By Linc York, Induron Sales Rep
It was the dog days of the hot summer of ’09. Italgrani flour milling had a concrete elevator structure standing over 200-feet tall, located on the shores of the Mississippi River in south St. Louis, Missouri.
The concrete façade was dirty, chalky and a general eyesore. Ownership wanted to change that image of decay with a coat of paint. When the bidding was complete and the dust settled, Bazan Painting of St. Louis was awarded the project. Their project manager was Kevin White and he certainly had his work cut-out for him.
The time sensitive project involved several challenging factors. To be competitive price wise and to ensure the projectfinished on time, the coating needed to be both rolled and sprayed. On a daily basis, there are at least a hundred cars parked nearby, not to mention office buildings, other manufacturing facilities, homes and boats traveling up and down the river.
Needless to say, the chosen product needed to be a true “dry-fall.” The new paint had to have great adhesion to bothpreviously coated (read old paint) and uncoated concrete and metal. The new coating had to have mold and mildew resistance and be available in a low sheen finish. It didn’t take long to recommend Induron Aquanaut II Low Luster.
This was the first time Bazan Painting had used this product, and it didn’t take long for the comments to start. For those of us in the paint business, this is where the story gets really interesting. My two favorites are, “This is the best dry fall acrylic we have ever used” and “This stuff sticks like crazy, we can hardly get it off of our hands.” I assured them their hands would never rust!
Recently I drove by the site wondering how the Aquanaut would look after more than five years. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I’ll just say that it looks like it was painted just last week. I saw no evidence of mold, mildew or peeling. Aquanaut has stood the test of time and still has more to give.
Founded in 1947, Induron manufactures high performance coatings that serve a range of industrial applications, including the wastewater, transmission and distribution and groundwater storage industries. Learn more about us at www.Induron.com.