Exploring the Diverse Applications of Waterproofing - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Fernando Silva from Pli-Dek. You can read the interview below, listen to the podcast or watch the video.

Intro: Welcome to Coatings Cast, 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 Coatings Cast, where every drop counts in the world of roof and surface protection.

Heidi J Ellsworth: Hello and welcome to Coatings Cast from Coatings Coffee Shop. My name is Heidi Ellsworth and we're here today to talk about waterproofing. Nothing more important for the structure of a building than strong performance waterproofing. So we asked our experts, friends from Pli-Dek to join us today. And hello, Fernando Silva, welcome to the show.

Fernando Silva: Thank you. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be with you guys once again on the waterproofing side of the business. So here we are.

Heidi J Ellsworth: I love it. I love it. So let's start with introductions. Fernando, if you could introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about Pli-Dek.

Fernando Silva: My name is Fernando Silva. I work for Pli-Dek, and I want to tell you that Pli-Dek has been around for quite some time, I want to say since 1980. I've actually been working with Pli-Dek for about seven or eight years now, and I've had a great opportunity to work with these guys and we're here to see what we can do here.

Heidi J Ellsworth: I love it. I love it. And one of the things that's been so great about Coatings Coffee Shop and ICP, who is the parent company for Pli-Deck, is just really bringing all the different types of technologies and coatings that are out there. And really when you're thinking about coatings, waterproofing is one of the most important. So can you talk a little bit, let's just start really high level, Fernando, on why is waterproofing so important and really looking at it overall, below grade, walls, roof, everything as you're applying this real waterproofing type of technology.

Fernando Silva: So the main thing that we focus on, we try to keep it simple. I mean, we want obviously keep water, moisture and things like that out of the interior of the building. One, you can have roof decks that are a potential water hazard. You have decks that can come across, even below grade waterproofing. There's a lot of areas that we focus in the company to try to keep the water out of the building and avoid basically generating mold, dry rot and things like that. And being part of ICP where we offer various products, Pli-Dek is the one to go with. I mean, our company has been around for 40 plus years and why not? You can definitely utilize this in various aspects of the building. So.

Heidi J Ellsworth: Let's talk a little bit about the Pli-Dek products and really where they're utilized. So let's start all six sides of the buildings. So as you're looking at it below grade, obviously garden risk. Can you just give us a feel for the range of products you have and where they're used?

Fernando Silva: Most of the time you're going to see us on a lot of the commercial building aspects. For example, big commercial housing like Pulte Homes, KB Homes, you'll see us for Irvine Companies. Those guys are going to use this on a lot of their exterior decks as well as the breezeways, the hallways. You're talking about tons and tons of square footage. Not only that too, even though we also use most of our systems on a roof deck as well. So instead of it being your standard Torch Down or TPO or any of those, so we can also be utilized on a roofing application as well to replace that to give you extra square footage for above living space. So, yes.

Heidi J Ellsworth: Yeah. Wow. And what are some other areas? So we have the decks, we have the balconies. What are some of the other key areas that you really see your products being used a lot?

Fernando Silva: We use them around pool decks. We use them around over living space, obviously. We also are used below grade waterproofing. I mean, we're considered a traffic coatings company type of deal and systems. And we can definitely go around in various locations. Some of it you might not see it. A lot of it is just hidden. So right before the whole entire walls go up, we pretty much doing some of those applications. But most of the stuff that you see outside, I mean we're doing a lot of decks, that's exterior water decks. I mean, it's amazing how many of them we've done throughout the 40 years that we've been around. So.

Heidi J Ellsworth: Yeah. Let's talk a little bit about the type of contractors that are installing your product. Are they kind of contractors that are specializing in decks or specializing in this waterproofing technology? Or do you find it's general contractors or roofing? Yeah.

Fernando Silva: So with us, I mean we go to just about, I want to say we kind of have a variety of applicators. We do have guys that specialize just on this aspect of the application. The difference between us is that we typically always make sure that all of our contractors or applicators that are using our products are certified installers. So we make sure that that's how we can kind of control the quality of the installation. So that way if you have a building owner or someone else that's wanting to use or utilize our systems out in their homes or their buildings, that the person that's installing these systems are completely aware of all the details, of all the potential issues and that they're actually certified installers in order to use our products.

