Latest / Repcolite Home Improvement Show / Finding What You Love; Painting Tips and Stories from Contractor Turned Rep; Caulk Removal Made Easy

Transcript

Finding What You Love; Painting Tips and Stories from Contractor Turned Rep; Caulk Removal Made Easy · Repcolite Home Improvement Show

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Well, good morning everybody. You're listening to the repcol Light
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Home improvement show sponsored by Benjamin Moore, and today we've
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: got some pretty great stuff lined up. It's maybe not
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: the best stuff, this is great stuff that let's just
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: say it's good stuff. It's good stuff. You're not going
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: to be disappointed. You may not be wowed, you know,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: into some sort of you know, ecstasy or you know,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: seizure of joy and gladness, but you're probably not gonna
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: be bored to tears either. So it's good stuff right right,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: nicely in the middle on the scale. Anyway, I got
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: to move on or I'm gonna lose people. I'm gonna
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: share a trick at the end that makes removing old
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: calking way way easier. I hate that job, absolutely detest it.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: I had to do that in the house this past week.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: And I found a solution, a real solution. This isn't
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: silliness and it's not power tools. It's a real solution.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: It's in a expensive and I couldn't believe how much
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: it simplified the process of removing old caulking. So we're
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: going to talk about that, and also we're going to
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: hear from Chad Danfirth, one of Repcolite's outside sales reps
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: in Metro Detroit. Now, Chad's a former painting contractor, and
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: he's got a lot of solid insights on products and
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: application and more. We'll get to all of that coming
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: up in just a minute, but first I want to
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: talk about something that happened this past weekend because it
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: reminded me of one of the best lessons that I've
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: learned while working at Repcolite and hosting this show and
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: all of those things. All Right, here's the deal. My
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: daughter Mattie was out antique shopping. She's quirky. You've got
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: to understand that she loves weird things. She laughs at
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: anything with a ducker a goose on it. You know,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: it's surefired humor if you find something with a ducker
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: a goose on it. Maddie's in seventh Heaven anyway. She's
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: out shopping and she finds something that she absolutely has
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: to have. It's a glass sculpture that looks like a
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: plastic bag filled with water, complete with a little glass
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: goldfish in it. Right, it looks just like the little
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: bagged goldfish you get from the pet store, except it's
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: done in glass, kind of clunkily. Clunkily, that's not a word.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: That's not how we get to the best content, Dan,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: It's why we're at the good level. It wasn't done
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: with great skill. Let's just say gorgeous, rare, valuable. No,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: it was none of those things. Weird, absolutely, So Maddie
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: finds this strange item and instantly falls in love with it.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: But it was forty bucks, so that was a little
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: sticking point there. So Mattie texts me the pictures and
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: then proceeds to spend the next thirty minutes texting me
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: her entire thought process as she wanders the store in
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: debates buying this fish. The friend that shopping with her
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: thought she was nuts, couldn't believe that Maddie seriously liked
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: this thing. She texts pictures to her fiance. He had
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: a similar reaction. So Mattie's got her people, you know,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: her close people telling her that it's a little nuts.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: And then she tells herself, you know, okay, they think
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: it's nuts, and it's forty bucks. That seems kind of
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: steep for what it is. And so finally, after about
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: thirty minutes of hand ringing considerations, She puts it back
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: on the shelf and heads home. Didn't need it, it
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: was too dumb. Good decision, right, what's the point of
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: the story, you know, what's the paint point? What's the
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: big Repcolite lesson that I said. It reminded me of well,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: I'm going to get to that, because the story isn't
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: finished yet. See. An hour after Mattie gets home, she's
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: back in her car, driving to the antique store. She
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: walks in, snatches up that glass bagged fish thing, shelves
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: out the forty bucks, and drives home all smiles. So
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: now I can get to the paint point, to the
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: big lesson that I learned. About five or six years
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: ago or so, Repcolite hosted a color and design event
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: focused on the late Iris app full now at nearly
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: about one hundred years old or so the point of
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: our event. Iris was famous for her over the top,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: you know, clothing style, her fashion sense, huge glasses, huge
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: circular glasses, bold prints, crazy jewelry, and then her home.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: She was also an interior designer. Her home was packed
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: with all the things she loved, clashing patterns, quirky trinkets,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: vibrant color. She was all about maximalism. Now. In that event,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: we took all of Iris's wild, over the top decisions
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: and design choices and distilled them to a single simple thought.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: If you love something, pursue it. Now. Iris didn't worry
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: about trends or what other people thought. She surrounded herself
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: with things that brought her joy. And that's what made
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: her home, her fashion, really everything about her uniquely hers.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: And that's the lesson with this dumb little fish. If
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: you love something, if it speaks to your soul, don't
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: give a second thought to what anybody else is going
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: to think. Don't worry about making it fit into some
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: superficial design style in your home. If it brings you happiness,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: don't walk away from it, you know, don't leave it
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: on the shelf. Your home should be filled with all
