Amanda Paterline - Exploring Textured Coatings - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Amanda Paterline of AkzoNobel. You can read the interview below, listen to the podcast or watch the recording.

Intro: Welcome to CoatingsCast, the ultimate podcast dedicated to the science, art and innovation of liquid and fluid-applied roofing, coatings for surfaces and waterproofing. It's time to roll up our sleeves, put on our lab coats and dive headfirst into the world of liquid protection that keeps your roofs and surfaces in prime condition. The future is here and it's liquid, so don't miss out. This is CoatingsCast, where every drop counts in the world of roof and service protection.

Hello, everyone. My name is Megan Ellsworth here at coatingscoffeeshop.com, and you are listening to CoatingsCast. I am so excited. I'm here with my friend Amanda from AkzoNobel, and we're going to be talking about textured coatings. Hello, Amanda. How are you?

Amanda Paterline: Hi, Megan. I'm doing well. How are you?

Megan Ellsworth: I'm so good. I'm excited to learn about textured coatings and sidewall applications. But before we get to that, let's have you just introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about AkzoNobel.

Amanda Paterline: Sure. Thanks. Yup. So I'm Amanda Paterline, the commercial marketing manager for our coil and extrusions business unit in the Americas region. I've been at AkzoNobel for a little over a year now, but have many years in the paint industry and formulating performance coatings and then on the commercial side more recently. For those who might not be as familiar with AkzoNobel, we are a global paint manufacturing company here in the Americas region in North America. We have 58 sites, 19 manufacturing locations.

Our U.S. headquarters are in Nashville, Tennessee. I'm based in our Strongsville, Ohio, location, which houses some of our R&D activities for metal coatings. So that's going to be our coil and extrusion as well as package coatings. And then our business unit is supported by additional locations, manufacturing in Columbus, Ohio and here on Ohio where they make our resins, as well as in García, Mexico.

Megan Ellsworth: Oh, very cool. Amazing. I love the strong history that AkzoNobel has, and it's been around for so long. Such a platform company in this industry. So really glad to have you here.

Amanda Paterline: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for having us.

Megan Ellsworth: Mm-hmm. Absolutely. So what are textured coatings, and how do they compare to traditional coatings?

Amanda Paterline: Yeah. So for our conversation today, I'm going to characterize textured coatings as those that have a stipple or wrinkle effect that is primarily formed as the result of different materials within the paint coating. So it's not going to be a sprayed-on coating where there's additional materials blasted onto it for that type of texture. This is going to be more of a stipple or wrinkle that's inherent to the paint. It's visible as well as could be felt when you're touching the coating.

So what that offers is a different, sort of unique aesthetic that can affect the way color and glosses appear on your finished product. When it's controlled and uniform, the textures can deliver a unique and really desirable finish, as we've been seeing. In some instances, this is generally going to be a purely aesthetic property to coatings. In potentially other industries where it's more on floor coatings or high-performance floor coatings, you're going to get into anti-slip.

But when we're narrowing the scope to sidewall and metal roofing, it's going to be for aesthetics. It can, in some instances, hide some imperfections that you would see with fabrication or installation and that textured aesthetic can add a perceived toughness to the coating. So that's really what we're focusing in on today when we're talking about textured coatings.

And I think what's pretty cool or exciting, a lot of people are very familiar with and it's been widely adopted, our CERAM-A-STAR 1050 Frost product, which is our textured or wrinkle coating. But what we've been able to do is harness that resin technology to achieve this in our SMP product line for our print products. So we are rolling out our CERAM-A-STAR 1050 Expression Standard Palette, which will have the printed look of... Kind of like a wood grain or a stacked stone-type appearance, but has the added effect of a wrinkle or textured coating, which gives it more of an authentic wood grain look and feel. So there's added depth to that printed product.

Megan Ellsworth: Oh, wow. That's so cool. I love that there's multiple options too for the print. Like you said, the stone, wood, probably more options, gives people all sorts of things to decide between. So what are the benefits of textured coatings, and why do people lean more towards that?
Amanda Paterline: Yeah. What we have really seen, especially in the past few years, has been from the design and aesthetics aspect. There's been a bit of a revolution in building materials with the textured, unique coatings. People are wanting their designs to stand out more. So we've seen a wide adoption of textured coatings for metal roofing, and that would be the CERAM-A-STAR Frost product. That can help with masking some imperfections that you see during installation, like oil canning. Also, the durability and toughness of the textured SMP product.

Our CERAM-A-STAR Frost comes with the 40-year film integrity warranty, which has been an industry-leading, paint-performing product. And then as I mentioned with the introduction of the textured print product, what we're finding as a huge benefit is that added grained texture yields a more authentic look and feel, which gives... To me, I like the more realistic look. If I am selecting wood grain finishes, I would want the real material if I could.

But with this type of metal substrate primer, topcoat, clear coat in a printed texture, you really get superior performance in the way of scratch resistance, weatherability. The Expressions has the 40-year film integrity warranty, and you're getting that at a very cost-effective solution relative to other common building materials on the market. So I think as a whole, textured products are introducing new and unique aesthetics to the market that can be very cost-effective relative to other building materials and have that excellent performance and warranty that you see with traditional metal coatings.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah. Absolutely. Let's talk about those performances. How do they perform in different environmental conditions, in extreme weather?

