Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, welcome back to guard Line. You're ready to go. Hey,
here's what we're going to do this hour. This hour,
I have a special guest I'm going to be visiting
with and uh, we're gonna be talking about powder coating.
Our guest is Flavio from Houston Powder Coders. You're going
(00:27):
to learn a lot about this process and about what
you can do for the different things you have around
the property that will basically make them new again. And
you'll hear about that in just a moment. If you
got a question about powder coating, we invite you to
give me a call seven one three two one two
fifty eight to seventy four. You can visit with Flavio
(00:49):
and I and we'll talk about powder coating with you. Otherwise,
just sit back and enjoy it. We'll be back at
the nine o'clock hour for gardening questions, so I ask
you to hold your questions on gardening related topics until
nine o'clock. So, without any further ado, we're gonna go
out here on the phones and visit with Flavio. Hey, Flavio,
welcome to garden Line.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Good morning, Skip. How are you this morning.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
I'm doing great, I'm doing great. Thank you so much
for taking time out to give me a call today.
I really really appreciate this. We're gonna uh you and
I visited before me picking your brain on all things
powder coating, uh, and so we're going to kind of
delve into it. I know our listeners will be very,
very interested in hearing some of the details about this
(01:35):
process and and what it can do. So why don't
we Why don't we just start off by you explaining
to us what exactly is powder coating? I know that
doesn't that's not like dust and powder on something and
then it just blows off. What is a powder coat?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Well, honestly you're not too far off either, so we
can keep it about it. Okay, it's uh, it's powder.
Powder is it's a paint process. It's electrostatically applied, and
all that means is a fancy term for it passes
through a gun and it electrostatically charges at the tip.
It takes a negative charge, you know, positive and negatives attract.
(02:17):
Once the powder actually hits the part that we're trying
to coat, it latches on and then we have to
put it in an oven at four hundred degrees where
the you know about two hundred and fifty degrees, the
powder begins to melt and actually transform into what you.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Would think of in your head as liquid paint.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
And at four hundred degrees for about ten minutes, the
powder starts to cross link and you get the finished
nice product that we call powder coating in the end,
and of course the beauty of it is it's very
environmentally friendly.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
No VOCs.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
It's the cleanest and most efficient form of coating under
market today.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Well that's that is interesting. So those compounds, those VOCs
that are quite toxic are not part of the process
of doing this. I'm fascinated by the fact that basically
you've got this little room and the powder is put
out into the air and it is it sticks to
(03:25):
the metal that you have. You mentioned the negative and
positive coating, then it just sticks to it. But one
of the things that has fascinated me is how that
how that coats better than paint. Now have I hate
to admit this to you, but I have painted furniture
myself with a spray can and it's a mess. There's
(03:45):
runs everywhere, There's little corners, like there's a corner I'm
trying to get into and I'm just spraying in there.
Next thing, you know, it's running everywhere and I haven't
gotten paint in that corner. But this powder coating process
helps avoid a lot of that, doesn't.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
It sure does. And I'm sorry that you have to
go through the experience. I wish you would have given
us a call earlier, right, but.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Well, it was, it was. It was when I was
young and foolish many years ago.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Well, honestly, no, you don't have to be young and
foolish to do it.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Unfortunately, we get quite a bit of customers that that
go down this route at first, and we we we
highly discourage them, not not just because we we want
to get the business, but but more so because we understand,
especially in Houston, that that that process is just never
going to work. You're we are all fighting in this world,
(04:38):
especially here in Houston with the salt water, a losing
battle battle against time and corrosion.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Right, and unless unless you.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Have the capabilities of of prepping the material the way
we do, you're just never going to be able to
uh get get the peace to the condition where you
can even be in springing it, even if you do
just rattle cannon.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
So yeah, and part of the go ahead, go ahead,
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah, I want you to hold that thought because we
got a caller I want to pick up. And then
we're going to go to a break and I want
you to come back and talk about that prep that
you do and how no matter the condition of furniture,
what you guys do that makes it work. We're going
to go to the phones now. Kathy has a question
about powder coating. Kathy and Meadows Place, welcome to Garden Line.
(05:31):
You're visiting with excuse me, Flavio and I and what's
your question.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
I have some very old, really well made metal furniture
from the fifties and they were made in Bellfountain, Ohio.
I moved them to Texas many many years ago with
me there. The seat and the back are are some
kind of a screen, uh but heavy not not like
(06:03):
you know, lightweight screen and then metal pipes on the
side and uh, they've lasted all these years. They I
think I spray painted them a few times. I had
them about ten years ago powder coated. It was not
from this company, but they're starting to show rust again
and the caps are off, and just wondering if it's
(06:27):
feasible to have them read powder coated. I guess I
could send a picture, but just.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Yeah, let me get him the way in here.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Go ahead, Fabia, Good morning, miss Katy.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
You honestly are one of our most cherished in favored customers,
like the people with with patio furniture from from the
older days. It's it's absolutely I called it a gold mine.
I was even speaking with Skip of about this the
other day. Anybody that has any kind of furniture prior
to the years to thousands, you're getting the type of
(07:07):
quality of steel that they just simply do not make
the stuff out of anymore today. So you are sitting
on absolute treasure. So whatever you do, if you decide
to not powder couotd or powder quoted, please do not
throw away that vatue of furniture. It is an absolute treasure.
And yes, we absolutely would recommend it. Honestly, even with
(07:27):
a poor quality of steel than the kind that you have,
once it goes through our process, you were going to
be able to enjoy that coating for ten plus years,
even in this salt.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Water environment that we have today.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Any kind of application of powder coating that we do
at our facility, it's literally the equivalent of them what
they call a marine grade coating. It has a lot
of mills, We put a lot of protection into it,
a lot of pre treatment that we cut no corners
on the prep and you, honestly will will receive that
furniture better than you.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
I can safely say that.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
It's the it's the constant compliment that our drivers receive
whenever they drop off the furniture back at the at
our customers' homes. And caps and any kind of wearing
pair items like that on your furniture, we would replace that.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Of course, if it has any kind.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Of screws or bolts into it, that gets replaced with
brand new stainless steel. So yes, miss Kathy, absolutely, I
highly recommend it for you. And if you decide not to,
at least not yet, just please hang on to it
and don't disregard it.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Okay, Okay, Should I send a picture or something?
Speaker 1 (08:44):
And and yes, ma'am, that is the best way we
do it.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
You know, I can't, I would need to be picked up,
but I guess I'll just contact your company.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
You can just send the picture at sales at Houston
Coders dot Houston Power Couders dot com. We'll be able
to absolutely come to your home pick it up. We'll
show up with plenty of colors for you to choose from.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
If it has any kind.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Of fabric or strap, then we would bring the samples
for brand new fabric constructions as well.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Okay, there you go, Thank you, Kathy, appreciate that call. Yeah,
I'm jealous. I would I would love I would love
to have. I told uh, I told Flavia recently that
I'm to the point now of like driving up and
down the street on trash day trying to find somebody
who's throwing away their metal furniture so I can get
(09:45):
a powder cody, because I've seen this process and it
is amazing, amazing the kinds of things that we can do.
