Greg Owens 3:23
Absolutely. So like with retail, like we can’t be inside painting retail in the middle of like in the holiday season, they’re just, they’re just going too crazy with holiday shoppers and all that and they don’t want to deal with painters at all. So we would look at where their slow season is and, and do that kind of painting at night when they’re not so busy. And then when it comes to us, but it’s the opposite. So when it comes to software companies or offices come office type space, in that we’re going to need to do that type of painting, when the employees are not going to be there. So even though we’re using all environmentally friendly paints, they’re low VOC. It’s still this day and age people just do not want to be around the painting process and the chemicals that we are using. So we would look to like the week of rest between Christmas and New Year’s to take care of a tremendous amount of painting, whatever other holidays are happening, what their building schedule is. And sometimes some companies have Fridays off, which is super helpful, because then we can go in and get a full day Friday and work Saturday and Sunday to get their projects done.
John Corcoran 4:34
And really one of the concerns is being able to come in with a large team of people and tackle a big, big chunk of that project, maybe over Memorial Day weekend or a labor day weekend or something like that. Talk a little bit about how that approach works and how to really coordinate and plan for something like that.
Greg Owens 4:52
Yeah, usually, it starts you know, could start a month or two out from the date that we’re looking at doing it because we really need to coordinate, who is going to be doing the painting, what kind of colors are going to take place? How are we going to have access in and out of the building, or how we’re going to bring the equipment in that we’re going to need if we’re going to need lifts, how we’re going to get that into the building, and, and have it all coordinated ahead of time, so that it goes off like just clockwork, um, for those few days that we’re going to actually be on site painting. So that takes a lot of pre planning, where we talk with the facility manager, or the building owner or whoever is really in charge of that particular project. There’s coordination with the other contractors too, that could be on site also. So there might be carpet cleaning happening at the same time that they want painting. And so we need to really have that conversation ahead of time and talk about what parts of the building we can be in and what parts of the building they can be in, or whatever other trades are happening to be working at the same time. So that’s that takes a lot of sort of pre planning to get that sort of executed well. So that All done and employees show up. And they, they show up to a nice brand new facility and don’t really know what happened, how
John Corcoran 6:09
they’re all happy. And if I’m the building owner, or if I’m the facilities manager, and you know, first of all, it’s Memorial Day weekend, Labor Day weekend, I want to go off with my family, maybe for some of the time, maybe I’m there some of the time. But, you know, I want different contractors, different trades that are going to get along with one another. So talk about the importance of that piece. You know, making sure that the companies that you bring in or established reputable companies that have ownership or management that are active and involved in that are going to be able to coordinate with the other trades and contractors that are on site.
Greg Owens 6:45
Yeah, it’s a good question. My company McCarthy Painting as we’ve been doing this since 1969. So we’ve had a very long run of working with lots of different trades and we understand the ebbs and flows and the logistical things. That can come up when you’re doing these kinds of facilities. And plus, we know a tremendous amount of the other contractors and trade. So we work and play nice with other companies, right? So you really, you really want to have those long standing relationships and be able to trust who’s coming in to do the work and take care of things. These days, there’s a tremendous amount of emphasis on security. And so how we’re going to have access to the building, are we going to have key cards? Are we meeting with security ahead of time do we bring in security, that’s going to be there 24 hours to sort of make sure nobody else comes in because it’s San Francisco, you could have outside people just sort of wandering into the project as we’re bringing in equipment and tools and all that. So sometimes we need to actually have a security guard posted right at the door there to make sure that everything goes well and smoothly.
John Corcoran 7:57
Right. You mentioned relationships with the other contractors. Another concern is relationships with the workers and the employees and the management and the executives that work there and making sure that they have a positive experience with a team of painters and contractors that are on site to talk a little bit about that concern and how that shows up.
Greg Owens 8:21
Yeah, you know, I think each like, like in a lot of things, you really have to have that trust and respect. And that takes some time to sort of develop between everybody and that’s where that those pre planning meetings where we bring in sort of the people that will be on site, like the painters themselves, and they’ll get like an initial walkthrough so they know what they’re getting into. And if we can arrange that sometimes we’re just doing it with pictures and that kind of thing. But it’s really nice to have an opportunity to meet the facilities manager, meet the other trades that are actually going to be working in the facility. At the same time, and then our team coming in. So we have the painters and the foreman and the supervisor, that’s going to be making sure that everything gets done and gets done accordingly. And the right colors go in the right places and the right areas are taken care of while that facility is closed.