Heidi J Ellsworth: Yeah, okay. So your contractors, you want them to be certified installers before they start using the products?

Fernando Silva: Yes, we want them to know everything about that. So.

Heidi J Ellsworth: How does that program work?

Fernando Silva: So usually with that, I mean we have a group of people like myself that can personally train the applicator. If there's a roofer or a waterproofing guy or someone that wants to keep the water away from the building, we will take the time free of charge to go ahead and show them everything they need to know about Pli-Dek and what components to use for different aspects of the waterproofing application, whether it's up on the roof itself, on the cantilever decks, over living space or even on the side of the walls for exterior grade waterproofing.

Heidi J Ellsworth: Okay. So can you just for everyone out there listening, the application of your products, is there a primer involved? Is there multiple codes? Can you just tell us, give us a visual on this of how your systems work?

Fernando Silva: So when it comes to the application, obviously the best application for this system is to make sure, one, that the substrate is adequate for our application. We follow all the sloping regulations with the ADA compliance to make sure that we have slope away from the building. Right? Quarter inch per foot is typically what we ask for on a typical deck sometimes, which is basically your 2%. We want to make sure that it slopes away from the building. And the way that it is, is your preparation is your number one biggest factor into making sure that the system works proper, making sure that you're using the right flashing around the perimeter, using the right components, the right nails, the right staples, using your metal lathe, mixing the product with the right amount of components. And usually some guys don't understand that, but that's why they have us, so we can actually show them what that is like.

Heidi J Ellsworth: Wow. And for your contractors who love Pli-Dek, what are some of the differentiators between you and your products and other folks out there who maybe are doing this? What makes your contractors so loyal?

Fernando Silva: Well, I mean the biggest thing is that we always answer our phones. We're always there for their hard questions, especially when they have a weird detail. I can pick up the phone and if I don't know, because I don't have all the answers, but I have a group of people that can actually help me out and to get that information for them. And the biggest factor, and I'm going to give credit to Jan Bagnall.

Jan Bagnall was the creator of Pli-Dek. He is currently working with us as our national tech rep type of deal. So it is very easy to call him and say, "Hey, I need to go ahead and get this issue resolved." And I can easily call Jan and have the question right over to my contractor that's been very loyal to us because they know Jan. They've known Jan for 20 plus years and that's what's great about it, because he's still doing it and it makes it so easy to work and it makes it so great. And I mean, you'd be surprised the amount of people that know Jan up here in Northern California.

Heidi J Ellsworth: I love it. And you know what? I've met Jan before. Awesome, awesome person. But one of the things that I really like too is when you think about everything that's going on out there right now with mergers and acquisitions and really a lot of times losing the founders or losing really all the wisdom from the technical, it's great to hear that Jan is still such a part of Pli-Dek and working with ICP. That says a lot for the company overall.

When we're kind of looking at this, I'm sure some contractors are out there going, "Well, there's other ways of installing waterproofing." But really as you're looking at your liquid applied products and you're looking at all of your systems, talk about the ease of installation, kind of what that really means and what you're hearing from your contractors as they are applying these waterproofing solutions.

Fernando Silva: Well, I mean everything has its tricks and tips. A lot of times people go in there and say, "Well, ah, I hate using the base coat or I hate using the fiberglass or I hate using this." We've been using these components for over 40 years. They've worked great. We have about 28 reports out there that Pli- Dek has invested in making sure that we're out there in the market for the right contractor, for the right architect, for the right group of builders that want to use our products.

And the good thing is that people are already used to using our systems. So the people that get involved and get into it, there are very minimal complaints about it. When we get complaints, it's usually when people are starting like, "Oh, how do you do this? How do you do that?" But once they know the little tricks, they just go, it's like, "Oh, hey man, this is easy." And yes, it's a multiple layer application system, but everything makes sense and I think it works out pretty good with that. So.

Heidi J Ellsworth: Well, and that performance, they know with the multiple layers it's going to perform. And how do you work with your customers, with the building owners and the specifiers and the roof consultants? How are you working back and forth to help them understand how the system can really help them?

