O-Gee Paint

Florida Council State Convention & Tradeshow

You’ve got to make this one! Florida PDCA is hosting its 72nd Annual Convention and Tradeshow June 12th, 13th and 14th at the 5 Star - Sheraton Sand Key Resort located directly on Clearwater Beach.

Mark your calendar now for a weekend of fun, education, discovery and camaraderie. Seminars, a Trade Show including a Deli Buffet Lunch, a Golf Tournament, Treasure Hunt, Family Pirate Ship Cruise, Kids Camp (face painting) complete with a clown and a Casino night are just a few of our exciting events.

This year we expect a tremendous contractor and exhibitor turnout so register early.
Thank you in advance for your support of PDCA and our industry. It is through your participation that we are able to hold these Conventions and Trade Shows.

>Contractor Registration Form

>Golf Registration

>Convention Itinerary
Sheraton Sand Key Resort on Clearwater Beach
Please make your room reservations early to guarantee room space. A block of rooms have been reserved at a special rate, please mention Florida Council PDCA when making your making your reservation at $165.00. Please call Sheraton Sand Key at 727-595-1611.

Radio station Love 94 www.love94.com will be hosting promotions to win free 2-year lease of the incredible Volvo S-80 during their GO Green contest.

The first opportunity will be on May 29th from 3-4 p.m. at our Kendall Location 12554 N. Kendall drive.

Another opportunity to win will be on June 18th at the Bird Road location from 3-4 p.m.

This is a great time to learn about going green with Benjamin Moore’s newest paint AURA. This is a completely new technology for interior and exterior house paints which uses waterbase colorants for exceptional coverage and durability. Check out the color sample jars here .

From April 15th to May 31, STAINMASTER paint is promoting their paints with a $5.00 rebate for up to 5 gallons. This is a mail in rebate promotion so be sure to fill out your rebate coupon and send it in with an original receipt and original barcodes off the labels.
STAINMASTER paints come in Matte, Eggshell, Satin and Semi-gloss interior finishes as well as a ceiling white and waterbase primer. STAINMASTER is formulated with new technology that resists and repels many common household stains.

Use Internet Explorer to see the colors for STAINMASTER here. This page also includes designer picked palettes that offer easy to choose, professional looking color schemes.

O-Gee’s Bird Road location will be hosting an evening seminar meeting introducing Sikkens Exterior Finishes on May 1 from 6-8 pm. Lee Miles, the Factory Rep from Sikkens will be showing off the advantages of Sikkens Cetol, SRD, Rubbol and D&W products. These are awesome products for both homeowners and contractors. Please call 305-666-3300 if you would like to reserve a seat. Refreshments will be served.

In the past i have accused Benjamin Moore of not listening to us dealers or to the painting contractors who use their products. “Poo-poo,” said the reps, “Ben Moore is very interested in what the painters think. Why, contractors are our lifeblood and what they think of our products and our dealers is of paramount importance.”

Sure, o.k., whatever, uh-huh. BUT LOOK! You Mr. Painter can make your voice heard like a Who in Whoville by joining the Benjamin Moore Painter Advisory Board. In fact, here is cut and paste bit of a memo sent to us dealers to get things going, and being the webby kind of guy I’m posting it here on this blog so you can join.

In order to achieve a balanced, representative membership for the PPAB, we need your assistance in identifying contractors within your market. We are looking for candidates that will be forthright in their opinions and would actively participate in the PPAB surveys. Presently, we are focusing on contractors who do residential and commercial work, skewing the members more towards residential to reflect our current business mix.

PPAB membership process

We ask that you reach out and ask your field personnel to enlist contractors within these designated markets. We will provide a brochure explaining the PPAB and a list of FAQs to use in their conversations.

If the contractor expresses an interest in joining, we ask that they are directed to the www.bmppab website. There, the PPAB recruit will find additional information about the PPAB. They will be asked to complete a survey that collects more information about their business thus creating a “profile” that the contractor can update at any time.

Thank you in advance for your assistance. The PPAB will be a great resource in helping us better understand the needs of the painting contractor. It will be yet another tool to further establish and maintain our leadership position in meeting the specific needs of the professional market.

There you have it! Click and join and tell them what you think of their paints. Do you like AURA? How about Satin Impervo or Waterbourne Satin Impervo?What would make it better? Do you need a primer for new plaster or low odor fast dry alkyd semi-gloss? I don’t know what they are going to ask you guys. Your feedback might help get new products on the shelves or make their paints better. One thing is certain, the paints are constantly changing to meet the government standards they might as well make them to meet yours.

On Saturday night a couple of weeks ago we had some friends over for dinner, conversation and games. And, as were sitting around the dining room table the mdf bottom to the seat I was sitting in busted out; this is probably because I got excited about winning and was bouncing up and down. Nonetheless, the seat had to be repaired with a new piece of wood and then, because the fabric on all the chairs was looking old we decided to recover all six chairs. With a new seat bottom cut out of 3/8″ plywood, a load of staples and some material from the fabric store I set to work.