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: the things that make you you, you know, the silly,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: the sentimental things, the things that make you smile. The
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: glass fish that's going to be a cherished memory in
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Maddie's home as the year's unfold. I guarantee it. So
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: don't overthink it. If something truly brings you joy, you know,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: a piece of furniture, a cat clock with the swishing
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: tail and the blinking eyes. You know what I'm talking about, right,
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Maybe even just a paint color that everybody else thinks
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: is a little nuts. If it speaks to you, don't
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: worry about what everybody else is thinking. Pursue it, don't
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: leave it on the shelf. All right, there's the paint
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: point for the week. Now let's take a break and
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: when we come back, we'll be talking with painting contractor
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: turned Rep Coolite employee Chad Danforth. That's just ahead, stick around,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Repcolite Home improvement show sponsored by
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Benjamin Moore. And right now I'm excited to share part
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: of an interview that I recorded with one of my
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: co workers at Repcolite, Chad Danforth. Now, Chad is one
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: of our outside sales reps, and he primarily has worked
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: on the East side of the state in the Metro
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Detroit area where we've got five locations. He joined Repcolite
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: about a year and a half ago after spending several
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: years as a painting contractor. And that background is really
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: pretty interesting because it gives them a unique perspective. You know,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: he's applied the paint for a living and now he
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: works directly with contractors who are applying the paint for
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: a living. You know, his whole goal in life right
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: now is to help them find the best products and
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: the solutions for their jobs. So he's kind of been
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: on both sides of the of the fence there. Now,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: what you're about to hear in this interview is just
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: a portion of our full conversation. And man, trust me,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: there's a lot that I couldn't fit onto the you know,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: onto this on air version. I've only got so much
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: time after all, and there's it was. It was so
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: painful because there were things that I wanted to air
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: that I just didn't have time, including Chad singing a
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: little country music. You know, I even got him to
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: do that on air. So if you want to catch that,
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: find that full interview. We cover everything from competitive bowling
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: to karayoke to some great causes that Chad supports. And
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: you can catch that full interview in all of its
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: glorious video form on Repcolites YouTube page. You can find
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: it under the new feature the Interviews, and check out
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: the other interviews that we've posted there. While you're at it,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: all right, let's get to it. Here's my conversation with
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Repcolite's own Chad Danforth. All Right, so I guess what
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: I want to start with is just have you ever spilled,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: you know, paint, worst possible place, anything come to mind.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: I have been really fortunate when I was I mean,
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: I painted professionally for about ten years. I've had a
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: few small paint spills. I did have one incident a
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: piece of furniture fall down, but that didn't spill any paint.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: Okay, okay, a piece of furniture fell down. Yeah, what
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: are we talking about?
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: So this is actually I've got a little PTSD from
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: this because it was so catastrophic. But I was painting
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: a personal friend's living room. And this friend was in
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: business and in business overseas sometimes and collected glass bulls,
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: custom glass bowls from every country that he visited, and
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: he would decorate his.
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: Arm wire.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: Or like his desk, you know, his personal computer desk,
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: with all these different bulls from all these different countries.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: And so I said, okay, Michael, let's just slide this
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: out from the wall. My team and I are going
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: to be extra careful. You don't have to move all
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: this stuff. We just need to get in there so
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: we can paint the ceiling, and long story short is
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: I had an employee at the time who tripped on.
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: The power cord.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: It had a power cord with a light source, and
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: when he tripped, he went to grabed like this, and
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: it was one of the ones where like a hutch
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: had to be fastened to, you know, the top to
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: the bottom, and those were just missing. And so when
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: he grabbed the whole thing came down. All this glass
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: bowls that he's collected for an entire lifetime hit the floor.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: One of them was full of whiskey and proceeded to
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: hit all of his electronics. And right then the homeowner
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: came home and I'm just left flailing.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, and very I was.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: Like yelling, trying. It fell on top of my employee.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: So first and foremost was his safety.
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: And then come on, really, what's wrong?
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah? I know.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: It was a lot of emotions all at once, and
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: I was not okay. I I really had a hard
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: time with that.
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: This poor fellow, the guy do with that?
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Your customer?
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: My my customer. She rounded us up, we got it
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: cleaned up. I was just wrapping up the project, doing
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: a punch list. She goes, you gotta get this done,
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: because we got to get you out of here before
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: Michael gets home. I'm going to tell him and we're
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: going to handle this.