Get my producer to disconnect us here and I'll go
back to you, Flavio. You were talking about, uh, the process,
some of the process of getting it cleaned up and ready.
So I kind of cut you off there, would you.
Oh excuse me, my producers tell me I got take
(10:07):
that break. We'll be right back with you. Sorry for
the false alarm there, Flab, you be right back.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Lloyd.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
All right, Welcome back, folks, Welcome back to Garden Line.
Good to have you with us. We are visiting this
morning with Flabu from the Houston Powder Coders about all
things powder coating this hour. If you have a question
about powder coating, what can be, what can't be, any
questions you might have, you can give me a call
here at seven one three two one two fifty eight
(10:36):
seventy four and we will get it answered by the expert.
Uh uh, flave you. I appreciate you, you know, taking time
out to be with us today. Let's let's dive now
finally into some of the process of getting that metal
ready for the powder coating.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
Are of any coding application is truly the amount of
time somebody would spend on what we call prep work.
You have to prepare this metal to receive powder coating
or any kind of paint system that you're looking to apply.
What we do and what it's been traditionally the most
successful prep system or it is sand blasting. Although nobody
(11:25):
uses actual sand anymore in the process, the concept is
still virtually the same. It's taking some fine media, some
it's crushed glass, steel, aluminum oxide.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
There various various.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Good media out there on the market today and utilizing
compressed air. It just gets to throw it basically at
a part and that process begins to what we call
activate the metal. It number one of course, you know,
removes any kind of rust or paint or what we
call white rust and for the aluminum furniture that develops
(12:00):
and in this marine environment. And once everything is is
removed and clean, it looks like the pieces right back
to bare bone metal and as clean as it possibly
can be. That's when we would take it and then
begin applying some sealers to it. And this is the
(12:20):
beautiful part that gets into all those little crannies and
all those little areas that that paints and and other
systems don't don't usually penetrate and and and your rattle
can all of course definitely won't. And once once that
process is done, we immediately put it on on the racks,
(12:42):
uh and it goes to receive the primer application, which
is really really good epoxy primer, and then the polyestra
top code of your choice, and in some cases even
the clear code afterwards. That kind of prep for it is.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Absolutely the best.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
So this is the struggle if you try to do
this at home unless you have an actual sand blaster,
so you have compressors and media and and somehow a
bunch of room to where you can just it is
a very very messy and ugly process. Then you're just
simply never going to be able to prep this material
good enough to to to apply some kind of paint
(13:23):
that will last.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
You know. One of the things I appreciate about you
guys is the way you you stay up to date.
I don't know how many different things you've told me
over our conversations that you know. It's like you do
it this way, and it used to be done this way,
but now y'all do it this way, or here's the
new thing. And you were telling me about this laser
(13:47):
thing that's come along, and I say, you send me
a low video of it, and boy, that was so cool.
But it's this rusty piece of metal and this little
bar of laser beam goes across it and there's no rust.
I mean, we know, y'all, aren't you know? That's a process.
It's so new, it's it's about to get implemented. Uh here,
but will you tell me a little about tell our
(14:07):
listeners a little bit about that? That is way cool.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Yeah, So we we constantly tried to stay on the
forefront of course of innovation and technology. We we want
to take advantage of so many great minds today that
always look to improve our way of life. And we've
been fortunate to be able to partner with some some
amazing customers, one of them that that led us and
(14:30):
helped us to develop this, uh, this laser technology that
we're looking to utilize and hopefully replace the sand blasting
process altogether. Some from the oil field industry, and of course,
you know, being in Houston, that's that's the you know,
stayle of the of the city, if you will. And
we got together with their engineers and they discovered and
(14:55):
thought of the laser technology that's currently being used in
the in their welding app locations and how it's improved
that and with some with some tweaks, we managed to
to tweak it in a sense where we can now
utilize light as a particle wave.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
So as you can just picture light, and you.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Might remember some from from from our science courses that
that light tends to have this dual property that it
actually can be a particle. Means it has mass and
if you throw it fast enough and intensely enough at
a at a piece of steel. It can act just
like your sand blast media would and we feel like
(15:35):
we are at the point of development now that this
process which you you fortunately saw in that in that video,
is fast enough and efficient enough to actually replace the
sand blasting component of our operation and the beauty of that.
It is more environmentally friendly, it's it's it's even more
(15:57):
environmentally friendly than than what we currently do. It saves
a ton of energy, and it's just clean. It's it's
just an overall better pross. So we're taking now the
best prep method that you can possibly do to your
patio furniture, and you're taking it one step above Dad
even and just leaving the parts absolutely one hundred clean
(16:19):
and free of debris and ready to receive powder painting.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Yeah, it's amazing. It is really cool. You know, a
long time ago, when I was we were having the
conversation about whether you guys come on as a as
a sponsor or not. I always like to know the
companies that are sponsoring, and I took a tour of
the place and I was amazed. First of all, you know,
we had the call from Kathy and you were teller
she can pick her colors. You do over one hundred
(16:46):
plus colors, and when I was in the in the shop,
across the room was this what I looked at. So
that was a rusty piece of furniture they're fictioning to do.
And someone at your place there told me they said, no,
we finished that one. And it's because the people chose
a rust color for the furniture. And you know, I
got to thinking about it, and maybe someone has like
(17:07):
an iron wall hanging on the brick on the outside
of the house or on a fence, and you know,
when it gets wet, you get that rust that kind
of comes off there. And now you've got streaks of
rust in your masonry and everything. Why not just have
it powder coated to the color you want it to
look like. And I think with over one hundred colors,
people ought to be able to find one that they like,
including one that looks like it's rusty, if they want
(17:29):
to do that.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Oh no, I absolutely so. We get these requests quite often, honestly.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
All right, well that is good. Now. Another thing I
noticed there was the size of the rooms. You know,
I was picturing powder coating as something. You know, you
set this little piece of furniture in front of you and
someone runs around coating it. But you have rooms so big.
I mean, somebody can put their goose necked trailer in
there and coat that thing. And so talk a little
bit about out what all you can coat beyond just
(18:03):
the thing where I guess most interested in on this show,
and that's the outdoor furniture for the patio. But what
all can y'all coat?
Speaker 2 (18:11):
So thank you for that.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
Yes, we do have some of the largest ovens and
booths and really entire southern United States, if you will,
And we do so because as I mentioned earlier, some
of our clients are from the oil field industry and
they deal with stuff that goes out there on the rigs.
(18:35):
You know, things like skids and mud tangs. You know,
they're the size of actually trailers. If you picture a
container on a trailer, that's about the size of some
of these pieces that our customers asked us to code.
So the need brought us to the point to where
we had to create a facility that can handle those sizes.