The chairs were bought about 15 years ago, maybe longer, and needed some work. A couple of the plywood scroll-work backs were beginning to delaminate from being pushed too hard and needed gluing. For these I used a penetrating epoxy rot repair to soak into the edges. That stuff takes days to harden and is incredibly thin so it soaks into the wood grain just like water. It doesn’t really work well as a glue because there isn’t enough on the surface to create a bond. It eventually hardened and I used some more epoxy and clamps to make the backs stronger.

Because of the flexing several pieces of veneer have chipped off the seat backs exposing raw blonde colored wood. Also the carved tops of the backs and leg bottoms have suffered abuse and have chipped places throughout.
Over these areas I rubbed Old Masters Gel Stain
in red mahogany over the bad places and it took on a much fresher cleaner look substantially improving the looking good distance, LGD. The legs were easy enough to do with just a rag but the toppers needed the stain to be worked in with a brush. One of the best things about the gel stain is that it doesn’t run like a penetrating stain it is even heavier than a paint. It is more like a faux finishing glaze and so it will stay in place over glue joints and hard spots while easily wiping away from other places where it it isn’t wanted. The gel stains will dry overnight, too not like some penetrating stains I’ve used and tried to build up in past efforts.

My project is just about completed and the chairs look way better with minimal work.

September 7-13, 2008 • Atlantic City , NJ

The Premiere Show for the
Professional Decorative Artisan

The excitement is building as The Faux Event becomes part of The Decorative Arts Show. In past years The Faux Event has experienced great success with professional faux finishers, muralists and decorative artists. As we grow into The Decorative Arts Show, we are excited to expand our education program and Exhibits to include other areas within the decorative arts industry and will include classes and products of interest to those artisans who are; paint contractors, concrete artisans, art/furniture restorationists, scenic painters and hand lettering/sign artists.

[Read More]

The slowdown in construction is causing a number of repercussions throughout the rest of the economy. As the flippers try to get out of their contracts the money flow is drying up and construction is stopping. This means that soon the laborers that were working these sites will be looking for work and they’ll be hungry enough to give very low prices just to get some cash.

I don’t blame these folks for wanting to put food on their table but homeowners must remain cautious if they are looking to hire someone for working in/on their home. The enticement of low labor costs may change your mind about doing some needed project around the house but it is up to you to make sure that the person you hire is qualified, licensed and insured.

Case in point: I visited a house recently where the homeowner, a lawyer, hired someone to refinish her floors. He used marine spar varnish, a poor choice for floors. This contractor could not speak or read English and so could not follow printed label instructions . Anyone who has experience with floors would / should know better. The homeowner becomes mad at US, the paint store, because she says we sold her the wrong material. I feel that a lawyer should be smart enough to hire competent contractors who have established knowledge and know what floor varnish is and should be able to read a label. The contractor, he doesn’t know squat and assumes no responsibility.

Other anecdotes abound about uninsured workers getting hurt and suing the homeowners and winning. More are stories about shoddy workmanship with no recourse because that guy doesn’t exist anymore.

The legitimate contractors who play by the rules have a hard time competing against these fly-by-night people and they deserve the consideration for their knowledge and experience. HIRE LEGITIMATE CONTRACTORS.

Ben Moore’s All about the cash promotion is going to get started soon. This is a great buying opportunity for painters with the BM credit card.

Contractors who purchase premium Fresh Start®, Regal®, and Aura® paints with their Preferred Commercial Account MasterCard will receive more cash back and even greater rewards during the It’s all about the Cash promotion.. These incentives include:
• An additional $1 cash back on all Fresh Start® redemptions, for a total of $3 cash back.
• An additional $1 cash back on all Regal® redemptions, for a total of $2 cash back.
• Double Aura® points for great rewards.

Also coming up:

In April, back by popular demand, we will be introducing our Preferred Commercial Account Cruise Promotion. Contractors who apply for and/or use their Preferred Commercial Account card to be entered for a chance to win he cruise. Please visit www.benjaminmoore.com/PCAP for more information.

Get a BM Credit card here!

<—cut and pasted from Ben Moore’s site —>

Benjamin Moore’s Job Cost Estimator is a job tool formulated to help the residential contractor provide an accurate quote based on actual costs and desired profit, not just a look-about dollar amount. In today’s competitive business world, it is important to factor in your actual fixed and variable costs such as overhead, labor, equipment, and supplies. To truly realize your profit potential, these factors need to be included in your bid proposals.

This step-by-step program asks you to enter in detailed cost figures, including items such as state tax, if applicable. The program further allows you to enter details specific for the job including square footage, special considerations, etc.. Once all of the information has been entered, the Job Cost Estimator calculates an accurate figure with which to present to your client on a customized quote letter.

Benjamin Moore & Co., created the Job Cost Estimator in order to assist you in optimizing your business’s profitability. The program is based in Excel and will run on both a PC and a Mac. The Job Cost Estimator is available to professional contractors at no charge from Benjamin Moore.

To order your FREE Job Cost Estimator, please call 866-326-2372 EXT 2315

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This should probably be called a Price Quote system because no one wants to show what their cost is. And I haven’t used it to know how hard it is to use but Homeowners want a price while you’re standing there in front of them. It might be good for pro estimators but for the price of it, it can’t be beat.