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: But you need to.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: Leave this site because I just I'm fearful, which of
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: course was not I understand.
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: That and not what I want to hear.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that was the worst incident that has ever happened.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: I mean, I can't really think of a worse incident.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: I can, but not in a realistic world.
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: No, because it was like crazy world. Yeah it was.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Did you ever work again after that?
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: Not much longer.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: That was probably about six months till the end of
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: my painting career. But I got insurance involved. I placed
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: a call to an insurance you know, and they had
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: them my customers try to gather up approximate values of
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: these bowls, you know, but there was nothing. They had
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: no formal receipt on some of these things.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: It was they were priceless.
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they were priced.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: They were priceless. And so these dreams, some children's heritage,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: all of that, yeah gone.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the Dalai Lama gave them one or whatever.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: I mean, it was quite a scene and I still
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: struggle with that.
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: I feel so terrible.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: I've enjoyed it a lot. I mean, you've shared with us.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: I appreciate that.
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no problem, no mine mine.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: That makes me feel great. Yeah, because nothing I have
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: ever done even comes close to that.
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the worst thing I've ever done. Can't even see
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: where you were in that point. I'm so far away
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: from that.
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: And what do you got?
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Well, nothing, I mean, it's just poultry. And in comparison,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: one of the things that I've done that I remember
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: and think about a lot. I've talked about it on
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: the show, just as a you know, don't do this,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: but like the lid we'll talk about. You know, you
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: want to avoid paint spill. Always make sure you tap
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: that lid tight. So I'm working in the store at
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: the Lakewood location and making paint, and you know what
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: it's like trying to match a color. You're constantly back
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: and forth, back and forth. That's really good. The time
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: I was not quite there yet, you know, or the
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: customer just you know, we just had to dial it in.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: So I'm making multiple adjustments and I get called away,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: put the lid on top of it, go away, answer
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: whatever I've got to do. I come back and I
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: the lid's on it, but I never pounded the lid
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: on it. So I flip it over because now I
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: finally got the color, so now I'm going to write
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: the formula on the side, flip it over the counter,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: and it took my brain way too long to process
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: the fact that I was pouring into the paint all
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: over the counter, lid off, everything, and what a mess
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: that was.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm sure in the paint store are they you know,
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: everything has to be shaken, so you forget us stuff
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: like that.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: And oh yeah, no, we had one with at seventeenth Street.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: This was years ago, where we've got bright aluminum paint,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: you know, it's super shiny, super metallic, and somebody throws
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: that in the shaker and the lid comes off, and
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: the manager, you know, just your knee jerk reaction is
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: to open the shaker because you can hear it just
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: spilling the shaker. He opens it up and gets.
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: Completiently sprayed out of a movie.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: We're working at another store and all of a sudden,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: the phone goes crazy. We pick it up and it's
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: the other store laughing hysterically because their manager is running
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: around looking like the tind hell we covered with with metallics. Yeah,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: so you know what you do or I guess what
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: you used to do, because you know, we should say
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: that Chad did all this work as a painter. Yep,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: you know all that, and then you transitioned how long
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: ago to Repcolite?
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: About a year and a half, so August mid August
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: of twenty three.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: All right, yep, so you've got you know, a lot
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: of experience. You know, a year and a half's experience
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: is here, and then all your previous life as a contractor.
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: That's it.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: You know, let's go way back. Okay, you're working on
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: a crew. That's how you got started. How green were
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: you when you first started?
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: I was very green.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: What happened is I was actually my first job was
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: working in a bowling alley and one of the league
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: bowlers had a team named Dedrich Painting. And then I
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: was a lane attendant. So I'm kind of up close
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: and personal with a lot of these different guys. I'm
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: picking up their bottles or whatever. And I don't know
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: if you just saw, you know, my work work ethic.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: What is a lane attendant? Exactly?
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: Do well? Lane attendant?
