10 Questions With David Galkin

10 Questions With David Galkin

We recently had the opportunity to interview David Galkin of Fish Window Cleaning of the Lehigh Valley's owner David Galkin

I have had the luxury to be able to interview, meet and interact with many great people from all walks of life, from business to sports to entertainment and I wanted to start to bring these discussions to you.

You will soon find out even though we all come from different walks of life we all have many of the same things in common.

Listen in as we speak to David about his life, business and family and I hope you can learn a few things to use ion your world as well

Podcast

Why You Should Be Home For Your Estimate

Why be home for your estimate:

When getting a painting estimate or an estimate for work around your home
for that matter it is important to be able to let the estimator know what you
expect when the project is done.

You may say why? Each job no matter who I use should be prepared,
painted and done the same but that is further from the truth then you would know.

There is not a specific standard of work from company to company and
most painting projects have very
different levels of service for the same thing, for instance spackling.

Preparation Of Surfaces

You can spackle a wall with many different levels of quality, from low to high
and somewhere in the middle is typical, but if you think they are doing it to perfection and they
are thinking the opposite,
it doesn’t mean they did a bad job, it was a missed expectation not explained
by the painter or asked for by the homeowner.

The same goes for exterior preparation work such as scraping peeling paint, under
most circumstances work is done by preservation techniques,
meaning loose paint is scrapped,
some caulking may be done,
usually bare wood is pot primed but then it is painted. If you're thinking the surface
will be completely smooth you
will be very upset with the final appearance. It will certainly how old levels of paint,
uneven surfaces and more, without stripping the entire surface you
will not get a level surface
under a normal repaint project.

The Estimate

I cannot tell you how many times I have gone out for an estimate and the person
who ultimately would be critiquing the work was not there,
leaving it to another person to try
to explain what they wanted to be done
or no one at all was home. These projects go bad 9 out of ten times.

Comments like bad quality, not enough prep or scrapping are mentioned when
in reality it was a mixed expectation or an expectation
that could never be met with a normal repaint.

So what to do? It’s simple be home, if you cannot be home at the least have
a conversation with the estimator and create a detailed list,
then its possible this can be matched
up with the estimator's
notes and work order. 

We have actually implemented a policy that we will not go out on an estimate
unless the decision make will be onsite, this may cost us
a few estimates opportunities
but in the long run, it is better
to have less work
than clients who are upset with the quality of the work from missed expectations. 

The number one thing that turns a new project bad is missed expectations,
it always comes down to this, when we look back at a bad
project or one that turned bad.

Amato Painting Films With Benjamin Moore

Amato Painting films with Benjamin Moore

This week was a fun week, we filmed with Benjamin Moore discussing and applying their Notable dry erase product. 

It all started when someone from Benjamin Moore saw a YouTube video I did comparing Benjamin Moore's Notable dry erase against a competitor.  We all know I like to test out all the products that the company uses on our projects and dry erase was always one we just could not find a suitable product.

So I gave it one last try using a product from Benjamin Moore on a few walls in our office, immediately we knew this was a different product,it was easily applied, immediately two coats can be put on and the best part is it does what it says and erases over and over with no issues at all.

So I received a call from someone in the marketing department from Benjamin Moore asking if I would like to be part of a series of videos they are doing promoting Notable, as I already knew the quality and performance of it I was glad to be a part of it. So we set up the date, I secured a location to apply it and we were all set. 

On the day of filming a funny note, we all forgot the paint so Gleco Paint to the rescue, I called and luckily the area sales rep ran a kit right over.

Gina from Benjamin Moore, the film crew Tag from our office and myself were all involved.

Gina was so much fun, it felt like being at home with her cracking jokes about my instruction reading ability and the film crew was very accommodating and very nice to be around and of course professional.

As we forgot the paint we decided to start filming my interview first, that went great, I had no idea what the questions would be so it was an honest review of the product and other products I have used.

This took about an hour once we set up, did the interview and cleaned up and then it was on to the application of the Notable.

Tag took over here, mixing art A and B together for a few minutes making sure we followed the instruction sheet.

I had already visited the day before to prepare the wall and mask it out.

Once mixed and ready Tag rolled on two coats back to back, we let it dry just a bit and removed the paper. 

It does take 7 days for the product to cure before anyone can write on it, but once it's ready you have a very large surface to write and collaborate on. You would not be able to purchase a dry erase board for the price it would be for Notable. We all know how expensive those boards can be.

It was great to be involved in this project, meet Gina and the crew, we love to support great products and introduce them to our clients. We will have another blog as we have a visit to Benjamin Moore's headquarters next week to speak with their marketing team. Stay Tuned:

Your puppy is ugly and negative people aka bullies

Your puppy is ugly and other positive comments online

I love YouTube, I will say it again I love YouTube, I use it at work, at home and it keeps me company at the gym on those never-ending treadmill sessions. I also use it myself for our business uploading videos, tips and other things to help clients and other companies.

It always amazes me that people can be so nasty but more so they have the time to do it? I barely have enough time in a day to get my things done, I would never have time to troll someones YouTube or Facebook page to write nasty comments. I am impressed they have the time honestly.

