thinking on how you could expand your company without a huge investment. While I was spraying paint today I thought about your company and how your time could be invested the best. This is going to be something I want to do right no late night bull. I need to get up some good pics of the equipment I use to paint with and then we all need to get togather and have an involved conversation. Start tonight by looking up ppg they bought out ameron they are also part of keeler and long. My favorite has always been Tnemec, Diamond Vogel has the most user friendly coatings but they dont have nation wide distibution. I dont like sherwin they just want to cover the earth. Gulf coast, Highland Int has the best dry fall ureathanes in the world. Jotun, sikkens,ceramtek, Briidgeport the list could go on. Painting is the way to ruin a great blast job. I have to finish up one more big job tomoro and this post will continue. I have said it before and I will say it again I would rather blast ten than paint two

BulldogMedia · 10-19-2009, 08:02 PM

Any hints that you can come up with will help. I did join SSPC and will be looking at any training that I can take.
I know this will be a slow process but am willing to work my a$$ off to make it.

panderson2414 · 10-19-2009, 08:53 PM

Bulldog the sspc is where you start. The bottom line is where you end up. Im a sales man. I sell the job and get it done. I dont want this thread to turn in to another pile. I have and will continue to have a few. I wanted this post free of that. If you want to start let us have at alkyds. I can post all night

panderson2414 · 10-19-2009, 08:59 PM

Bulldog, we should start with an airless.

panderson2414 · 10-19-2009, 09:08 PM

This is going to be an important issue. I will not post any more tonight. I would like to hear from everyone how painting and coatings needs have found a way into your company? PA ps benny abbots help will be profound on this issue........

painter213 · 10-19-2009, 10:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by panderson2414

This is going to be an important issue. I will not post any more tonight. I would like to hear from everyone how painting and coatings needs have found a way into your company? PA ps benny abbots help will be profound on this issue........

Here you go. I have been driking for the past six hor s and I will be starting night shif t on tuesday night so here goes. If you want to get into the painting buizz then you were ritht to have joined up with SSPC first. Second thing is not to start off witn a airless. Airless will mess up more than you can fix if your not familialr with coatings. My Daddy said that any dummy can pull a trigger on a gun but it took a real painter to be able to paint a complex structure with a brush and roller. With that being said, I am at a Nuclear Power plant during a once in a lifetime outage and I can say that there is not a single spray gun on site. everyting on here is to be brushedn and rolled. No spraying allowed. Takes a little longer to do, but you will not mess up like you would with a spray gun in hand. A lot of cars hav e been painted due to painters with a itchy spray finger when a brush and roller could have been usedn and and prevented a big mess in the first place. So, First of all Learn the Basics and then move up. Sorry for the jumble but I do feel a lot like Panderson a t the moment. Too much buffalo Trace tonight. Peace oUt

BLASTPRO · 10-19-2009, 10:48 PM

An airless is mandatory for anyone wanting to ad coatings to this line of business. Finding a paint supplier is very important but also depends on what people in your area use most. Don't be afraid to barter with the big paint companies, I have done this numerous times even bringging the price of a gallon of paint down from 80 a gallon to 45, this is huge on a project that requires alot of paint. Imron is big here along with Sherwin Macro poxy, for most of our work the coatings are already specd out by an engineer. Try to buy a used machine, there are various places where one can be bought, ebay for instance. Make sure you understand your equipment such as keeping the airless clean and in working order. Do what you feel comfortable with and don't get in over your head, underpromise and over deliver, be aggressive while keeping this in mind. Hit up your local steel fabrication and wholesale suppliers for work, they keep us very busy most of the time. ill post more later im sure. later.