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: Bring them little trays of good ease polish.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: Well if they need that, Alene attendant really is meant
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: to kind of watch over some of the competitive leagues. Well,
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: any any kind of bowler really, but the competitive leagues
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: sometimes guys, guys aren't sliding properly. You need to clean.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: You need to clean the approach for you know, if
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: there's any kind of dust or anything out there. A
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: lot of times pins will come back out from the
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: machine and then you've got to go take care of
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: that or relay messages. A lot of times someone's ball
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: doesn't come back. I got to relay that to the counter.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: Is that kind of thing and come back? Gotta go
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: say hey, ball return lane twenty three. All right, So
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: you're working as a I'm working at a l attendant
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: Deedrich painting. He sees my hard work, ethic Dan, he says, wow,
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: that kid's I was twenty years old. Say he's really
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: busting his butt. And so he says, hey, I have
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: a painting company. You don't have to know how to paint,
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: but I could really use, you know, a help. And
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: I thought, okay, you know, I'm open minded, let me
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: let me try it out. And so first day we
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: show up, you had a job in Milford, Michigan, and
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: he just starts having me carry stuff down into this
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: guy's basement. And it's a home I was not used
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: to being, and you know, we're working for upper middle
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: class individuals. This particular house was really nice, square footage rise,
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: larger than something I was normal too. So I was
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: just kind of an off through the whole process and
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: just starting to go out to the truck carry carry
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: tools in, carry drop cloths in, and and then it
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: just started. Ron Deedrich is his name. He learned painting
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: from his his great grandfather who taught his father who
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: taught him, and just kind of in the family. And
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: from that moment on, after the tools got brought down
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: to the basement, he's just started teaching me one step
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: at a time, like the real, like a real long
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: haul kind of mindset. And so I ended up liking it.
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: I got that.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: Left handed creative brain, and so I find that, you know,
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: painting is really open for interpretation, and I I like that.
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: I liked that part initially, and I liked the camaraderie.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: At that time, it was just myself and Ron, and
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: so we're just kind of there joking.
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, just the two of us for years.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: Yet he had a bowling team.
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: He had a bowling team.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: You know, none of these were people that he worked with.
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: Well, just friends. No, just friends.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: I assumed it was a huge crew.
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: Well nope, just one man show.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: And then I was his helper and so yeah, we
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: continued to work together. He just keeps continuing to teach
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: me old school painting.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: I mean he was talking about that. What are some
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: of the things you picked up? What are old school
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: painting things?
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: You know, we kind of started with some basics how
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: to correctly mask right, We started masking the floor correctly,
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: and then you know, he's educating me on why we're
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: doing this right, we're lipping up some of the tapes
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: so that some of the paint doesn't creep through. Starts
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: teaching me that certain tapes do certain things. You know,
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: we get into you know, why we're standing the walls.
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: That caught me off guard. Okay, why are we standing
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: the walls? You know that kind of thing.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Are you standing the walls?
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: We're standing the walls. Poles standing. A big, big part
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: of my early career was spent pole standing. I was
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: the designated pole sander, uh and that is to not
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: only clean the walls, but also to knock down what
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: we call boggers. A lot of people have different names
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: for him, but we're not. We're making those things soon.
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: Well what are you calling them? What do you call them?
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: The goobies? Yeah, the good left and we're sanding and uh,
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: and then.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: So and then he starts Dan, He's got me this guy.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: He starts getting me into the habit.
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: Of feeling the walls.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: And he says to me, paint jobs, not a paint
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: job unless it feels good. It can't just look good.
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: It's got to feel good. And I say, okay, So yeah,
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: it's very zen. He's got a lot of run ron,
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: had long hair, kind of hippie style, zen like guy.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: And so yeah, he's got me feeling the walls, got
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: me feeling the trim and uh.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: Did you wear a special glove?
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: No, no, no, gotta feel it. So yeah, it was
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: kind of that old school feel. We were working in
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: a lot of upper echelon homes. He had been their
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: painter for years and years. He's kind of a word
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: of mouth type guy. I think you probably inherited some
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: clients from his dad even and so you know, and
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: then I did that for four or five years, and.
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: I really liked it. I really enjoyed it.
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: I started getting into why products are doing certain things.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: Really enjoyed the product aspect of it, which obviously would
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: kind of come to play later in life here. But
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: there's a whole section in between there we're missing out on,
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: which is Yeah, I think when I was twenty five,
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: I left Ron and said, Okay, I think I'm gonna
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: start my own business, you know, no hard feelings, and
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: I started a company called Blue Whale Painting.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: All right, we're gonna take a quick break, and when
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: we come back, we'll dive back into the conversation with
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: Chad and we'll explore some paint specifics, including kind of
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: a unique approach that he's got to using our bath
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: and spa from Benjamin Moore. That's all coming up next.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: Stick around, Welcome back to the Repcolite Home Improvement Show
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: sponsored by Benjamin Moore. And right now we're in the
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: middle of an interview that I recorded with Repcollites outside
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: sales rep Chad dan Firth. Chad used to be a
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: painting contractor before joining Repcolite about a year and a
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: half ago or so, and he primarily works right now
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: on the east side of the state. And remember what
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: you're hearing in this interview is just a portion of
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: the full thing. If you'd like to catch everything that
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: we talked about and actually tune into Chad singing a
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: little country music to boot. If you want to catch
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: all of that, just head to Repcollites YouTube page and
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: check out our latest episode of the interviews. All right,
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: let's get back to my conversation with Chad. So, I
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: know that somewhere along your journey as a contractor you
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: worked on a log cabin restoration or a family that
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: basically this is probably before you knocked over all those
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: vases and stuff in another home and like almost adopted you.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: You talked about this as an incredible experience job.