Amanda Paterline: Yeah. So we know that our Frost product, which has been on the market for a while, has excellent weatherability. We do a lot of accelerated weathering testing on all of our paint formulations, as well as we have a really huge weathering program down in South Florida. So with our 1050 technology, we've continued to build and improve upon this formulation with the SMP resin system and have really found we are confident in the film integrity, color retention and gloss retention, as well as resistance to chalk and fade.

So the textured single coat... Not single coat, but the textured coatings in that single color system, we have found, have excellent weatherability in our SMP system and what we are continuing to see as we monitor the printed Expressions products is that they're holding up just as well as our standard Frost product. So the SMP system that we're using for Expressions yielding that same excellent weatherability that you would expect from your other traditional textured coatings.

We do also have POLYDURE Expressions, which is just a standard polyester print with that same texture to give a more wood-grained look and feel and added depth. So that's going to be more for interior applications and finishes. So what's nice is, depending on the nature of what you're looking at for your building and material selection, we have the excellent weatherability for your roof in that frost-type textured coating. We have sidewall for lap siding or board-and-batten type in our Expressions, again with the great weatherability.

And then if you're looking to still achieve that same aesthetic on the inside, you don't need to overengineer for the weathering aspect. You can look at the POLYDURE Expressions, which is going to be the textured print. Of course, in addition to weatherability, we do see superior scratch and stain resistance. And what we're looking at and trying to arm our customers' sales teams with is speaking to how these products perform relative to other competitive materials on the market.

So we know a lot of... Especially our SMP system, we know, is a superior system within the metal coatings industry. But then if we want to look and compete outside of that with maybe wood or traditional cement board-type products, we're starting to build out information and test data around that to arm our customers' sales teams.

Megan Ellsworth: Oh, that's great. That's really exciting news. So what should your customers, these professionals, consider when choosing the right product for their projects?

Amanda Paterline: Yeah. So that's a good question. So when we look at roof material selection, you're going to want to go, especially where you are regionally, if you're along the coast, you're going to want to select SMP or PVDF. Those are going to be the leading performance materials for your metal roofing. And as I mentioned, our Frost product performs excellent. We do have COOL CHEMISTRY technology in these textured coatings, which helps with energy efficiency of the building and keeping the building cool, starting with the roof.

For sidewall, you would look at exterior/interior application. And if it's exterior, you'd want to go with that SMP-type technology, which is going to have the better weatherability. And I think, again, from an authentic look and feel for printed materials, the Expressions line has the texture or wood grain, which will help give you the more authentic appearance in some unique design aspects where you don't have to go outside of metal building materials to still achieve a different look and feel.

Interior, again, you still want the excellent scratch resistance and durability, but you don't necessarily need to take it as far from a weathering perspective. So considering more of like a polyester-type system for interior would be the best way to go. Some other things to consider when choosing and then, furthermore, installing materials. We do have... With the Expressions, we're launching a standard palette and what I would anticipate and expect is some of those solid color wood, colors within our palette are going to nicely complement some of the colors in our Select Frost palette.

So you can really look at designing the full building with complementary colors in a readily available palette that's easy to order and easy to attain, as we do expect inventory to be readily available. When it comes to installing, with printed products, you can get into the need for orientation of the print as well as ensuring there's not too much repetitiveness in the pattern. So when you get into more aggressive-looking woods with knots, there can be some repetitiveness. So just being aware and cognitive of the installation pattern is important.

What I like about the textured Expressions product, especially with the standard palette, is some of these are a bit more like toned-down wood grains where it's very visually appealing. As I keep mentioning, I really like the authentic piece. It probably drives my husband crazy, because I want the real thing. Whenever we're selecting a new home project, I want the most expensive real deal.

Megan Ellsworth: Me too.

Amanda Paterline: But what's nice is this really... I was really impressed, and I feel like I have high standards for what I think is an authentic look and feel.

Megan Ellsworth: That's awesome.

Amanda Paterline: So I think that really helps that it's a bit more of a less aggressive, less knotty type of wood grain.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah. Yeah. That's really exciting. I think, like you said, because there are so many standards that homes have to be held to now and metal really meets a lot of those and especially like a coated metal. But if you want that log cabin feel, if you want the wood feel, but you need that durability, the fire resistance, I mean, this is just perfect, honestly. So is there anything your customers, contractors should know about textured coatings before they should... Let me start over. Is there anything they should know about the application process for these products?

Amanda Paterline: Some of what I've mentioned before around when you're starting your material selection process, understanding, one, sort of what the weatherability requirements will be. So for metal roofing, we're really finding the SMP technology, which would be the Frost product, is an excellent selection for most of the U.S. When you look along the coastal region, PVDF often stands out as the best for those areas.