BulldogMedia · 10-20-2009, 11:14 AM

Been going trough the SSPC web site for members, man a lot of good info.

panderson2414 · 10-20-2009, 04:08 PM

I took some pictures of my airless and shop spray guns. They are beat up a little but the stuff gets used every day. I agree with Benny about brushing and rolling it is an important tool and I should use it more often. The best place to buy an airless is on e-bay I have bought Three of them on line. The brand I use are gracos. They range in size the minimum for our type of work needs to produce at least 3000 psi of pressure while supporting one gun with a .519 tip. The best machine for this line of work for me has been a G-max 7900. I also have a couple of gmax 5900's The 5900 would be a better choice for a one or two man crew. I took some pictures of jobs. These small tanks are perfect place to start. One guy can do jobs like this on the weekends. If you dont blast full time you can make some easy extra money. The paint part of the job is really up to the customer. The cadilac system zinc epoxy urethane. The normal system epoxy epoxy urethane. The ok system alkyd alkyd urethane. We use tnemec 90-97 moisture cure zinc, Diamond Vogel v-tech 500 epoxy, Diamond Vogel 330 hs polyurethane. I also use zink and two coats of tnemec 1028's in areas where overspray is an issue. Here are some pic.

panderson2414 · 10-20-2009, 04:17 PM

Good jobs for start ups

I took pictures of all of these tanks less than five minutes from my shop. There is stuff sitting around everywhere a guy looks

BulldogMedia · 10-20-2009, 07:12 PM

I have a Titan 440i already, I had to spray a trailer after blasting last year and the customer paid for it. they really did not want to paint it.

BulldogMedia · 10-20-2009, 07:15 PM

I like Benny's brush and roller suggestion also

panderson2414 · 10-20-2009, 08:06 PM

Tony, The brush and roller is hard work airless is seventy percent faster but brush and roll needs to be talked about. Brushing paint is an art as is rolling if you can sling paint with a brush correctly you dont have to tape. Most people cant paint with a brush the mark of a true painter is you dont get paint on you and the brush only has paint on the tips. Then there are the types of brushes I dont use them often enough to give advice go to paint talk for that. The roller though I have used standard set up a pole, frame and cover. Five gallon bucket and grid. The pole needs to be every day heavy use grade (a broom handle will not work), it also has to be extendable. Sherwin has had the best buys on these for a couple of years. The frame or actual roller needs to be heavy duty and easy to clean. The last and most important the cover it must be resisttant to the type of coating you are applying ie phenolic epoxy phenolic core. This will stop Knap realease. The best part of rolling paint besides the saving of 25% over spray loss is the weany roller. If I ever meet the guy who came up whith this thing he better run away because I will kiss him. The weany is a small angle frame roller with a little four inch ball of fur on it . you can cut in corners roll insides of angle iron realy it is fun to paint with. They come in diferent sizes from one foot frames to three foot frames. Not cover size legth wise.

panderson2414 · 10-20-2009, 08:19 PM

Pictures that show what type of guns we use tri-tech the hoses we use on the airlesses and pole extensions on the guns. The extensions on the guns is a new topic, so are the type of tips we run as is our clean up solovent. paint takes alot of talk

Betterblast · 10-20-2009, 09:15 PM

Are there any concerns about explosion with some tanks? Is there a way to know if they were properly evacuated first?

panderson2414 · 10-20-2009, 09:25 PM

Benny, I feel for you. I have been in hotel rooms for months at a time. This kind of work takes a special kind of family and a hard working kind of guy. I like how you take your work. Thank you for all of the info you provide us with. The Three mile work is a one of a kind thing. What are they doing for surface prep. work? Is it hand tooling or blast work. I know I pissed you off but I respect what you do. benny you have more than I have to offer so what do you think about coatings in general?

panderson2414 · 10-20-2009, 09:36 PM

betterblast, I have worked on ethanol tanks that you can see the fumes comming out of I have not blown up a tank but I do have a life insurance policy that would take care of my family.

Betterblast · 10-20-2009, 09:41 PM

I could see using soda or walnut to remove a coating only but I wouldn't go near any fumes with abrasive. Life insurance is nessesary but life is better.

panderson2414 · 10-20-2009, 09:43 PM

betterblast benny gave me a place to buy the equipment that you need to sniff tanks this year it is GFG . I have sniffed tanks in the past with the equipment provided by the owners. Benny gave me a way to sell saftey to my new customers. They bought new sniffers from gfg. I think with my order they bought six in total. I dont know for sure but that is a good way to net work.