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, the Walter's job.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: It actually was one of my last jobs, and the
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: Walters job came to me.
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: It was just a normal phone.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: Call that I feel that, hey, we've got a cottage
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: out here in Holly, we'd like to come take a
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: look and stop by, and just the the architecture of
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: the this thing was very unique. I think it was something,
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: you know, one of those ones that had been added
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: on to four or five different times. But the experior
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: substrate was vertical log siding, and it hadn't been maintained
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: in years. It was really in some dire need of
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: powerwashing with some chemicals to clean it up. And then,
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: you know, really see what we got. But I go
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: out and I meet Gwen Walters, and she is just
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: the absolute sweetest lady in the world, and she says, Okay,
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: you know, listen, my husband built this house with his
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: bare hands. We've been here, I think in twenty or
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: thirty years now, and unfortunately he has gotten ill recently
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: and he's just not able to do this himself. Normally
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: we do everything ourselves, but this has got to be done.
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: It's getting to the point where some of these logs
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: are starting to be rotted. We're starting to kind of
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: have you know, compromised logs and waters coming in in
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: some areas. So we need to call someone out and
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: get this taken care of us.
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: It okay, no problem.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: I totally understand that, and so I know that this
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: is really important to them, and she just couldn't treat
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: me nicer, which I you know, in this business that's
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: really important to me.
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: Paintings hard and so you have.
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: To give all that you can for your services, but
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: it also takes some effort on the homeowners and too.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: And that was one of those things that you know,
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: I tried to really pare myself with customers that understood
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: how that dynamic could really help them get the best
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: paying job. You know, oftentimes you find some people that
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: just don't want to give you what you need to
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: help them.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about that. I mean, you're talking to
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: a lot of people who could be hiring contractors. You
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: talk about how there's things that we can do, you know,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: as people hiring a contractor to get a better job.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: And I don't think a lot of people think about that,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: you know. I think we think we're hiring somebody and
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: I'm going to make sure that that crew does a
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: good job. They've got a good you know, good reviews,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: they've got a good rapport. You know, talk to them
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: and okay, they'll they'll listen to me, they'll understand, and
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: they've got the skills to do it. You're saying there's
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: something that we can also do, which I think is
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: really good. I think that's good for people to hear
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: about what can we do as people hiring a contractor
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: to help.
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the best problems.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, So, I think, you know, the first thing is
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: just preparation of the area. I think that's kind of
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: first and foremost. There's often be times where I'd show up.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: We plan to do someone's kitchen, cabinets or their foyer
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: or whatever it is, and I show up and I think,
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: you know, upon initial quoting, I say, okay, we'll take
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: care of the big stuff. I have a crew, we're
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: going to move your furniture. We're going to cover that up.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: But I need you I think the terminis use was
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: nick knacks, right, I need you to take care of
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: all these little nick knacks before we get here.
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: That's first thing.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: We have a large project, and depending, I mean some
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: people have a lot of knickknacks.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of people that heard the
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: beginning of this in all those vases going over that
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: are well you know, wait, what is it makes sense?
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: Maybe remove those nicknames, maybe.
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: Remove those knick knacks. Yeah, that one was maybe my fault.
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: Now I'm contradicting myself, But.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: No, you that's the thing.
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's it.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: That was a horrible experience. Yes, So now I've got
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: information to convey to other people to save them from that.
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: Yes, that's how I do it.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: So you got to take down the knickknacks, and then
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: you know, we've got to come to some kind of
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: agreement with how the space that we're working and is
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: going to be used for the duration that we are
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: in there. If it's a you know, a kitchen, obviously
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: people use that on a daily basis. Like you know,
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: I think expectation setting is big upon the initial quote, Hey,
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: you're you know, you may have access to this for
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: a couple of days, but then it's off limits and
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: then you know, and of course I've come into job
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: where plastic is just ripped down and you know, they
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: got to get to something or and sometimes that's you're
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: not gonna have every win, but no problem. But sometimes
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: you know, I guess what I'm saying is some some
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: homeowners really do a good job of recognizing you as
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: someone that is more than just the help, and they
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: are able to kind of get into your state of mind.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: I understand that they need to make it easy on
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: you too and everyone and everyone wins.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Well that's the big thing, that's the big takeaways. Everybody wins,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: you know when you're communicating well and asking questions when
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: you've got them, not stewing on stuff, you know, finding
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: out exactly what's expected, so that your family can coexist
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: because it's you know, you're in the house for however long. Yeah,
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: any on the project, you're you know right.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: Yes, in their space, it's much more prevalent of an
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: issue in interior than an exterior exterior. There's not too
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: much overlap that needs to be done on their end.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: But oh my kid though, he worked on a crew
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: this past summer for the first time, you know, he
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: didn't do any painting beforehand, and he's working on an
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: exterior crew, and yeah, it was much easier in that regard.