(18:57):
I mean, the largest piece I think that we've ever
handled was one hundred and ten feet in the length
and it was a it was a believe it or not,
a lightful something would see at the intersection of you know,
like the belt eight and forty five somewhere, you know
that illuminates the intersection. And but but we have customers
and we service pretty much all markets.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
We we have stuff in.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
The architectural market and those are for example, you know buildings,
you know, handrails, balcony rails, trends, awnings, things of that nature.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Oil filled.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
I need to I need to cut in on you here.
I sorry, we got our absolute heartbreak here in about
ten seconds. But I want you to hold that thought
and come back. We've got Michelle and Jersey Village with
a question and we'll be right. I just hang around. Hey,
welcome back, Welcome back to Garden Line. We are visiting
with Flavio from Houston Powder Coats and learning a lot
(19:55):
about powder coating, how it's done, why it's why it's
a better process us and you know what they can
accomplish with powder coating. Uh Fladia. We have actually a
couple of callers here online, so let's go ahead and
jump to those if we could. We're going to start
with Michelle in Jersey City. If my producer can connect
us all three on the line here, we will take
(20:17):
Michelle's question, Michelle, how can we help the best? Good morning?
Speaker 5 (20:23):
Yes I can, good Morning. I've gone through several six
short nature through the years, and finally I've started kind
of creating different pieces myself because and things that I
would just love to hang on to forever because they're
they're very interesting and tricky looking. So I created a
(20:44):
cinder block sofa. I painted the wood. That's all good.
It comes apart because it's not glued together. I have
these beautiful cushions on it, which can be interchanged out.
But the cinder block. I want to know if you
can powder coat cinder block. It's possible.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
That's a very good question. You can, but believe it
or not, you actually can. It's it's not very typical
that something outside of metal gets powder coated, but you can. Unfortunately,
it does depend on a lot of variables. One of
them is just simply the quality of the center block itself.
(21:24):
You know how long it's been, how deteriorated it is,
how porous it is. Because anything that we do with
powder has to travel through another and at four hundred degrees,
So if it can withstand that heat, then technically, yes,
you can actually apply powder powder paint to just about anything,
and as long as it would stands.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
That heat, it will it will make it through.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
I would not personally recommend it, but but absolutely if
it's something that you you wish to try, I would
have to jump on a project like yours and and
go on a little experiment tour and.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
See what happens.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
Okay, you about it. I know it sounds different, but
that's what the fun about something like this is. It's
when you get something so tricky and and like a
one off and it's you know, unique. So thank you
to have a great day.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Yeah, you do the same. Thank you, Michelle. I appreciate
that call. I did not see that answer coming. Uh
I didn't didn't. Uh So I'm gonna get my We've
got another caller here. I'm gonna get my producer to
connect us now with Dave and Cyprus. Dave has a
couple of questions. Welcome to garden Line, Dave morning.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
I'm curious morning. Powder coating.
Speaker 6 (22:35):
Is powder coating the same as electrostatic coating like they
do on file cabinets and pre finished metal? Is that
it's the same process.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
It's identical the process that they use on on file cabinets,
and even your washer and dryer for example, or even
the exterior of your stove.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
All of those panels of metal are.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
Powder coded in house by the typically by the manufacturer themselves.
We only get the privilege of coding those whenever somebody
decides to do a restoration project and once their foul
cabinet or their washer and dryer to match their newest
designer recommendations for their home. But but yes, that is
exactly what you're describing. It's it's one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Say so.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
It's it's a terminology issue.
Speaker 6 (23:23):
Whether you call it electrow coating, it's the same process.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Yeah, it's it's they call it electrostatic because the powder
itself just gets charges, receives a charge at the very
tip of the gun, and they utilize that charge to
to kind of latch on to the to the part
that you're coding. So just it's just a fancier scientific terms,
all right, all right?
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Can so so?
Speaker 6 (23:53):
Red, red, red and yellow colors are very sensitive the
sunlight and they fade very fast. Does that happen with
powder coating? Such as you have to be careful with
the red and yellow hues.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Very good, very very very good question. Yes, they are
also sensitive and powder form. However, I will say a
lot of the powder powder coatings that are applied in
red and yellow, and I would say even just pretty
much all the bright ones take bright green, bright blue,
but especially yellow and red and orange. They do tend
(24:29):
to be sensitive to the UV light. However, if I
was to put it next through just regular paint, it
would outpacete the fade considerably. They also make some of
those paints are made to withstand five years without fade,
even up to ten plus years without fail. We call
those architectural great paints. It's the same exact process. It
(24:52):
comes in the same pretty much box. It's just that
the powder paint manufacturer decides to put different a different
chemistry in has been and it protects the color against
a UV phase for a great deal amount of time.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Thank you very much, very much, guse Yeah, very good questions.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
All right, Thank you Dave. Well, Flavio. I had a
just I've had some realizations learning about powder coating. I
think I told you this when we visited recently, but
I was in Atlanta walking out to a restaurant, and
because I now know about powder coating, I'm looking around going, Oh,
(25:33):
those metal legs underneath that wooden top table, those are
powder coated. And those little chairs over there on the
side that's been powder coated. And everywhere I walk now
I'm noticing powder coating and how it's just all over
the place. And recently I've got a little stool. This
is back in my I keep confessing having hand painted stuff,
but I have a stool from like a grandparent. It's
(25:55):
an old metal stool that has metal legs and sekine
where you pull out the little stack up to get
up on the stool. And uh, my wife wanted it
repainted like a red and a white color, and I
did spray paint it. But I just got to thinking
that would be a perfect thing for powder coating, because
here we have something that's sort of a family antique,
(26:15):
you know, it's important, not that old of an antique,
but still, uh. There there's things indoors and outdoors, and
it could be a lamp post, it could be a
post railing, there's a there's a lot of different kinds
of things that can be powder coated.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Absolutely, And uh, as a matter of fact, you mentioned
to two colors on the same piece that's that's also
something that that we can do. It's it's a little
bit more difficult in the process, but but it can
be done and we do it honestly quite often. So
so if you have a what we call it two
tone or a three tone application, that can be done.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
But but yeah, once once you.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Start seeing all of our all of the applications that
that we do, you will start noticing every no matter
fact you mentioned. Atlanta have life fixtures in the Atlanta
Braves Stadium. The entire stadium was when they got constructed
a couple of years ago. They received the brand new stadium.
They put these really beautiful led lights underneath the seating
(27:17):
for every level.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
And I was powder coated by us.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
So you might actually not just be looking at things
that can be powder could you might be looking at
things that we powder codd.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Wow, that's pretty cool. And you, I mean, you guys
cover a large area and I always say when I
talk about Houston powder coders that you cover the greater
Houston area. But you were telling me recently that your
service of going out and picking up stuff and bringing
it back it goes pretty far out there. Will you
talk a little bit about because I've got listeners. They
go way outside the Houston area, way far like Louisiana border, Huntsville, Texas,
(27:50):
down in Corpus Christie and over close to thirty five
Interstate thirty five. What region are you serving now?
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Yes, we look to expand more and more, honestly every year.