Fernando Silva: So with us, especially for the builder, the builder wants something. It's like, okay, a lot of times you have all these different trades that go into effect, like the siding guys, the window guys, the door guys. All of that comes into play. With us, what happens is once we're in there, we go ahead and make sure that all the flashings are installed properly. Our team or our applicators, well not our team, but our certified applicators can go out there and put the flashing metal and base coat. Well, when they put the base coat, it's waterproof at that point. So now you can have the trades from the stucco guys come in, they can have the texture guy come in, the paint guys come in, all of that can be installed. And then once all those trades have gone out, then we can come back or the Pli-Dek applicators can come back and do the rest of the systems without interfering with any of their work. And that's what they love about us.

Heidi J Ellsworth: That's awesome. That's a real differentiator.

Fernando Silva: Yes, it is. Yes, it is.

Heidi J Ellsworth: Yeah. Wow. So what would you say some of your favorite, and when you're working with architects and the design community or the builders, sounds like you do tons with the builders. What's your favorite system to recommend?

Fernando Silva: Well, I mean obviously our F System is the most popular one, especially for a big apartment complex where it's simple, especially when they have, I want to say people that are taking care of the facilities type of deal, where if they have a simple paint or somebody scraped something or whatever, they can just easily just touch that up with our GS 88 sealer and go about it. So if they want to change a different color, they just slap out our acrylic paint that we offer.

We prefer it done through a certified contract application, but sometimes our applicators are so busy that they just say, "I'm going to leave you a bucket of paint, and if you need to do any touch-ups or anything like that, you're more than welcome to do it." But sometimes we can go ahead and assign approved applicators to go ahead and redo or recoat those systems and extend the warranty on their current decks as well. So.

Heidi J Ellsworth: That's a huge environmental sustainability play also. If you don't have to tear off or rip out or anything, you can just extend that warranty with maintenance and recoating. That's cool. That is very cool. So what are some of the things, just to kind of summarize it and bring it together, what are some of the things that you hear from your certified installers about your product and the success they're seeing in the field?

Fernando Silva: At this time? We are ready to go, ready to rock. And if you guys need training, if you guys need any guidance, you can easily call me, call my other team as well. You can always go into plidek.com and find some details. But you can definitely, definitely contact us and we'll help you out.

Heidi J Ellsworth: And Pli-Dek is national?

Fernando Silva: Yes, it is. Yes, it is. We're in Florida all the way to California. Yeah.

Heidi J Ellsworth: I love it. I love it. And sold mostly through distribution, right?

Fernando Silva: Distribution, correct, yes.

Heidi J Ellsworth: So you can also go to the plidek.com site to find your distributor. You can find all that information on Coatings Coffee Shop under the Pli-Dek directory. You can find that information. You can also find it on Roofer's Coffee Shop too. So Fernando, one last question as we're going through this, what are you seeing out there? How is the economy looking and how is business?

Fernando Silva: I mean, the economy is kind of weird, obviously, right? One, we have the elections happening type of deal. Everyone's going back and forth, but I can tell you this, I'm still walking jobs. You still see stuff being built, hammers going, compressors going. I mean, I think it's going to be a good, good 2024 as well as a good 2025.

And why? Because there's a lot of decks out there that are coming with the new regulations and things like that, which we'll get into it another time. But definitely it's going to be a good 2024 and a good 2025. Slow start, but I think it's going to be good.

Heidi J Ellsworth: That is good to hear. We like that. We want to keep all our contractors, manufacturers, distributors, you name it, keep the construction industry going, especially around waterproofing and roofing and all of the great coatings. So Fernando, thank you so much for being here today. I so appreciate you. It was great information and I look forward to doing it again.

Fernando Silva: Thank you very much. It was a pleasure. Again, we got you covered.

Heidi J Ellsworth: Yes, you do. I love it. Thank you all for listening. Please find information on Pli-Dek on Coatings Coffee Shop directory. You can get all your information you want there and check out all of the Coffee Casts. I'm sorry. Check out all of the Coatings Casts under the RLW, Read Listen Watch navigation on Coatings Coffee Shop. They are all there. They're great for your business. And you can find out all what's happening in the coatings world across the spectrum. Please also be sure to subscribe and follow us. Set those notifications on your favorite podcast channel and on YouTube so you don't miss a single episode. We'll be seeing you next time on Coatings Cast.

Outro: 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 coatingscoffee shop.com.