Refinisher's Warehouse Newsletter
May 2010
Printable Copy

Make yourself some sample boards. Go to Home Depot or Lowes and pick up a sheet of plain white plastic laminate (Formica) cut it (use a laminate scoring knife) into 8”x 10” sizes sand the edges and either spray them at home or take the 8 x 10 sections with you and when you are on the job site, pull one out and spray. Normally you wouldn’t do this for plain white or almond, but if you are drumming up new business the plain samples wouldn’t hurt. (Some homeowners think that refinishing is ‘just painting’ a countertop or a bathtub. You need to show them, that it doesn’t look painted. They NEED to see it, touch it, they need to tell you “I didn’t know you could do that”. Folks we have a great service YOU just need to promote it and sell it.) Normally you want the samples for your Faux Granite, what?, you’re not doing Faux Granite yet, I’m sorry, you are missing out on the extra or added income for that style. Plain solid colors are so yesterday. We have been talking about Faux Granite now for about 5 years or more.

According to a recent article I read about remodeling, the economic downturn has changed the way home owners spend their remodeling dollars. Over the top spending is by and large, gone. People are being more practical. Now, more folks want to spiff up their kitchens with new (or refinished) countertops and or new (or refinished) appliances, not so much the down to the studs make over. The focus this year is now on low cost improvements that will pack a big punch (Faux Granite countertops PACK THAT PUNCH). Competition for the remodeling dollar heats up in slow times. According to a recent nationwide poll of Angie’s List members, 87 % of respondents have plans for home improvement projects in 2010.

Ok, so you don’t want to go all out and offer Faux Granite counters, one thing you could do is spray the countertop a solid color, then offer to spray the backsplash an accented marble or faux granite. Or spray the countertop the faux granite and the and the backsplash a solid accented color. Or spray the countertop solid, with the backsplash a solid accent color. Don’t be afraid, just go out and get the work, offer to do things you haven’t done before. Talk with local interior decorators and or Realtors. What’s popular in one part of the country may not be popular in your part of the country, so check with those people, they are a great source of information, show them your samples.

PERFUMES:
A couple of you newer refinishers have recently asked about the use of perfumes to hide the odor of the coatings. The plain simple answer is DON’T USE THEM! The coatings are made to smell bad for reasons, THEY ARE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH. If you make them smell good, people will think the area is safe and they will go in and watch TV or take a nap or whatever, they get sick from the fumes and guess what, they come after you, AND your supplier. So for that reason we just do not offer any perfumes for our coatings.

CATALOG:
Familiarize yourself with our catalog and products, some of you have asked what can you put it the coating to make it a non-slip type coating, you have asked if you can put sand into the coating, you have had requests for this. Well we have Non-Skid, Safety Tread graduals and coating. We have been asked what can be used to acid etch some porcelain or something else. Our Dissolve-X is a strong acid cleaner as well as acid etcher. Just look in the catalog or on the website for all the products we have, just to help you out in your refinishing business. Some items we no longer have because they were never asked for or tried, so we eliminated them, or the supplier went out of business.

SPECIAL PURCHASE:
We made a special purchase on the Badger airbrush compressor. We normally sell the unit for $193.00 and we now have a limited number for $120. They are an excellent product, light weight and very quite to operate. Don’t wait on this, they will be gone quickly.

MARKETING CD:
Several of you have purchased the marketing disk and said it was a worthwhile purchase and that you have made your new business forms. Good. For those of you who haven’t updated your marketing program or need to update your forms, consider the Marketing Disk, its only $24.95 and for that you get several hundred dollars worth of ready to print legal forms, brochures, and door hangers. You can customize some parts of the forms with your company name and information, and print them at home or take them to the print shop and have them printed.

ANNOUNCEMENT:
I would like to announce that I am a new distributor for Axis Air, they are a US company, that manufactures HVLPs and PARs. I have personally tried the PAR (Positive Air supplied Respirator) and it’s an excellent product. Their HVLPs also come as a double unit that will handle both your PAR as well as your HVLP at the same time, using one housing unit with two turbine motors, with your choice of either an Accuspray spray gun or a LexAir spray gun. Since Neoterik went out of business I have been looking for a replacement company that offered a GOOD product at very reasonable prices. I am very proud to be affiliated with Axis Air.

I am also a new Distributor for Apollo Sprayers. Apollo has been making HVLP systems for over 40 years. I recently received a spray gun for testing and let me tell you at first I didn’t want to put any paint into the gun, it was just too good looking, man it’s a nice looking unit. And, it sprays very nicely and is easy to maintain. Prices are about the same as Wagner and 3M Accuspray. I am very pleased to be associated with Apollo Sprayers.

DELIVERY PROBLEMS:
As some of you know, 3M purchased Accuspray awhile back and immediately raised their prices on many if not all products. According to my sales rep and the National Sales Rep, 3M is now having a lot of delivery problems. It’s my understanding that because of NAFTA, 3M transferred a lot of their shipping and manufacturing facilities to Panama. Now shipping takes 2 or 3 weeks rather than the 1 week or less, that it used to take to have something shipped to you. Now for some unknown reason, 3M can’t get ANYTHING shipped to the US. I recently ordered 2 Accuspray complete units for a customer and had to cancel the order after my sales rep told me that he could not give me a delivery date, that it could be 6 weeks or 6 months, 3M could not give a delivery date certain, because of unknown problems at the Panama facility. So, if we, or someone else doesn’t have the item on the shelf, you will probably be out of luck for an unknown amount of time.

EMAIL ADDRESSES:
After several requests I have only received 25 email addresses. We are not going to sell the names and addresses, it’s only for our use to send out the newsletter and special upcoming monthly specials. So if we can’t get your Email addresses you will just miss out on the monthly specials, and Newsletters.

VACATION TIME IS COMING:
Please mark your calendars so you don’t get caught short handed on supplies. The warehouse will be closed Wed, Sept 8, 2010 and will re-open on Monday Sept 20, 2010. Last day to order will be Tuesday Sept 7th before 9am, Pacific time, but please don’t wait till then to order.