This year we we actually expand it fully into the
San Antonio and Austin markets. We've had some wonderful, wonderful
feedback and success up to this point, so we're going
to look to continue that. But of course anything in
(28:19):
between and anything surrounding those areas would be happy to entertain.
And in all honesty anyway, even if you're all the
way down in Corpus Christie, if you're in Beaumont, if
you are just about anywhere in in in Texas or
the surrounding states like Louisiana close to the border, we
would entertain it. It just it just depends on how
(28:41):
we can, you know, schedule the logistics and and if
it's if it's feasible for us to go all the
way there.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
All right, sounds good. We're up at another break. You know,
I told you time flies when you're having fun, And
here we go. We're gonna take a little break. We'll
be right back with you, and I believe we may
have a collar coming up here. All right, folks, let's
come back here to Garden Line. You're listening to Garden Line.
We are about to wind up our hour here with
(29:12):
Flavio from Houston powder coders. We've been learning all about
the powder coating process. What can be done. It is amazing. Basically,
it sounds like if something will hold still long enough,
you can powder coat it. Just about that, but it's
primarily for metal. That is what we're really trying to
do is put a new life on metal.
Speaker 6 (29:31):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Flabio. Uh, it's good to good to have you with us.
I so appreciate you being on today. I want I wanta.
You alluded to something earlier on I think when we
were talking with Kathy, and that is you said, hold
on to that old furniture, uh, because even if you
don't powder coat it now, it is special stuff. You
were telling me a while back that actually just the
(29:54):
other day that the quality of metal has declined and
and so some stuff that's made now now it's like, yeah,
it's it's kind of junk. Uh. And whereas some older
stuff it'll like last forever if you just keep up
with it, like a quality powder coating. Do you want
to comment on that a little bit.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Yeah, and it's it's it's really unfortunate, but but it's
the way of the world today, right. And what we've noticed,
especially since COVID, when COVID created such a scarcity.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
And uh and metal.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
Unfortunately, patio furnture especially got hit pretty hard. It's still considered,
uh by economic standards, a luxury product.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
So obviously it the manufacturers.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Got the last drops the most recycled metal possible that
they could still produce with during the COVID years. And
what what's happened then, we we've tested this and our
pain manufacturers have tainted this and and and notice is
that that just the quality of steel has gone down
(31:00):
even more so than the than the last drop off,
which occurred somewhere at the turn of the of the
century right there in early two thousands. So yeah, if
you have any kind of furniture that that precedes that,
it honestly is a goal mine. You could you could
see this actually all throughout Houston and really just about anywhere,
(31:22):
but especially Houston because of the assault.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
In the air.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
But any old furniture, you know, sometimes you see it,
you know, at Grandpa's wrench, and you could sit out
there in the in the yard and you have grass
and vegetation surrounding it, and and yeah it's rusting, and
you see it rusted for many, many years, but it
doesn't disintegrate. You could honestly buy and bring you a
piece of furniture, put it in that same environment now,
(31:49):
and I will be shocked if it remains intact over
the course of a year to a year and a half.
That's just truly the difference that it is just not
enough carbon and carbon steel too to give the metal quality.
And like I said, it's it's definitely happened with COVID,
even the manufacturers. And unfortunately, you know, some of these
guys realize, hey, this this worked just well. We got
(32:12):
through the COVID years. Why go back, Why spend more
money on it if we can save it and compensate.
So it is, it's it's truly unfortunate. It's it's a
hit and miss. You know, you don't really know who
who does what, but we we've experienced where a lot
of people purchase a furniture brand new and you already
(32:33):
start seeing signs of rust or or white rust on
aluminum parts.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
Within a year to a year and a half.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
And beauty of it for ust though, is once you,
once you get it done with us, you will not
have that problem and it will last for many, many years.
Even just the coding that you received compared to to
the factory is infinitely superior.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Good, well good, not only breathing life into older pieces,
but uh, maintain a quality and improvement. I'm still getting
hundred plus colors. That's it.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
May get it on your favorite color.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
There you go, Well, gosh, time has flown here. We
still have a couple of minutes left here. But are
there some things that maybe I haven't asked you that
would be good to ask Or you think people need
to know about powder coating in the process or or
how to go about it or anything like that, just
kind of giving you wide open here.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Sure, Like like you said, is time time flies when
you're having fun. We have to do this.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
That's a bigger less next time, right, I do want
to that's right. And we touched on earlier.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
You you you noticed a couple of our colors being
mimicking rust for example, I want to inform our listeners
here about that, because as part of our one hundred
plus colors is a selection what's defined to us as
the Old World.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
That's what they call it, the Old World.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
And there's these powder paints that we take and apply
and it does exactly that. It mimics rust, It mimics patina,
It mimics the way copper fades to that beautiful torquoise blue.
It mimics iron, just not just rusting, but but kind
of fading with that that grayish grayish hard steel look
(34:28):
to it. So it's it's truly, honestly pretty much if
you can think of actually another one stucco stucco people
for some reason one might want to make their furniture
look like the stucco under underwall that's available. So it's
really an unlimited amount of the texture, the texture, the color.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Oh wow wow yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Yeah, that's the texture. Yeah, you can have fine texture,
aggressive texture.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
They call them hammertones where it looks like somebody took
a bill point hammer and just kind of dinged it.
You know, every half an inch looks really nice and hammered,
and and again it there's there's a there's a color,
and a and a texture, and it's there's something for
just about anybody, and it's it's honestly, uh it. We're
scared to just continue to introduce more because it takes
(35:26):
the selection process so so long. But but we want
to offer them, oh, I know, the most amount that
that we can because it's their satisfaction that we strive for.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
So well, I appreciate that. Well, wow, uh, this is
all amazing. Well let me uh before we run out
of time. Music is gonna start playing her pretty quick
on the Houston powder Coders. If you want more information,
go to the website. It's Houston powder Cooders dot com.
(35:56):
Houston powder Cooders dot com. The phone number I hope
you gotta pin with you because I'm going to give
you a second to grab one. You're gonna want to
write this down. I'm also going to give you the
email for it. Two eight one six seven six thirty
eight eighty eight two eight one six seven six thirty
eight eighty eight. And if you want to get an
estimate on your project, because you know, people often say,
(36:19):
well how much does it cost? Well, there's so many
variables that there's not a good answer to that. You know,
it's like you just need to do this. Take a
picture and send it to sales at Houstoncoaters dot com,
sales at Houston Coders dot com. They give you a
quick quote, quick quote, and if you've got one of
those that has sling fabric and vinyl straps and all
(36:41):
that kind of stuff that someone mentioned, the en caps,
the plastic feet and things, they take it as is
and they turn it back into better than That's kind
of what it amounts to. Flavio. Thank you so much
for being on today. This has been educational and I
was surprised a lot of people calling an asking about
this process.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
So, uh, thank you very fun. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
All Right, you take care. All right, folks, Uh, you're
listening to the garden Line. I got an hour left here
and if you have a question about gardening, give me
a call at seven one three two one two fifty
eight seventy four
Hey, welcome back to guard Line. You're ready to go. Hey,
here's what we're going to do this hour. This hour,
I have a special guest I'm going to be visiting
with and uh, we're gonna be talking about powder coating.