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: M hm oh man.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: He'd come home, you know, not every day, but there
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: probably once a week. There was awkward moments where you know,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: the contractors would let they're in condo associations, and so
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: the condo association has alerted all the people there, there's
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: painting crews around and they're going to be painting the
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: exterior homes, doing certain things, getting.
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: Your deck right.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: And every time he'd put his ladder up by a
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: window and he'd have to think, oh.
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: Oh god, oh please okay, yeah, and he's got some
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: really funny stories like he gets to the top and he,
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: you know, is painting and then he sees motion and
• 25:45
  Speaker 4: there's a lady just rocking her chair right by the
• 25:48
  Speaker 4: window looking out.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: Other times other times he'll you know, you just people
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: are moving thinking.
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: Okay, okay, good luck.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: But yeah, you gotta let people know have those conversations
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: that that helps you know us as we're hiring people.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: Like you said, you just remember that you know you
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: as a contractor, your person to help and when I
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: work with you and treat you in that manner, we're
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: going to get better. Yeah, faults down the road. So
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: you switched over to Rep call Light year and a
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: half ago, year and a half ago something like that.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: Now you're an outside rep working with our contractors, which
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: I think is great because you come at this job
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: from their point of view. You know what would help
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: them succeed in their business, because you ran a business
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: like that exactly. So that's really cool. As a rep.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: As a painter, you had to form, for lack of
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: a better word, relationships with products. You know, whether they're
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: paints or whether they're sundrys. You know, from either angle.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: As a rep or, you know as a painter. What
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: were some of the products that you just found yourself? Really?
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: Oh well, what was nice about this conversion from contractor
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: to to rep particularly for a Benjamin Moore story.
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: I wasn't obviously not.
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: Familiar with repolit product because they were, you know, pretty
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: new to that side of town at that time. But
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: I was a Benjamin Moore user and I centered my
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: business around the Aura line. I had a little bit
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: of a unique system where I actually used our bath
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: and spa on everything on your foyer.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: So why did you do that?
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: Two reasons?
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: Finish The finish is slightly lower sheine than the regular
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: Aura Matt, I don't know why.
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: If you you know from Benjamin Moore.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: They say, oh, it's almost the exact same stuff with
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: just a little bit of mill the side added in.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: But when you dry them down, the oor bath and
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: spa absolutely is a little bit lower sheen. And that's
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: a nice little hack for you know, some of those
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: twenty foot walls, and also for touch ups. You can
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: absolutely touch up or a bath and spa and almost
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: all bases and have pretty good success with it, particularly
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: if you use the same cover you know, or in
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: the same week, that kind of thing.
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: But it also is really nice off the brush.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: It's a little bit looser than the regular or a Yeah,
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: there is a little bit of a consistency difference. I
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: used to use the Corona ex Caliber.
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: Brush for that product.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: I'd pair those together and man, you can you can
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: really get you know, a good twenty four inch brush stroke,
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: you know, at the ceiling line with that combo and
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: you're still getting really good coverage and it just rolls
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: off really good.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: So mix, yeah, I mean did you mix brushes with products?
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: Oh?
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, you have different brush absolutely.
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: Different different brushes for different products. I got pretty into,
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: you know, really honing in some of the details with
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: tapes and brushes for products. Now not not all the time.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: You could probably drive yourself crazy trying to you know,
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: find that. And I think I narrowed my brush selection
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: down to three. Right, we have a trim brush. It's
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: typically pretty soft, I you know, for them with the
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: advance it's not hard to make that, you know.
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: Look too good.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: Benjamin Yeah, Benjamin Wore's advanced line yep.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: Just self levels beautiful.
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And so I typically like something firmer from you know,
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: my wall paints and then you know, a soft preshl
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: brush for trim, and then of course those you know,
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: upon the tail end of their life would get recycled
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: into like ceiling paint brushes, you know, or a duster brush.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: I wasn't big on dust brush that that guy round
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: I was talking about way back. He said, we don't
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: We don't just push dust around. We remove the dust
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: with a vacuum. I said, okay, that's that's a pretty
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: decent theory. Yeah, you know, rather than we're just moving
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: the dust around. That's not pretty good for job site cleanliness.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Old brushes so they can be really nice for dusting
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: off electronics things like that. Oh yeah, for all the
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: studio equipment that I've got here. Doesn't mess my knobs
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: up because I've got all my settings where I want.