Negative reviews

So no matter what video you search for someone will either give it a thumbs down or have a nasty comment, try it now go to YouTube and search puppies, who would hate puppies? You will be surprised, I haven't set this up, the fourth result down for me is "Puppies playing with babies" now that is double the cuteness and it has 15K of dislikes? and reading through some not so nice comments. Ok let's try another search kids like to watch "kids playing with toys"

Puppies and kids are bad?

How can that be bad? well, my first result has 10k of dislikes and comments are disabled most likely because people leave nasty ones. Can ten thousand people really dislike a kid playing with a new toy?

Let's go back to business, I have been lucky on YouTube with people being so supportive, leaving great comments but I am not naive I will get some eventually, now Facebook is another story, we are always on the defensive there and it's not from customers.

We receive messages from other companies pretending to be regular people, spouses putting ads up of their husbands' companies, people telling us the pictures aren't real or the same or they can do it better, faster, cheaper etc. I can only imagine what it must be like to be a celebrity, I do not envy that at all, the money would not be worth the attacks. I also can not imagine what kids nowadays must go through, I can only imagine in age they are already sensitive to how they look when people write nasty things on their pages it must really hurt.

Bullies come in all sizes and ages and can be male or female.

Bullying is not just physical and bullies are not just teenagers in a school, you would be surprised how many bullies we run into, from nasty demanding spoiled clients who verbally abuse our workers and office staff to the general contractors who are so spoiled rotten and are used to getting everything they ever request whether its right or wrong, Kyle could tell you stories of contractors demanding we paint while it's snowing or pouring outside or calling to demand we have painters onsite even though we were there and they have no work ready. Bullies suck no doubt and you cannot reason with an unreasonable person. One day I will do a blog with examples of some of the things we go through with demanding clients that will blow your socks off. If we could only name them.

So what are we supposed to do? Let them bring you down? No way! You smile at them, be the bigger person but let them know they are being rude, I don't let them get away with it, let them know how they are treating you, one thing I always tell our staff is to not accept in any way someone abusing you. pack up and leave or hang the phone up, we don't need those type of clients. 

You want the exterior home painted now what?

You want the exterior of your home painted so now what?

Click here for a free consultation

Painting the exterior of your home can be a tough decision as let's face it you have no idea what this may cost.

It may be hundreds, thousands or more and that wonder sometimes can be stressful.

When you decide you need this done it may be for a few different reasons.

• Protection of wood from rot or further rot
• Protection from the suns uv rays which fade surfaces
• Your selling your home and you want to increase the value
• Purely cosmetic and you want to have the best looking home on the block
• The city or township demanded it (codes)

So you can see there are many different reasons or wants to have this done and each has its own set of needs and priorities. If your needing to do it or codes you want it done as fast as possible and usually at a more affordable price as it was unexpected. So maybe you don't put multiple coats on or the prep is not the same as some of the other reason. 

With so many different reasons to have something painted, beautification, safety, and protection there is always a way to tailor your budget to match the job and budget. This is one reason it is so hard to have multiple painting companies come out when you're looking at the price only. They will all estimate it a different way, there are no apples to apples and if you believe you can look at three professional estimates the same when the painting companies can't figure out how to even bid it the same you may have a rough project or just add even more confusion onto an already difficult decision.

You should first know exactly what you would like to have done, what do you expect on that old peeling wood trim and how your expectations will directly affect the cost up or down. A good estimator should be listening to you and not talking the whole time. Their estimate should be tailored to your project, not the companies work tailored to your home.

You want to choose a company that will take the stress away from you, review the process and materials and has a direct written plan on how they will tackle it and then a driven agenda to deliver the result you both agreed upon.

Issues will arise when there is a disconnect between homeowner and estimator and then the transfer from estimator to the painters. Everyone needs to be aware of and agree on the plan before work is to begin. Nothing is worse than a project starting and then the phone ringing as the homeowner is confused or didn't express their full expectations to the estimator and believe me it happens.

"Nothing is worse than a project starting and then the phone ringing as the homeowner is confused or didn't express their full expectations"

How can this be resolved? Review the proposal against the work order. It is important a company walks through before the project is to begin as well as the homeowner signing off on these processes. A lot can be avoided if only there is good communication between the lead painter and homeowner who is in charge. That is another key point, one person should be the direct person to communicate with the painter and one for the homeowner. With too many people involved it can open up confusion and mistakes.

So how much will that exterior paint job really cost? In our next blog, we will give some pricing example of homes we have done. Remember they are examples and each home should be priced on its own but it will be a great sample of what to expect.

Kitchen Cabinet Painting Podcast

We have released our newest podcast Behind the Painting Scenes with Ryan Amato.
In this episode we discuss painting kitchen cabinets. The do's and dont's, proper prep and what to expect on your project.
Kitchen cabinet painting can save you money vs replacing or refacing your cabinets.


Proper prep is the key to any painting project and even more so with cabinets.
Listen as Ryan discusses this and more on the podcast
Click here to listen and remember to subscribe.