Slideshow
Our Story
The story behind the first plasterer’s primer (The original Plasprime GreenGrit) began in March 2009 on a rainy day in Barrow-in-Furness, Kev had a small plastering company of 2 Spreads (himself included) and a labourer. They just started a contract to fully renovate 1 of the 3 blocks of flats in a regeneration project, the second block of flats was contracted to a company with a team of 6 spreads and 2 labourers and the third and final block of flats was contracted to another company consisting of 8 spreads and 3 labourers.
Back then the traditional method of adding new plaster to previously plastered walls, ceilings and substrates was of course applying PVA and applying plaster whilst it was still at a stage of “tack” worked best because if allowed to fully cure and dry, the resulting glaze effect often proved difficult for applied plaster to stay in place without sliding across the surface as the chemical reaction of plaster progressed along with the amount of pressure needed from a plasterer to achieve the final finish, the biggest and most time consuming part of this process would be walls of various different substrate’s (Bonding, Browning, Sand & Cement, Lime Plasters etc..) to which applied PVA would cure at different rates often needing areas of a wall or ceiling becoming a problem, curing past tack needing a further application of PVA and thus time consuming.
Our Story
This is the situation Kev now faced with the majority of walls in every flat were of various differing substrates. Kev wished he could just paint/prime a whole room sealing the various backgrounds, reduce the suction rate of walls and not have to worry about PVA drying times but could somehow still have some sort of mechanical Key when dry removing any risk of curing plasters moving around on a glazed surface.
It was whilst grabbing some lunch Kev called by a local scaffolding company seeking a quote for another job he was pricing up when the penny dropped!
Whilst sat in his van finishing his lunch parked up outside the scaffolding yard on an industrial estate in barrow next door was a company called “Furness Plastic’s” which prompted him to recall a memory from the previous job he had completed a couple of weeks earlier that had included the removal of a large plastic window that in order to remove from site had to be cut into smaller sections to fit into the van and transport to his lock up for disposal and sweeping up the plastic shaving’s/filings as a result of cutting the plastic frame prompted Kev to think this could be the type of light weight not porous aggregate he was looking for to incorporate into his PVA along with a coloured dye to make any application more visible whilst also sealing substrates and achieving the consistent uniform mechanical key he was searching for it felt like a hallelujah moment and Kev couldn’t wait to get finished for the day and get back to his lock up and start experimenting.
Our Story
Work finished for the day Kev nipped home to grab a sandwich and a fresh flask of coffee along with the cheese grater just used whilst making his sandwich and headed off to his lock up with a full flask, full lunch box, a cheese grater and buzz of excitement.
The UPVC window was then cut into more manageable pieces roughly the size of house bricks 10 litres of PVA poured into a mixing tub along with some green Dye, a hop up placed alongside the tub on which to sit and with a block of UPVC in one hand and a cheese grater in the other grating plastic into green PVA commenced.
After 4 hours of grating plastic, mixing/ stirring the new solution was carefully poured back into the empty PVA container lids screwed back on, placed into the van awaiting first trials in the morning.
Arriving on site the next day Kev and his team got straight to work applying the new solution to various walls and ceilings to start drying whilst carrying on with various other prep work and patching.
The walls were left to dry overnight (it was march in a block of flats with no central heating)
Applying plaster commenced the very next morning and the results were better than Kev could of hoped for, so much so after a week of grating plastic by night and plastering by day the results began to be noticed by the two other plastering companies contracting on the two other blocks of flats curious as to the speed the smallest team with fewest men were progressing through each flat and each floor at a faster rate than themselves.
Our Story
Out of curiosity Kev was asked what this mysterious primer/bonding agent was and where could they get their hands on some?
After agreeing a price to supply them with his product, nightly plastic grating production after work increased along with the hours and days never seemed to end.
after a month of grating as much plastic as Kev could get his hands on, go through god knows how many cheese graters and constantly bleeding knuckles Kev was exhausted but knew there was obviously a demand for this product and a gap in the market so we now move on to the final part of the story.
Kev couldn’t keep up with demand and needed a company equipped to produce it for him on a larger scale with the means and expertise to make it better, faster not by hand with machinery and equipment and the knowledge to refine it from just bucket chemistry.
Not having the time or money to protect his idea applying for a patent and worried his idea would be copied and thinking it would surely only be a matter of time before someone else sees the same gap in the market for such a product Kev decided to take advice from a solicitor to see if there was anything he could do not having much money because going to a big company with this new invention and bringing the idea to their attention would be stupid, what would stop them simply saying “great idea, definitely a gap in the market we have missed there, we will get on with making some of that straight away, thanks Kev see you later”
Our Story
So Kev was advised to get something called a “confidentiality agreement” drawn up by a solicitor
A confidentiality agreement was drawn up and Kev contacted a local company that manufactured building chemicals called sovereign chemicals and arranged a meeting with their managing director.
The agreement was signed which basically said they would not steal his idea or share it with anyone.
Kev now felt confident enough to disclose and discuss his idea and new invention and the meeting was a success with sovereign chemicals loving the concept and the idea and seeing the potential, so with that a partnership was formed and the chemists in their laboratory began developing and refining the idea until finally we finally had the perfect product ready to be tried and tested by plasterers everywhere and Plasprime was born.
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