Our guest is Flavio from Houston Powder Coders. You're going
(00:27):
to learn a lot about this process and about what
you can do for the different things you have around
the property that will basically make them new again. And
you'll hear about that in just a moment. If you
got a question about powder coating, we invite you to
give me a call seven one three two one two
fifty eight to seventy four. You can visit with Flavio
(00:49):
and I and we'll talk about powder coating with you. Otherwise,
just sit back and enjoy it. We'll be back at
the nine o'clock hour for gardening questions, so I ask
you to hold your questions on gardening related topics until
nine o'clock. So, without any further ado, we're gonna go
out here on the phones and visit with Flavio. Hey, Flavio,
welcome to garden Line.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Good morning, Skip. How are you this morning.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
I'm doing great, I'm doing great. Thank you so much
for taking time out to give me a call today.
I really really appreciate this. We're gonna uh you and
I visited before me picking your brain on all things
powder coating, uh, and so we're going to kind of
delve into it. I know our listeners will be very,
very interested in hearing some of the details about this
(01:35):
process and and what it can do. So why don't
we Why don't we just start off by you explaining
to us what exactly is powder coating? I know that
doesn't that's not like dust and powder on something and
then it just blows off. What is a powder coat?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Well, honestly you're not too far off either, so we
can keep it about it. Okay, it's uh, it's powder.
Powder is it's a paint process. It's electrostatically applied, and
all that means is a fancy term for it passes
through a gun and it electrostatically charges at the tip.
It takes a negative charge, you know, positive and negatives attract.
(02:17):
Once the powder actually hits the part that we're trying
to coat, it latches on and then we have to
put it in an oven at four hundred degrees where
the you know about two hundred and fifty degrees, the
powder begins to melt and actually transform into what you.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Would think of in your head as liquid paint.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
And at four hundred degrees for about ten minutes, the
powder starts to cross link and you get the finished
nice product that we call powder coating in the end,
and of course the beauty of it is it's very
environmentally friendly.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
No VOCs.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
It's the cleanest and most efficient form of coating under
market today.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Well that's that is interesting. So those compounds, those VOCs
that are quite toxic are not part of the process
of doing this. I'm fascinated by the fact that basically
you've got this little room and the powder is put
out into the air and it is it sticks to
(03:25):
the metal that you have. You mentioned the negative and
positive coating, then it just sticks to it. But one
of the things that has fascinated me is how that
how that coats better than paint. Now have I hate
to admit this to you, but I have painted furniture
myself with a spray can and it's a mess. There's
(03:45):
runs everywhere, There's little corners, like there's a corner I'm
trying to get into and I'm just spraying in there.
Next thing, you know, it's running everywhere and I haven't
gotten paint in that corner. But this powder coating process
helps avoid a lot of that, doesn't.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
It sure does. And I'm sorry that you have to
go through the experience. I wish you would have given
us a call earlier, right, but.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Well, it was, it was. It was when I was
young and foolish many years ago.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Well, honestly, no, you don't have to be young and
foolish to do it.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Unfortunately, we get quite a bit of customers that that
go down this route at first, and we we we
highly discourage them, not not just because we we want
to get the business, but but more so because we understand,
especially in Houston, that that that process is just never
going to work. You're we are all fighting in this world,
(04:38):
especially here in Houston with the salt water, a losing
battle battle against time and corrosion.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Right, and unless unless you.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Have the capabilities of of prepping the material the way
we do, you're just never going to be able to
uh get get the peace to the condition where you
can even be in springing it, even if you do
just rattle cannon.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
So yeah, and part of the go ahead, go ahead,
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah, I want you to hold that thought because we
got a caller I want to pick up. And then
we're going to go to a break and I want
you to come back and talk about that prep that
you do and how no matter the condition of furniture,
what you guys do that makes it work. We're going
to go to the phones now. Kathy has a question
about powder coating. Kathy and Meadows Place, welcome to Garden Line.
(05:31):
You're visiting with excuse me, Flavio and I and what's
your question.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
I have some very old, really well made metal furniture
from the fifties and they were made in Bellfountain, Ohio.
I moved them to Texas many many years ago with
me there. The seat and the back are are some
kind of a screen, uh but heavy not not like
(06:03):
you know, lightweight screen and then metal pipes on the
side and uh, they've lasted all these years. They I
think I spray painted them a few times. I had
them about ten years ago powder coated. It was not
from this company, but they're starting to show rust again
and the caps are off, and just wondering if it's
(06:27):
feasible to have them read powder coated. I guess I
could send a picture, but just.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Yeah, let me get him the way in here.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Go ahead, Fabia, Good morning, miss Katy.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
You honestly are one of our most cherished in favored customers,
like the people with with patio furniture from from the
older days. It's it's absolutely I called it a gold mine.
I was even speaking with Skip of about this the
other day. Anybody that has any kind of furniture prior
to the years to thousands, you're getting the type of
(07:07):
quality of steel that they just simply do not make
the stuff out of anymore today. So you are sitting
on absolute treasure. So whatever you do, if you decide
to not powder couotd or powder quoted, please do not
throw away that vatue of furniture. It is an absolute treasure.
And yes, we absolutely would recommend it. Honestly, even with
(07:27):
a poor quality of steel than the kind that you have,
once it goes through our process, you were going to
be able to enjoy that coating for ten plus years,
even in this salt.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Water environment that we have today.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Any kind of application of powder coating that we do
at our facility, it's literally the equivalent of them what
they call a marine grade coating. It has a lot
of mills, We put a lot of protection into it,
a lot of pre treatment that we cut no corners
on the prep and you, honestly will will receive that
furniture better than you.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
I can safely say that.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
It's the it's the constant compliment that our drivers receive
whenever they drop off the furniture back at the at
our customers' homes. And caps and any kind of wearing
pair items like that on your furniture, we would replace that.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Of course, if it has any kind.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Of screws or bolts into it, that gets replaced with
brand new stainless steel. So yes, miss Kathy, absolutely, I
highly recommend it for you. And if you decide not to,
at least not yet, just please hang on to it
and don't disregard it.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Okay, Okay, Should I send a picture or something?
Speaker 1 (08:44):
And and yes, ma'am, that is the best way we
do it.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
You know, I can't, I would need to be picked up,
but I guess I'll just contact your company.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
You can just send the picture at sales at Houston
Coders dot Houston Power Couders dot com. We'll be able
to absolutely come to your home pick it up. We'll
show up with plenty of colors for you to choose from.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
If it has any kind.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Of fabric or strap, then we would bring the samples
for brand new fabric constructions as well.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Okay, there you go, Thank you, Kathy, appreciate that call. Yeah,
I'm jealous. I would I would love I would love
to have. I told uh, I told Flavia recently that
I'm to the point now of like driving up and
down the street on trash day trying to find somebody
who's throwing away their metal furniture so I can get
(09:45):
a powder cody, because I've seen this process and it
is amazing, amazing the kinds of things that we can do.
