Setting up a successful project: The staging space

By Emma Peterson.

Western Colloid shares a variety of tips and tricks in this video to help you understand what a properly set up job site looks like.

Western Colloid is a great resource in the coatings industry. With over 50 years of experience, their expert team has seen it all and wants to share their knowledge with you. As Chris Ford, Western Colloid’s director of field technical services, explained, “We want everything to go smooth, we're your partners in this. What we want is for you guys to be as efficient and as clean as possible. It's what's best for the building owner and the property that you're working on, it's what's best for the contractor to be as efficient as possible and all parties involved are going to be most happy if we can get into a job, do the job cleanly, and get out of the job as fast as possible.”

In a video on Western Colloid’s YouTube channel, Chris is joined by his uncle, Tim Ford, to share tips for setting up a staging area for your coatings projects. This must-watch video opens with the duo pointing out some helpful precautionary methods to keep a job site clean and efficient. Chris explained, “When there’s a job and you're going to put one of our roofs on, customers give a space either on their sidewalk or in their parking lot to stage everything. Ideally you're going to come in, put a high-quality roof system down efficiently and leave that job. If it’s done correctly, they won't ever know you were there, working on the sidewalk or wherever.” Some of their suggestions for achieving this “leave no trace” level of cleanliness is using tarps and trash bags to keep emulsion from ever hitting the ground. Tim also recommended setting up a water hose before starting to work with any product. He elaborated, “Have it hooked up ready to go because mistakes happen. If you're prepared with a water hose, you can clean up that mess a whole lot easier than if you already have to go find the water hose and find where you can hook it up.”

Now that their staging area was prepared to handle any spills or messes, Tim and Chris dove into the details of getting the emulsion product on the roof. The general system involves connecting a hose on the roof to a spray rig (they recommend the Graco pump), then using a connecting hose between the spray rig and wherever the emulsion is stored. For those working with Western Colloid products, that could be a tanker which holds up to 5,000 gallons), a tote (holding 275 gallons), a drum (55 gallons) or a bucket (5 gallons). In addition to these base items, Tim and Chris emphasized the importance of additional products, like accessories, cam lock fittings and white lithium lubricant.

Watch the entire video to learn more about these products and tips for venting tanks, managing PSI pressures, upgrading your equipment, organizing your hoses and more! You can also find over 100 videos on the Western Colloid YouTube channel full of expert advice and information on different parts of the roof coating process.