Sheets Of Paint Fell From The Sky

By Jack Innis

Dave is a coatings foreman with more than 20 years in the business. This incident happened during the application of a topcoat onto steel beams that were pre-primed at the fabrication shop. After the beams were topcoated in the laydown yard and cured, they were hoisted into place—some seven stories high—at an industrial facility. Although the names have been changed to conceal identities, the lessons learned are universally applicable.

It was Monday morning and the foreman of a large paint contracting crew was in his pick-up on the way to an industrial construction site after the 4th of July weekend. “Dave’s” cell phone rang. It was his boss asking for an update. “The project is going fine,” Dave said. “I’ll call you in a few hours with a detailed report.”

Navigating his truck through the crowded jobsite to his trailer, Dave looked up and saw sheets of paint hanging from the structural beams. Bedsheet-sized sections—seven stories up—were fluttering like laundry on a clothesline. Newspaper-sized pieces swirled toward the ground. The parking lot was littered with leaves of paint.

Sickened, Dave stepped out of his truck. His mind flashed to a heated debate that took place at the pre-job meeting six months ago.

The structural beam spec’d for this job would arrive from the fabrication shop already coated with “Acme” brand primer. Dave’s crew would apply the topcoat in the laydown yard. Then the beams would be erected.

But unlike most specs, this one, written by a well-known engineering firm, allowed the field painting contractor to select a topcoat from a paint manufacturer other than the one that supplied the primer. A heated debate arose at the pre-job meeting.

Dave could still hear the loud voice of the battle-hardened construction manager (CM) as he asked paint reps from three companies—all approved topcoat manufacturers according to the spec—if there was any problem using their alkyd paint on top of Acme’s alkyd primer.

Acme’s sales rep, Jerry, said his company didn’t know what would happen if this highly irregular practice was allowed. Jerry even went so far as to ask the other two reps if their companies had ever done any testing with his product underneath their topcoat. They hadn’t.

After that, Dave remembers Jerry looking directly at the CM and saying, “Sir, none of us can predict what’ll happen if you mix manufacturers, but if there’s a problem, we assure you it will be yours, not ours.”

The CM just about exploded. “Look Jerry, I’ve been doing this for 30 years and as far as I’m concerned, there’s no reason we can’t put one manufacturer’s alkyd on top of another. After all, it’s just an oil-based paint. I’ve seen it done tons of times and it’s always worked.” By the time the meeting ended, the CM had chosen a topcoat manufactured by “Bravo.”

Bravo’s topcoat was less expensive than Acme’s.
Bravo was distributed by a “good ol’ boy” buddy of Dave and the CM.
Bravo was now on the ground at Dave’s feet.

At that moment, a truck pulled up in a cloud of dust. The CM stepped out and eyed the failed paint. “What happened?” he gasped. Dave said, “I don’t know…yet.”

Then the CM lit into Dave. “This is the worst nightmare I’ve ever seen. Now that the beans are up, you’ve got all sorts of problems. You’ve got to protect all the installed equipment from overspray. Other trades are already inside so you’ll have to work weekends to stay out of the way. Put it this way, buying 4,200 gallons of extra paint is the cheap part.”

In his mind, Dave began to rough out the cost. When he passed the $100,000 mark, his brain shut down.

“I’ll get to the bottom of this,” he heard himself saying as the CM drove off in a huff.

Dave mentally replayed the surface prep and paint application. His men had washed all the dirt off the primer and touched up rusty areas before applying the finish coat. They applied the paint in accordance with the product data sheet. He couldn’t think of anything that they had done incorrectly.

But the more Dave investigated, the more he realized the magnitude of the problem. All, not just part, of the topcoat was affected. And it all had to be removed.

Looking for a way out, Dave discreetly purchased and applied two gallons of Acme topcoat on a not-yet-painted, Acme-primed beam. If the Acme topcoat peeled off like the Bravo topcoat did, it would prove that bad primer had cause the topcoat to peel. He’d be home free.

Dave brought in an independent inspection firm to perform adhesion tests, then went back to his trailer and ate lunch, hardly tasting a bite.

Dave tensed up when he heard the trailer door open. It was his lead painter. “Boss we’ve got some bad news. The Acme topcoat is stuck tight as a tick on the Acme primer. We can’t blame the primer.”

Subsequent lab tests confirmed that one of the ingredients in the Bravo topcoat was interfering with its adhesion to the Acme primer.

Dave’s firm ended up removing all the topcoat by using pressure washers and finely tuning the pressure and nozzle sizes. The total cost to Dave’s firm, including 4,200 gallons of paint, topped $200,000.

Lessons Learned

Dave told sources that while he cherishes business contacts and friendships he’s made over the years, he regrets that the “good ol’ boy” network doesn’t always have his best interests in mind. “A good ol’ boy isn’t really a good ol’ boy if he puts you in a financially dangerous position just to sell you some paint.”

The foreman also shared that he now realizes that on a multi-coat paint system, when the primer is applied in the fabrication shop, the field crew should apply intermediate and finish coats from the same manufacturer. Paint formulations, even simple single component products like alkyds, vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.

“Don’t be fooled into thinking that one generic type of paint will work over another generic type of paint,” he said.

The risk is too high and the consequence too great if a failure occurs.

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