Get my producer to disconnect us here and I'll go
back to you, Flavio. You were talking about, uh, the process,
some of the process of getting it cleaned up and ready.
So I kind of cut you off there, would you.
Oh excuse me, my producers tell me I got take
(10:07):
that break. We'll be right back with you. Sorry for
the false alarm there, Flab, you be right back.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Lloyd.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
All right, Welcome back, folks, Welcome back to Garden Line.
Good to have you with us. We are visiting this
morning with Flabu from the Houston Powder Coders about all
things powder coating this hour. If you have a question
about powder coating, what can be, what can't be, any
questions you might have, you can give me a call
here at seven one three two one two fifty eight
(10:36):
seventy four and we will get it answered by the expert.
Uh uh, flave you. I appreciate you, you know, taking time
out to be with us today. Let's let's dive now
finally into some of the process of getting that metal
ready for the powder coating.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
Are of any coding application is truly the amount of
time somebody would spend on what we call prep work.
You have to prepare this metal to receive powder coating
or any kind of paint system that you're looking to apply.
What we do and what it's been traditionally the most
successful prep system or it is sand blasting. Although nobody
(11:25):
uses actual sand anymore in the process, the concept is
still virtually the same. It's taking some fine media, some
it's crushed glass, steel, aluminum oxide.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
There various various.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Good media out there on the market today and utilizing
compressed air. It just gets to throw it basically at
a part and that process begins to what we call
activate the metal. It number one of course, you know,
removes any kind of rust or paint or what we
call white rust and for the aluminum furniture that develops
(12:00):
and in this marine environment. And once everything is is
removed and clean, it looks like the pieces right back
to bare bone metal and as clean as it possibly
can be. That's when we would take it and then
begin applying some sealers to it. And this is the
(12:20):
beautiful part that gets into all those little crannies and
all those little areas that that paints and and other
systems don't don't usually penetrate and and and your rattle
can all of course definitely won't. And once once that
process is done, we immediately put it on on the racks,
(12:42):
uh and it goes to receive the primer application, which
is really really good epoxy primer, and then the polyestra
top code of your choice, and in some cases even
the clear code afterwards. That kind of prep for it is.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Absolutely the best.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
So this is the struggle if you try to do
this at home unless you have an actual sand blaster,
so you have compressors and media and and somehow a
bunch of room to where you can just it is
a very very messy and ugly process. Then you're just
simply never going to be able to prep this material
good enough to to to apply some kind of paint
(13:23):
that will last.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
You know. One of the things I appreciate about you
guys is the way you you stay up to date.
I don't know how many different things you've told me
over our conversations that you know. It's like you do
it this way, and it used to be done this way,
but now y'all do it this way, or here's the
new thing. And you were telling me about this laser
(13:47):
thing that's come along, and I say, you send me
a low video of it, and boy, that was so cool.
But it's this rusty piece of metal and this little
bar of laser beam goes across it and there's no rust.
I mean, we know, y'all, aren't you know? That's a process.
It's so new, it's it's about to get implemented. Uh here,
but will you tell me a little about tell our
(14:07):
listeners a little bit about that? That is way cool.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Yeah, So we we constantly tried to stay on the
forefront of course of innovation and technology. We we want
to take advantage of so many great minds today that
always look to improve our way of life. And we've
been fortunate to be able to partner with some some
amazing customers, one of them that that led us and
(14:30):
helped us to develop this, uh, this laser technology that
we're looking to utilize and hopefully replace the sand blasting
process altogether. Some from the oil field industry, and of course,
you know, being in Houston, that's that's the you know,
stayle of the of the city, if you will. And
we got together with their engineers and they discovered and
(14:55):
thought of the laser technology that's currently being used in
the in their welding app locations and how it's improved
that and with some with some tweaks, we managed to
to tweak it in a sense where we can now
utilize light as a particle wave.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
So as you can just picture light, and you.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Might remember some from from from our science courses that
that light tends to have this dual property that it
actually can be a particle. Means it has mass and
if you throw it fast enough and intensely enough at
a at a piece of steel. It can act just
like your sand blast media would and we feel like
(15:35):
we are at the point of development now that this
process which you you fortunately saw in that in that video,
is fast enough and efficient enough to actually replace the
sand blasting component of our operation and the beauty of that.
It is more environmentally friendly, it's it's it's even more
(15:57):
environmentally friendly than than what we currently do. It saves
a ton of energy, and it's just clean. It's it's
just an overall better pross. So we're taking now the
best prep method that you can possibly do to your
patio furniture, and you're taking it one step above Dad
even and just leaving the parts absolutely one hundred clean
(16:19):
and free of debris and ready to receive powder painting.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Yeah, it's amazing. It is really cool. You know, a
long time ago, when I was we were having the
conversation about whether you guys come on as a as
a sponsor or not. I always like to know the
companies that are sponsoring, and I took a tour of
the place and I was amazed. First of all, you know,
we had the call from Kathy and you were teller
she can pick her colors. You do over one hundred
(16:46):
plus colors, and when I was in the in the shop,
across the room was this what I looked at. So
that was a rusty piece of furniture they're fictioning to do.
And someone at your place there told me they said, no,
we finished that one. And it's because the people chose
a rust color for the furniture. And you know, I
got to thinking about it, and maybe someone has like
(17:07):
an iron wall hanging on the brick on the outside
of the house or on a fence, and you know,
when it gets wet, you get that rust that kind
of comes off there. And now you've got streaks of
rust in your masonry and everything. Why not just have
it powder coated to the color you want it to
look like. And I think with over one hundred colors,
people ought to be able to find one that they like,
including one that looks like it's rusty, if they want
(17:29):
to do that.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Oh no, I absolutely so. We get these requests quite often, honestly.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
All right, well that is good. Now. Another thing I
noticed there was the size of the rooms. You know,
I was picturing powder coating as something. You know, you
set this little piece of furniture in front of you and
someone runs around coating it. But you have rooms so big.
I mean, somebody can put their goose necked trailer in
there and coat that thing. And so talk a little
bit about out what all you can coat beyond just
(18:03):
the thing where I guess most interested in on this show,
and that's the outdoor furniture for the patio. But what
all can y'all coat?
Speaker 2 (18:11):
So thank you for that.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
Yes, we do have some of the largest ovens and
booths and really entire southern United States, if you will,
And we do so because as I mentioned earlier, some
of our clients are from the oil field industry and
they deal with stuff that goes out there on the rigs.
(18:35):
You know, things like skids and mud tangs. You know,
they're the size of actually trailers. If you picture a
container on a trailer, that's about the size of some
of these pieces that our customers asked us to code.
So the need brought us to the point to where
we had to create a facility that can handle those sizes.