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that's yeah, that's over them. Yeah I like it.
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: So yeah.
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: I centered my you know, my business was really around
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: that Advance s trim paint line, the ORB Beth and
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: Spa or it's just regular Aura, you know. But I
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: did find that little sheen hack with the Beth and Spa,
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: and it would end up really working out well for
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: some of the touching up if necessary, or on some
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: kind of new construction and electrician comes in and bashes
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: something or cuts an outlet wall. I thought that that
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: was a reasonable, uh looking touch up at the end
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: of the day, didn't have to go corner to corner.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: But that absolutely personal preference. And I'm not saying that that's.
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: Uh yeah people.
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: And then I really liked I. I was a big
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: believer and this is this is hard for me to
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: sell now that I'm up. Here's a little bit of crossover.
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: I used to exclusively buy Benjamin Moore's ceiling paint. Used
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: to be in a yellow can. Now it's in a
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: purple can. If you work in a store, you call it, yeah,
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: premium water borne ceiling paint. We call it five O eight,
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: which is the skew. That particular product has elite coverage
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: and you can tell that it is a high degree
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: of solids content to it. And so in a lot
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: of circumstances, I was saving an additional coat. If you
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: get a and this is a little bit counterintuitive to
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: I would use sometimes up to a three eighths inch
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: roller cover for a ceiling and.
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: Just dip a lot.
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: I would use dipping to get a lot of product
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: on and that three eighth roller cover would just you know,
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: level it right out like a like a steamroller on
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: a road.
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: I think a lot of people like to think about
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: taking large roller covers thinking added coverage or or mileage.
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: But if you get in the habit of just dipping
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: extra and moving that paint around with a cover that's
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: not going to pull paint back off the surface, I
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: think a lot of painters will find some success with
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: added coverage capability half inch is not unreasonable for a ceiling.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: But if you really want to get you know, a
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: nice roller cover on the ceiling, if you take the
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: time and buy a nice roller cover and dip and
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: really get yourself into a flow, that five o eight
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: ceiling paint can cover off with the you know, the
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: white can cover some decently off foid ceilings in one coat.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: And it's completely flat dead and flat dead flat, no
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: matter flat or it's tinted too. Yeah, And that's huge
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: on a ceiling because yeah, I mean, with the light
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: coming in angles out the smallest little thing, if there's
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: a little bit of sheene and a true flat ceiling
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: paint in most situations, those when they're tinted to certain
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: colors that the colorant itself is going to give off
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: a little slide machine and then that'd be enough to
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: see roller mark.
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, critical lighting situations, right, And that's that product I
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: just didn't stray with. You know, a lot of guys
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: want to use you know, more cost effective ceiling paint,
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: and there are I'm sure places for that, but the
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: kind of work that was my business was doing. I
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: just I like to develop a system and just get
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: into it. Or water borne ceiling paint Advance.
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: That's my system.
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: There's obviously jobs that called, you know, if someone was
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: on a budget or something like that, they have a rental,
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: you know, we can start to navigate to some of
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: those lesser, uh you know, not top of the line products.
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: But that was kind of my system, and you prepare,
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: you know, you kind of pair the Sundrys with it.
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: You experiment.
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: Painting is kind of about testing and finding out what
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: works for you, what works for your style, Especially with
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: brushes roller covers, there's so many you know, between the
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: woven and the microfiber and the microplush and what's really happening, you.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: Know, kind of a mixed bag there. Yeah, just find
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: what works for you. Yeah, So anyway, I'm gonna let
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: you get back to work.
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: Thanks for hanging out, Yeah, no problem, pleasure all right.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: I think it's time for a break, and when we
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: come back, we're gonna be talking about calking. I ran
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: into a listener talking about calking. That rhymes just hit me.
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: I completely lost my train of thought. I ran into
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: a listener this week with a lot of good questions,
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: and I figured that it was worth digging into on
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: the show. So we're going to do that in just
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: a minute. Stick around, and we're back. You're listening to
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: the Repco Light Home Improvement Show. And in this last segment,
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: I want to talk about some caulking questions that I
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: was asked this week by a listener. Now, the person
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: in question was doing some painting, and she'd done all
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: the prep work, you know, all the prep work, she thought.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: And then she gets closer to painting and she notices
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: the existing calk around some trimming windows. She hadn't seen
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: it before, she notices it now, and she sends me
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: some pictures. It wasn't in the best of shape, you know,
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: there were gaps, there were cracks and so on in it,
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: and In her email, she asked if she could just
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: calk over it with new call, you know, to make
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: it look good, to clean it up, and then just
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: go on with her painting. Is that okay? She doesn't
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: need to remove it, right? That was the main question.