John Corcoran 9:17
Right. Now, another concern, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area, is there’s a lot of different overlapping governments or city governments, there’s counting government. So navigating the local government bureaucracy to get permits where necessary if you need to close a portion of a street or an alley or use a portion of a sidewalk is another concern that the facilities managers need to be thinking about when they’re bringing in contractors.
Greg Owens 9:45
Yeah, and that goes especially for when we’re doing any kind of work on the exterior because there’s sidewalk permits that need to be gotten from the city there’s parking permits, and if you’re going to close this street, that’s even a much more Much, much bigger deal on that, you’d have to definitely pre plan get together with the city and lay out a whole plan for them of how it’s going to happen, what you’re going to do in order to divert traffic and that kind of thing. And that really just falls in when we’re doing exterior projects. And, and this is San Francisco’s very strict about that. So you want somebody that knows how to navigate and go into their offices and work through work with the city employees to get that taken care of and done properly.
John Corcoran 10:31
Now, for building owners and facilities managers budgets, there’s always concern how to allocate that budget efficiently and effectively, and manage that budget, not just throughout the year, but over years to ensure beautiful properties and facilities and, and, you know, maintain those facilities. So talk about some of the considerations that they should be thinking about in terms of how they should be managing that budget, especially over time.
Greg Owens 10:59
Yeah. Each as you can imagine each type of business is different and how they allocate funds for sort of painting and maintenance services. And whether or not they’re going to do some sort of like, complete sort of redo of things. And that’s coming out of a capital budget. So it really depends on the company. We help a lot of companies kind of make their budgets and that kind of thing for the year so that they can have an understanding of how much money it’s going to cost over time. based on the type of traffic that their facility is getting, like their schools that were just in every, every summer when School’s out. We’re painting lots of common areas and taking care of those kinds of things where it’s just going to get a lot of wear and tear and abuse from the kids running up and down the hallways, retail stores. It’s like a store that has a lot of trafficking, that kind of that type of thing. It could be every quarter that were sort of in there doing a lot of touch up and repainting of those areas too. And then with software companies, I think, or office companies in general, I think it’s going to be a lot of those common areas that get painted more often. And that might be once a year that we have to come through and paint where there’s a lot of foot traffic and a lot of people coming through and a lot of like the delivery areas and that kind of stuff for stuff is always coming in and going. And then working out a budget for like, if you’re changing colors, or a lot of companies in San Francisco, decide to move employees from one building to another building, and then they have to do repaint all of those offices and that sort of thing. That’s another whole budget complexity that kind of happens. And that you know, that that takes some pre planning again, too, and we work with the facility managers and try to work that out with that. And try to figure out and pre plan what their needs are going to be for in the future.
John Corcoran 13:04
Yeah, yeah. Well, this has been really interesting, Greg until to end things on kind of a fun note, you don’t maybe think of painting as having technology really affecting it all that often. But there are some new types of paints that are out there. Like you mentioned, dry erase paints that allow you to have a dry erase board on the wall. So talk a little bit about some of those changes that have happened in the industry you’ve observed.
Greg Owens 13:29
Yeah, well, I think I think that type of paint is one is, um, it’s dry erase paint, we can paint the wall so that you can write on it, and then you can wipe it and clean it. Those paints have gone through, they’ve been around for a while, but they’re, they’re becoming even more and more eco friendly. There has been a time where they needed a 10 day curing time before you can actually start writing on it, which is really hard for some companies. They want to get in there. They’re super excited to have this but then we’re like, hey, You can’t write on it is the painting coatings got a cure. And what’s happened is now they’ve reformulated those paints, and we’re getting it down to about a 24 hour time period. And, you know, or four or five days, depending on the surface and that kind of thing. So, you know, that’s been a big change. I think the paints have gotten more durable and a lot of ways on technologically, and they’re also better for the environment. And that’s the big one, I think, and that’s a major concern these days and sort of having as clean of paint and as low impact to the environment as we possibly can have.
John Corcoran 14:41
Right. Well, this has been great, Greg, you’ve been talking here with Greg Owens, the owner of McCarthy Painting, Greg, remind everyone where they can learn more about you and learn more about McCarthy Painting.
Greg Owens 14:51
Yeah, it’s so McCarthy Painting, McCarthyPainting.com and you can check us out on the internet there or go to You can email us at info@McCarthypainting.com. And it’s McCarthy with two C’s.
John Corcoran 15:08
Excellent. All right. Thanks so much, Greg.
Greg Owens 15:10
All right. Thank you.
Outro 15:21
Thanks for listening to the Watching Paint Dry Podcast. We’ll see you again next time and be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.