(18:57):
I mean, the largest piece I think that we've ever
handled was one hundred and ten feet in the length
and it was a it was a believe it or not,
a lightful something would see at the intersection of you know,
like the belt eight and forty five somewhere, you know
that illuminates the intersection. And but but we have customers
and we service pretty much all markets.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
We we have stuff in.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
The architectural market and those are for example, you know buildings,
you know, handrails, balcony rails, trends, awnings, things of that nature.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Oil filled.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
I need to I need to cut in on you here.
I sorry, we got our absolute heartbreak here in about
ten seconds. But I want you to hold that thought
and come back. We've got Michelle and Jersey Village with
a question and we'll be right. I just hang around. Hey,
welcome back, Welcome back to Garden Line. We are visiting
with Flavio from Houston Powder Coats and learning a lot
(19:55):
about powder coating, how it's done, why it's why it's
a better process us and you know what they can
accomplish with powder coating. Uh Fladia. We have actually a
couple of callers here online, so let's go ahead and
jump to those if we could. We're going to start
with Michelle in Jersey City. If my producer can connect
us all three on the line here, we will take
(20:17):
Michelle's question, Michelle, how can we help the best? Good morning?
Speaker 5 (20:23):
Yes I can, good Morning. I've gone through several six
short nature through the years, and finally I've started kind
of creating different pieces myself because and things that I
would just love to hang on to forever because they're
they're very interesting and tricky looking. So I created a
(20:44):
cinder block sofa. I painted the wood. That's all good.
It comes apart because it's not glued together. I have
these beautiful cushions on it, which can be interchanged out.
But the cinder block. I want to know if you
can powder coat cinder block. It's possible.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
That's a very good question. You can, but believe it
or not, you actually can. It's it's not very typical
that something outside of metal gets powder coated, but you can. Unfortunately,
it does depend on a lot of variables. One of
them is just simply the quality of the center block itself.
(21:24):
You know how long it's been, how deteriorated it is,
how porous it is. Because anything that we do with
powder has to travel through another and at four hundred degrees,
So if it can withstand that heat, then technically, yes,
you can actually apply powder powder paint to just about anything,
and as long as it would stands.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
That heat, it will it will make it through.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
I would not personally recommend it, but but absolutely if
it's something that you you wish to try, I would
have to jump on a project like yours and and
go on a little experiment tour and.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
See what happens.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
Okay, you about it. I know it sounds different, but
that's what the fun about something like this is. It's
when you get something so tricky and and like a
one off and it's you know, unique. So thank you
to have a great day.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Yeah, you do the same. Thank you, Michelle. I appreciate
that call. I did not see that answer coming. Uh
I didn't didn't. Uh So I'm gonna get my We've
got another caller here. I'm gonna get my producer to
connect us now with Dave and Cyprus. Dave has a
couple of questions. Welcome to garden Line, Dave morning.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
I'm curious morning. Powder coating.
Speaker 6 (22:35):
Is powder coating the same as electrostatic coating like they
do on file cabinets and pre finished metal? Is that
it's the same process.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
It's identical the process that they use on on file cabinets,
and even your washer and dryer for example, or even
the exterior of your stove.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
All of those panels of metal are.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
Powder coded in house by the typically by the manufacturer themselves.
We only get the privilege of coding those whenever somebody
decides to do a restoration project and once their foul
cabinet or their washer and dryer to match their newest
designer recommendations for their home. But but yes, that is
exactly what you're describing. It's it's one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Say so.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
It's it's a terminology issue.
Speaker 6 (23:23):
Whether you call it electrow coating, it's the same process.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Yeah, it's it's they call it electrostatic because the powder
itself just gets charges, receives a charge at the very
tip of the gun, and they utilize that charge to
to kind of latch on to the to the part
that you're coding. So just it's just a fancier scientific terms,
all right, all right?
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Can so so?
Speaker 6 (23:53):
Red, red, red and yellow colors are very sensitive the
sunlight and they fade very fast. Does that happen with
powder coating? Such as you have to be careful with
the red and yellow hues.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Very good, very very very good question. Yes, they are
also sensitive and powder form. However, I will say a
lot of the powder powder coatings that are applied in
red and yellow, and I would say even just pretty
much all the bright ones take bright green, bright blue,
but especially yellow and red and orange. They do tend
(24:29):
to be sensitive to the UV light. However, if I
was to put it next through just regular paint, it
would outpacete the fade considerably. They also make some of
those paints are made to withstand five years without fade,
even up to ten plus years without fail. We call
those architectural great paints. It's the same exact process. It
(24:52):
comes in the same pretty much box. It's just that
the powder paint manufacturer decides to put different a different
chemistry in has been and it protects the color against
a UV phase for a great deal amount of time.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Thank you very much, very much, guse Yeah, very good questions.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
All right, Thank you Dave. Well, Flavio. I had a
just I've had some realizations learning about powder coating. I
think I told you this when we visited recently, but
I was in Atlanta walking out to a restaurant, and
because I now know about powder coating, I'm looking around going, Oh,
(25:33):
those metal legs underneath that wooden top table, those are
powder coated. And those little chairs over there on the
side that's been powder coated. And everywhere I walk now
I'm noticing powder coating and how it's just all over
the place. And recently I've got a little stool. This
is back in my I keep confessing having hand painted stuff,
but I have a stool from like a grandparent. It's
(25:55):
an old metal stool that has metal legs and sekine
where you pull out the little stack up to get
up on the stool. And uh, my wife wanted it
repainted like a red and a white color, and I
did spray paint it. But I just got to thinking
that would be a perfect thing for powder coating, because
here we have something that's sort of a family antique,
(26:15):
you know, it's important, not that old of an antique,
but still, uh. There there's things indoors and outdoors, and
it could be a lamp post, it could be a
post railing, there's a there's a lot of different kinds
of things that can be powder coated.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Absolutely, And uh, as a matter of fact, you mentioned
to two colors on the same piece that's that's also
something that that we can do. It's it's a little
bit more difficult in the process, but but it can
be done and we do it honestly quite often. So
so if you have a what we call it two
tone or a three tone application, that can be done.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
But but yeah, once once you.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Start seeing all of our all of the applications that
that we do, you will start noticing every no matter
fact you mentioned. Atlanta have life fixtures in the Atlanta
Braves Stadium. The entire stadium was when they got constructed
a couple of years ago. They received the brand new stadium.
They put these really beautiful led lights underneath the seating
(27:17):
for every level.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
And I was powder coated by us.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
So you might actually not just be looking at things
that can be powder could you might be looking at
things that we powder codd.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Wow, that's pretty cool. And you, I mean, you guys
cover a large area and I always say when I
talk about Houston powder coders that you cover the greater
Houston area. But you were telling me recently that your
service of going out and picking up stuff and bringing
it back it goes pretty far out there. Will you
talk a little bit about because I've got listeners. They
go way outside the Houston area, way far like Louisiana border, Huntsville, Texas,
(27:50):
down in Corpus Christie and over close to thirty five
Interstate thirty five. What region are you serving now?
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Yes, we look to expand more and more, honestly every year.
