How has Ryan Amato Painting handled the paint shortage?

Ryan Is Guest On Marketplace News

September 30, 2021 at 7:46 pm | Category: Business, Company News

Ryan was recently asked to explain the paint shortage all painting manufactures are going through on Marketplace

Here is the Audio

Paint Shortage

A mix of factors, from an unusual freeze in Texas to ongoing supply chain issues with raw materials like resin, have resulted in a paint shortage. Sherwin Williams CEO John G. Morikis even told investors that “the persistent and industry-wide raw material availability constraints and pricing inflation we have previously reported have worsened, and we do not expect to see improved supply or lower raw material pricing in our fourth quarter as anticipated.”

“Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal spoke with business owner Ryan Amato of Ryan Amato Painting in Easton, Pennsylvania, to talk about how his business has been weathering the shortages. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

Kai Ryssdal: Paint shortages, really?

Ryan Amato: Well, we’ve been hearing about it for well over a year, and then the pandemic hit, so that was an issue. There’s been, obviously, a labor shortage so the truck drivers delivering the paint, that’s been an issue. There was the freeze down in Texas, and they supply a good amount of the resins, which is an ingredient for all the paints that we use.

Ryssdal: Yes, it’s a chemicals-heavy process, right?

Amato: Absolutely. It’s an ingredient. Just like you bake a cake, it’s one of our main ingredients in the paint, and we’ve had a major shortage of it.

Ryssdal: So what are you doing?

Amato: Well, I like to think that we’re well prepared at my company. So, we have great suppliers and vendors. Unfortunately, if you came to our shop, I’m looking at about 500 gallons of untinted paint sitting on pallets; just so we’re prepared for our customers, we’re ordering in very large quantities of paint.

Ryssdal: The catch, of course, is that untinted paint is no good if I need to paint my house blue, right?

Amato: Absolutely, yeah. And there are so many different bases of paint, so if you need a dark blue it’s a different base than white, so we just we’re trying to do the best we can to stay prepared for you, for the customer.

Ryssdal: Alright, so let’s make it about me. I do, in point of fact, actually need to have my house painted. How much of a lead time do I need to give you before you can say, “Yep, I’ll be there on Thursday.”?

Amato: That’s a great question, and it’s been a struggle. Historically, in our business, when we win a job, your job, we send you over a color sheet that you have to fill out. Normally not a big deal, give it to us a week or two before the project starts, and that’s typically in between four and six weeks. Now, we’re really twisting your arm behind your back; we need that color sheet a day or two, after your job is accepted. So we need about two or three weeks to make sure that we have the proper materials for your project.

Ryssdal: And I imagine, Mr. Amato, it’s going to cost me more, too, right?

Amato: It’s certainly going to cost you more. We’ve seen it’s been about 20% since really only about four or five months ago, and [a] 40% increase in our epoxy floors, which is pretty significant.

Ryssdal: I imagine you’ve got to go to your supplier, right? But is this one of those where you could find another source, and try to do it that way? I’m sure you thought of that.

Amato: And that’s what we’ve been doing. The only problem with that is — there’s many different suppliers and we all know them — paint is not all the same; you can’t just grab one gallon of paint and go to another vendor and grab another gallon of paint and it performs the same way. So not only are we seeing issues with paints we haven’t used before. It has also slowed down our production, our labor, because they’re using new paints. It requires different paintbrushes. They all perform differently. It’s been been a learning curve all around, not even to mention just the shortage of materials.

Ryssdal: That’s kind of wild that paint is not paint is not paint. It’s all different.

Amato: Absolutely.

Ryssdal: How long you’ve been in the painting business, Mr. Amato?

Amato: I’ve been in the painting business 30 years. I hate to say that. I feel like I’m getting older.

Ryssdal: Tell me, you ever seen anything like this?

Amato: No, never. The only other issue we had was … it’s always been labor. You know, we had some issues after 9/11 with labor and the amount of jobs. This has been very difficult.

Have your kitchen cabinets refinished

 

What to expect when having your kitchen cabinets painted

Having your kitchen cabinets painted whether you choose to do them yourself or have them professionally painted can be a big leap of faith.

But one thing that will help make that choice is to price new cabinets installed.

We are referring to quality cabinets installed, not the low end mass produced cabinets of today

Most likely you have quality cabinets already installed and for less than half the cost you can have them professionally refinished in most cases.

Your first decision will be who is going to do them?

Having a company who does this day in and day out is a great choice as opposed to a painting company who also "does" cabinet painting

It is a better choice to have someone who does cabinet refinishing every day touch your kitchen cabinets

They will be more experienced with the preparation needed and if anything goes wrong during the process, easily being able to adjust

Preparation is key to any kitchen cabinet painting project, preparing your existing cabinets for a new coating is most important

This can be done many ways, whether chemically with solvents and cleaners or mechanically with sanders or sanding by hand.

We like a combination of both of those methods

After preparing your cabinets you have a few choices here.

A standard paint job using readily available products. This will give a you a very nice job although one that will need slight maintenance down the road in the form of touch ups. We would expect a good 5 years before possible having to fully recoat and yearly touch ups possible after they are painted

This is due to simply the use they will be under, from water, soap, hands, and more. Anyone who promises you more than this is not being honest with today's traditional paints from any manufacturer

Your second option is to move into a high end two part product. This is not one anyone used here locally except for us, this is a more costly option but over the long run it will simply last longer.

Specialized equipment is needed to apply a coasting to get a beautiful finish, usually a combination of special sprayers and in some cases brush and rolling with very smooth rollers.

In the case of brushing and rolling the applicator is most important, they can make or break your project.

There is nothing worse than seeing heavy brush marks or roller marks on a cabinet project. This can significantly be diminished with the proper application.

Here are a few things that could go wrong

Improper pre from an inexperienced painter or crrew

Bad prep can be disastrous for a project, the entire job is only as good as it's base. This is the reason it is hard to come fix someone else's work

The wrong materials were used, without using the proper primers and top coats your project is doomed again.

Not explaining the true expectations of a cabinet refinishing project. The cabinets will not be bulletproof. No coating is, just like your car or existing cabinets they can be scratched, dinged and dented.

How to have a great project

Let the painters paint, they have been trained for this

Know the expectations of the project and what products are being used

How do you touch them up? Does the painter offer a maintenance program such as our three year or lifetime touch ups?

Enjoy the process, talk to the painters, enjoy the amazing before and after