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: And certainly, you know, anything's possible if you're in a
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: situation like that and the existing calk is fully adhered,
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: it's free from cracks, it's in a dry, non water
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: exposed area, you might be able to apply you know,
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: a thin beat of new calk over top of it
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: and just walk away. You know, maybe it'll be fine.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: Just make sure that that new caulk is compatible with
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: the old. But with all of that said, and I
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: think you're picking it up if you want the best results,
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: the general rule of thumb is that you really should
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: remove that caulk first. You know, you're going to get
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: better adhesion. Oftentimes new colk just won't bond well to old,
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: dried out or cracked kulk, and you're also going to
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: get a smooth, cleaner finish. And that for sure was
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: going to be her situation because the caulk that she
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: had was pretty bubbly. It wasn't applied well in the
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: first place, the first original culk wasn't applied well, new
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: caulk over top of that, it's just going to look
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: messy and uneven, you know. Trying to put a layer
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: of that over top not going to look good. So
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: definitely her best way forward was to remove that old calk. Now,
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: the next question, of course, came up, how do you
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: remove the calck easily? Well, I had an answer for
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: her that I had to go back and kind of
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: retract a little bit and give her some better advice,
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: because after talking to her about it and walking her
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: through through the process, I went home and did the
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: same thing around my tubs surround, and I found a
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: better system, a system that worked really well. So if
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: you've got a caulk that you've got to remove, I've
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: got the system. It's still not fun, but it is
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: way better than what I would have recommended previously, and
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: in fact what I did recommend to that poor listener.
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: Fortunately I was able to give her the adjusted version
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: before she actually started. So, how do you remove caulk
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: as easily as possible without power tools? I mean, there's
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: maybe power tools that could make this easier yet, but
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: this is the old fashioned way, how do you remove
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: it as easily as possible. Here's what you're gonna need.
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: You got to gather your tools first. You need a
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: good utility knife. You know, something sturdy, and that's for
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: scoring the caulk. You need a cal removal tool. Metal
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: works better here. It can damage your surfaces, so be
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: aware of that. Plastic is safer. But in my experience,
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: I had no leverage with the plastic one. I couldn't
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: really make it do anything. So use what will work
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: best for you. If you go with metal, just be
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: careful with it as you're working around delicate surfaces. So
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: you need the utility knife, the call removal tool. You
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: need a stiff putty knife, and you need a flexible
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: putty knife. You need rags and a scrubby pad for
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: cleaning up. And then the last thing you need the
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: piece de resistance, the game changer. You need cock remover spray. Now,
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: I'll be honest, I thought the cock remover spray was
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: a complete gimmick. I knew about it. I've known about
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: it for years. I thought it was ridiculous. You know,
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: I assume this job is really all about brute force,
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: But in this instance I gave it a shot because
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: I thought, you know, whatever I'm going to learn when
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: I'm taking this cock out from around the tub surround,
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: I'm going to report back on the show, so I
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: might as well try this. And I was blown away.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: It completely changed everything. Now, the instructions on the spray
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: said to score the cock, first, spray the remover on,
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: wait five to twenty minutes, and then remove the calk.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: My calling was old and tough, and so even score
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: worrying that was a battle. I got some of it
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: out and then sprayed the remover on. I waited the
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: five minutes, and the result that I got was the
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: remaining cock peeled up way easier. I mean, it still wasn't,
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: you know, like a walk in the park, but it
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: was way less of a struggle. And when I saw that,
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: that's when I ditched that whole scoring step and I
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: went straight to spraying everything. So I sprayed all the
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: rest of the caulking around the top, waited the five
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: to ten minutes, and the cock softened right up. I
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: was able to go and score it with my utility
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: knife and then hitting it with the cock removal tool.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: I removed eight to ten feet of calk in the
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: same time that it took me to do three feet
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: without the spray. So use the cock remover spray. It's
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: going to save you a ton of time. Now, once
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: you've got all of that calking out, wipe everything down
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: with rubbing alcohol or a mild detergent to remove any residue.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: Use your little scrubby pad and all of that. If
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: there was molden mildew there, clean that area with a
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: bleach solution and then let everything dry thoroughly before reculking.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: So final verdict, cock remover spray is absolutely the real deal.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: If you're tackling old cal king, don't skip it. It's
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: gonna save you time, frustration, and who knows what else,
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: maybe even some choice words. Who knows. All right, that's
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: all the time we've got. We're gonna have to wrap
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: this one up. If you want to catch it again,
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: you can find it online at repco light dot com.
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: Whatever you do today makes your paints a part of it.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: Have a great weekend, everybody, and I'll see you next week.
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: I'm Dan Hansen. Thanks for listening.