This year we we actually expand it fully into the
San Antonio and Austin markets. We've had some wonderful, wonderful
feedback and success up to this point, so we're going
to look to continue that. But of course anything in
(28:19):
between and anything surrounding those areas would be happy to entertain.
And in all honesty anyway, even if you're all the
way down in Corpus Christie, if you're in Beaumont, if
you are just about anywhere in in in Texas or
the surrounding states like Louisiana close to the border, we
would entertain it. It just it just depends on how
(28:41):
we can, you know, schedule the logistics and and if
it's if it's feasible for us to go all the
way there.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
All right, sounds good. We're up at another break. You know,
I told you time flies when you're having fun, And
here we go. We're gonna take a little break. We'll
be right back with you, and I believe we may
have a collar coming up here. All right, folks, let's
come back here to Garden Line. You're listening to Garden Line.
We are about to wind up our hour here with
(29:12):
Flavio from Houston powder coders. We've been learning all about
the powder coating process. What can be done. It is amazing. Basically,
it sounds like if something will hold still long enough,
you can powder coat it. Just about that, but it's
primarily for metal. That is what we're really trying to
do is put a new life on metal.
Speaker 6 (29:31):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Flabio. Uh, it's good to good to have you with us.
I so appreciate you being on today. I want I wanta.
You alluded to something earlier on I think when we
were talking with Kathy, and that is you said, hold
on to that old furniture, uh, because even if you
don't powder coat it now, it is special stuff. You
were telling me a while back that actually just the
(29:54):
other day that the quality of metal has declined and
and so some stuff that's made now now it's like, yeah,
it's it's kind of junk. Uh. And whereas some older
stuff it'll like last forever if you just keep up
with it, like a quality powder coating. Do you want
to comment on that a little bit.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Yeah, and it's it's it's really unfortunate, but but it's
the way of the world today, right. And what we've noticed,
especially since COVID, when COVID created such a scarcity.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
And uh and metal.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
Unfortunately, patio furnture especially got hit pretty hard. It's still considered,
uh by economic standards, a luxury product.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
So obviously it the manufacturers.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Got the last drops the most recycled metal possible that
they could still produce with during the COVID years. And
what what's happened then, we we've tested this and our
pain manufacturers have tainted this and and and notice is
that that just the quality of steel has gone down
(31:00):
even more so than the than the last drop off,
which occurred somewhere at the turn of the of the
century right there in early two thousands. So yeah, if
you have any kind of furniture that that precedes that,
it honestly is a goal mine. You could you could
see this actually all throughout Houston and really just about anywhere,
(31:22):
but especially Houston because of the assault.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
In the air.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
But any old furniture, you know, sometimes you see it,
you know, at Grandpa's wrench, and you could sit out
there in the in the yard and you have grass
and vegetation surrounding it, and and yeah it's rusting, and
you see it rusted for many, many years, but it
doesn't disintegrate. You could honestly buy and bring you a
piece of furniture, put it in that same environment now,
(31:49):
and I will be shocked if it remains intact over
the course of a year to a year and a half.
That's just truly the difference that it is just not
enough carbon and carbon steel too to give the metal quality.
And like I said, it's it's definitely happened with COVID,
even the manufacturers. And unfortunately, you know, some of these
guys realize, hey, this this worked just well. We got
(32:12):
through the COVID years. Why go back, Why spend more
money on it if we can save it and compensate.
So it is, it's it's truly unfortunate. It's it's a
hit and miss. You know, you don't really know who
who does what, but we we've experienced where a lot
of people purchase a furniture brand new and you already
(32:33):
start seeing signs of rust or or white rust on
aluminum parts.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
Within a year to a year and a half.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
And beauty of it for ust though, is once you,
once you get it done with us, you will not
have that problem and it will last for many, many years.
Even just the coding that you received compared to to
the factory is infinitely superior.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Good, well good, not only breathing life into older pieces,
but uh, maintain a quality and improvement. I'm still getting
hundred plus colors. That's it.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
May get it on your favorite color.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
There you go, Well, gosh, time has flown here. We
still have a couple of minutes left here. But are
there some things that maybe I haven't asked you that
would be good to ask Or you think people need
to know about powder coating in the process or or
how to go about it or anything like that, just
kind of giving you wide open here.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Sure, Like like you said, is time time flies when
you're having fun. We have to do this.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
That's a bigger less next time, right, I do want
to that's right. And we touched on earlier.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
You you you noticed a couple of our colors being
mimicking rust for example, I want to inform our listeners
here about that, because as part of our one hundred
plus colors is a selection what's defined to us as
the Old World.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
That's what they call it, the Old World.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
And there's these powder paints that we take and apply
and it does exactly that. It mimics rust, It mimics patina,
It mimics the way copper fades to that beautiful torquoise blue.
It mimics iron, just not just rusting, but but kind
of fading with that that grayish grayish hard steel look
(34:28):
to it. So it's it's truly, honestly pretty much if
you can think of actually another one stucco stucco people
for some reason one might want to make their furniture
look like the stucco under underwall that's available. So it's
really an unlimited amount of the texture, the texture, the color.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Oh wow wow yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Yeah, that's the texture. Yeah, you can have fine texture,
aggressive texture.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
They call them hammertones where it looks like somebody took
a bill point hammer and just kind of dinged it.
You know, every half an inch looks really nice and hammered,
and and again it there's there's a there's a color,
and a and a texture, and it's there's something for
just about anybody, and it's it's honestly, uh it. We're
scared to just continue to introduce more because it takes
(35:26):
the selection process so so long. But but we want
to offer them, oh, I know, the most amount that
that we can because it's their satisfaction that we strive for.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
So well, I appreciate that. Well, wow, uh, this is
all amazing. Well let me uh before we run out
of time. Music is gonna start playing her pretty quick
on the Houston powder Coders. If you want more information,
go to the website. It's Houston powder Cooders dot com.
(35:56):
Houston powder Cooders dot com. The phone number I hope
you gotta pin with you because I'm going to give
you a second to grab one. You're gonna want to
write this down. I'm also going to give you the
email for it. Two eight one six seven six thirty
eight eighty eight two eight one six seven six thirty
eight eighty eight. And if you want to get an
estimate on your project, because you know, people often say,
(36:19):
well how much does it cost? Well, there's so many
variables that there's not a good answer to that. You know,
it's like you just need to do this. Take a
picture and send it to sales at Houstoncoaters dot com,
sales at Houston Coders dot com. They give you a
quick quote, quick quote, and if you've got one of
those that has sling fabric and vinyl straps and all
(36:41):
that kind of stuff that someone mentioned, the en caps,
the plastic feet and things, they take it as is
and they turn it back into better than That's kind
of what it amounts to. Flavio. Thank you so much
for being on today. This has been educational and I
was surprised a lot of people calling an asking about
this process.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
So, uh, thank you very fun. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
All Right, you take care. All right, folks, Uh, you're
listening to the garden Line. I got an hour left here
and if you have a question about gardening, give me
a call at seven one three two one two fifty
eight seventy four
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