Fall 2017 News

Koster American Corporation has partnered with T&L Distributing to market their products across the south and midwest.

T&L is a flooring distributor headquartered in Houston with regional warehouses in Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Arkansas. Their salesforce of nearly 50 representatives will be promoting some of Koster’s most popular products, including skimcoats, underlayments, and epoxy floor sealants.

Urethane Polymers International, Inc. recently launched a new corporate website www.urethanepolymers.com featuring a refreshed design that provides quick and easy access to its line of commercial waterproofing products.

The design was made with the customer in mind. Individual product pages have also been enhanced, with application rates and wet film thicknesses in an easy-to-read chart. There is also a three-dimensional drawing for each product, clearly illustrating the components of the system, as well as PDF downloads of application/specification information available for most products.

“We’re really excited about our new website and all the advantages it offers our customers,” said Annette Wren, marketing director at UPI. “These days, people do so many things online. We just want to make sure we’re able to assist them online in ways we were not able to do previously.”

For much of the 20th Century, Rich’s Department Store served as Atlanta’s most popular retailer.  Today, the historic building is part of the Sam Nunn Atlanta Federal Center and houses several federal agencies.

Several years ago, building managers embarked on a $2.6 million renovation to the center, including the old department store and the other nearby buildings that make up the campus.  A major portion of the project was roofing renovation, with the goal of improving moisture protection and reducing utility costs.

In testing the roofs’ structural integrity, it was determined that the Rich Building would not support a vegetated roof, so it received a reflective white “cool roof” using a 60 -mil Tremco single-ply membrane.  Two adjacent buildings, however, could support a green roof,  with a combined area of 68,000 sq. ft.  The installation used about 198,000  sedums, native cacti, alliums and other plants, at an average of three per square foot.  The growing medium averages about four inches thick.

Now operating for more than five years, the roofing systems were installed at a cost far less than planned, and cut heating and cooling costs dramatically.  Building managers report that the green roofs reduce stormwater runoff by more than 600,000 gallons per year and reduce the strain on rooftop HVAC equipment.

The Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association (ARMA) recognized Tamko Building Products with nine prestigious safety awards at an event in August.  The highest honor, the ARMA President’s Award, went to their asphalt refinery and fiberglass mill in Joplin, Mo.”

An additional facility in Phillipsburg, Kan. received recognition for having a perfect safety record with lost or restricted days and no reportable OSHA incidents for the entire year of 2016.   The other six awards were for safety improvement at a half-dozen plants across the U.S.

“We are extremely proud of our employees’ and their accomplishments. These awards are the direct result of teamwork and our company-wide commitment to workplace safety,” said Tamko CEO David Humphreys.

Polyguard Products recently welcomed 17 employees to their Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP).   Polyguard’s ESOP allows employees to become owners with no out-of-pocket contribution of their own. The value of the ESOP is based on the stock price of the company, which has tripled in value since 2010.  Polyguard already has two ESOP millionaires currently working with the company, and that number is expected to grow in the coming years.

“We take pride in the culture we’ve developed here at Polyguard, and we’ve been able to do that because we are an employee-owned company,” President Shawn Eastham said. “It’s great to see our employee owners are working together to build their futures. This is a rare opportunity that only a small portion of American workers can benefit from.”

Polyguard recently began limited production at a new facilty 60 miles south of Dallas which doubles the company’s manufacturing space. Most production and shipping will be handled there by the end of the summer.

A new report from Transparency Market Research projects that industrial coatings will see steady and continuous growth through the year 2026.

Industrial coatings are a special type of paint that prevents damage and corrosion, especially to steel and concrete. Apart from their protective and functional properties, industrial coatings also provide esthetic features. These coatings also make the material less prone to fire and other hazards.

Typical chemistry includes epoxies, urethanes,  polyurethanes, and fluoropolymers, and are used in automotive equipment, vehicles, construction activities, and agricultural machinery.

In November, the Brazilian National Standards Organization (Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas, ABNT) published a new performance requirements for polyurea systems. The standard defines a “high thickness coating” as having a dry film thickness greater than 500 microns, and sets out a test method for determining the quality of two-component polyurea and hybrid polyurea/polyurethane coatings.

The standard also provides field application requirements for polyurea systems and hybrid polyurea/polyurethane systems applied over concrete and metal substrates.

Fernando Costa, business manager of VersaFlex South America and Member of SSPC was instrumental in getting ABNT NBR 16545:2016 approved. This new ABNT standard is based upon SSPC-PA 14 and SSPC-Paint 45 to help boost the knowledge and use of polyurea technology in Brazil.

“The approval of this standard by ABNT is a huge win in raising the bar for two-component polyurea systems and application in Brazil,” said Costa. “This standard will provide much needed guidance for owners, suppliers, and applicators of polyurea systems for all future applications.”

Cleveland, Ohio newspaper, The Plain Dealer, named the Garland Company one of the best workplaces in the region.

Garland markets high-performance roofing and building envelope solutions for the commercial and industrial markets.

Of the 150 companies evaluated, they placed 27th in the Small Companies category. The ranking is based on the results of an employee feedback survey administered by a third party hired by The Plain Dealer.

“Because Garland is an employee-owned company, our team can truly celebrate successes like these together.” said Garland’s general manager, Scott Craft.

In August, Garland also updated their logo.