For sidewall textured coatings, again, your SMP technology will be great and that's offered in the textured Frost. When you start to look at interior elements for maybe in agricultural segment, you can still achieve the same aesthetic that you have on the exterior, but you can likely drop to more of like a polyester system, because you're not needing as much of the weatherability aspect. But the textured coatings, especially from a scratch and stain resistance, perform very well. So it's going to come down to exterior/interior application and weatherability requirements.

Megan Ellsworth: Are there any safety considerations contractors should be aware of when working with textured coatings on metal surfaces?

Amanda Paterline: Yeah. So nothing really stands out when you look at a prepainted material with a textured coating versus smooth. So they're going to want to continue to follow their standard practices, wear their proper PPE. That hopefully is outlined in their SOP and requirements. The only thing we've noted is, sometimes the textured products can be a bit easier to grip, but they still should wear their gloves because of the sharp edge for prepainted metal materials, but it's not a crazy requirement or anything different.

Megan Ellsworth: Okay. Great. That's great to hear. So how is this industry evolving with the use of these textured coatings in metal roofing and sidewall applications?

Amanda Paterline: Yeah. So our Frost product launched about 10 years ago, and it's really cool because we're starting to really see this out in the market, especially on standing seam. It gives a bit of a softer look, and we see it continuing to grow. You can do a little more with your gloss levels, and then that texture gives a bit of a different effect to the color. So we continue to see that piece growing.

What we are also finding is there's an increasing need for readily available materials so that... Really, the expectation is that the planning, inventory control and execution of a project is done in a predictable and timely fashion. So that was why we introduced our Frost product into the Select program last year, where we have the standard palette. We know it's readily available and easier for project planning.

And what we're seeing now with more popularity around that lap siding and board-and-batten in a prepainted metal material is the same expectation of wanting readily available material, easier for planning. So we have this Expressions product that's growing in popularity. People want the authentic grained look on a printed product. So we're like, "Let's adopt the same strategy of having a standard palette available," especially with printed products. There's a little bit of added complexity.

It's a slightly different process for the coil coating application piece. You have multiple materials going into it. Instead of primer/topcoat, there's multiple layers. So it can get a bit more complex with planning. So by introducing a standard print palette with that texture, people still can achieve kind of unique aesthetics, feel. There's a bit more customization in the design of their project.

But we've pulled some of the complexity back by having a standard palette that we know is readily available and easier to attain. And again, we're doing that because we see textured coatings continuing to gain popularity. We see people wanting to do more with the design of their buildings, but the expectation of material availability continues to be kind of stricter or tighter and tighter. So we want to be meeting those two needs in the market.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I'd love to hear some of these success stories that you have where these textured coatings and products have really enhanced a project and made the home or building owner just super happy.

Amanda Paterline: Okay. Yup. So with the launch of our Select program and standard palette program for our textured and Expressions products, what we're focusing in on is adopting that readily available material and inventory. So about a year ago, we did release a case study with Flack and Metal Building Supply that indicated how the Select program improved customer satisfaction.

So that's why we're now adopting it with our Expressions printed products. And what we are anticipating is, in addition to the readily available piece of the program, that we'll also be looking at doing a more formal cost analysis, so how this can benefit the metal building market from the perspective of competing against other materials.

So in the residential market, our initial analysis is that this is an affordable or more affordable solution relative to vinyl, traditional wood or cement board, as well as from a longevity and maintenance perspective, there are benefits. So our Expressions product, the textured print, is... The standard program is launching at METALCON. So stay tuned. And what we are expecting from there is to have more materials and a formal case study that would indicate data with more of this detailed information.

Megan Ellsworth: Oh, that's so exciting. Okay. So you're at METALCON, and you have lots of things to show. Kind of going off of that, how can contractors get in touch and learn more about AkzoNobel's offerings and where they can find these amazing products?

Amanda Paterline: Yeah. So as I mentioned, we'll be rolling this out at METALCON. I'm really excited. We are doing a bit of a new display with part of our booth to showcase the textured frost on a roof and the printed sidewall. So please stop by our METALCON booth. And in the meantime, if you have any questions or want to learn more, you could check out our website or go to contact us. You could also follow us on LinkedIn on our coil and extrusions page, or reach out to me. And myself or any of our sales team, we have information on where you could buy these prints or if you're looking for more information. So just reach out.

Megan Ellsworth: That's amazing. Well, Amanda, thank you so much. I've learned a lot. I'm really excited to see your booth at METALCON and touch the texture and see it all in action, and thank you so much for chatting with me today.

Amanda Paterline: Yeah. Thanks, Megan. Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity. Always good to catch up with you.

Outro: Yeah. Awesome. So everyone out there listening, this has been a CoatingsCast. Thank you for listening. You can learn more at coatingscoffeeshop.com. You can also go to the AkzoNobel [inaudible 00:24:40] and learn more about their products and everything they offer at coatingscoffeeshop.com and rooferscoffeeshop.com. Amanda, I'll see you next time. And everyone out there listening, I'll see you next time as well on the next CoatingsCast.

Thanks for joining us on this coating adventure. Stay tuned for more episodes. And in the meantime, be sure to follow us on social media to stay updated with all things roof coatings. Until next time, stay coated. For more information, go to coatingscoffeeshop.com.