Sherwin-Williams, PPG Industries and RPM International announced the results of their second-quarter operations recently, with little to distinguish between them beyond the name on the letterhead and RPM’s insistence that the second quarter is the fourth. The result of that company’s use of a non-calendar-based fiscal year, which did little to help its performance. And while they announced their news separately, they all shared the same result: flat sales volume net of inf

The Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the United States Constitution were meant to guarantee the right of privacy in your home and person. And freedom from searches without probable cause. Rights ensured by due process, the legal carabiner holding all the ropes, without which no other right exists. But those amendments didn’t help former US Olympian David Hearn, who was arrested on June 19th and charged with felony destruction of property for damaging the lining at the Ref

To receive a no-bid contract from the United States government requires an exigent need exist; that the government would be “harmed” should work be delayed by the typical 11–15-week competitive bidding process. And that the contractor possesses “unique qualifications” that enable them to perform the work—qualifications that must be detailed in the justification for any award. Documentation which must be completed by government employees in advance, requiring that they at

The water was drained at the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall in Washington last week, exposing our nation’s coatings shame. That our government is so dysfunctional that it can’t write a good paint spec, nor can it adhere to a bad one, raising further concerns. With the water removed, adhesion failure becomes immediately evident, including delamination visible at the expansion joints, suggesting an incompatibility with the filler, only adding to the list of failures th

Benjamin Moore suddenly terminated their relationship with hardware cooperative Do it Best last week, as a result of the co-op’s decision to partner with Sherwin-Williams to manufacture True Value paints. A move which should not have caught DiB’s CEO Dan Starr by surprise, though sources tell me that it did. Proving two things with the first being that Dan Starr does not read my blog with the second being his misunderstanding of the rabidity of the anti-Sherwin sentime

Sherwin-Williams has been served with two new lawsuits, only one of which is the result of their malfeasance in Rochester. Filed in federal District Court, one complaint accuses Sherwin of operating, “Negligently and with conscious disregard to public health and safety,” resulting in the “emission of noxious odors” beyond their property at 372 Cleveland Street. All of which is true according to Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), who continues to

The best seats in the house give the best view of the action, the secrets of the stage you can only observe from up close. Like the orchestra ring seats of a Broadway show, which allows a view of the pit while the rest of the house gets only the conductor’s wand. Or a seat by the dugout steps or courtside for the Knicks, where you’re so close it blurs the line between spectator and participant. Like these Knicks fans who sat so close they got put into the game. That sim

After graduating college, a roommate and I considered joining the military together, visiting both the Army and Navy recruiting centers to enquire about the commitment. Which even at that time were not my thing, explaining my accidental tourism through paint. Which, like serving in the military, can be a person’s destiny. So when the paint used at the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall in Washington, DC began to peel, I again felt called to service. To protect that s

During a members-only meeting of the dealer-owned AllPro cooperative more than 20 years ago, a heated debate broke out in a room of several hundred. Those present were lamenting the circumstances of their relationships with Benjamin Moore, which at that time were bleak and seemed only getting bleaker. Raising my hand I waited my turn, before standing to address the room. What I said was lost to time, though I had bought my last drink for the weekend. Notoriety which wan

Either too old or too high to recall someone’s name when needed last week, I took to scrolling my list of subscribers confident I would recognize it when it scrolled by, though it turns out that confidence was misplaced. Still, the time spent creeping all your reading habits was not wasted, as it allowed me to identify my longest tenured subscriber. The AOL email address was my first clue that they’ve been following for a while, until I found the evidence that they'v

A spandrel crack is a hairline fracture which forms on a building’s perimeter beam, the structural segment spanning from a window head to the sill of the window directly above it. A fissure which might go unnoticed at a casual glance, but an engineer would never miss its warning. Because to that expert a spandrel crack is evidence that a structure's façade has shifted, changing the load forces so that further degradation is a risk. A nearly imperceptible flaw of that aest

On the front pages of the national news last week was a tank fire in California, which exposed the Garden Grove area to the chemical contents of that tank. Which at the time of that fire was 6,000 gallons of the hazardous monomer Methyl Methacrylate. In response to that risk of exposure, the government of California mobilized three state and one federal agency and installed 24 stationary air monitoring stations over the nine-square miles around the fire. To track every f

I’ll be recording a podcast live today, May 21st, at 3:00 PM Eastern summarizing the results of Big Paint’s most recent quarter, including updates on Sherwin-Williams, PPG, Behr, RPM, Pittsburgh Paints, Benjamin Moore, Home Depot and Lowe’s. And from Graco, the makers of professional paint sprayers which are an indispensable component of most larger paint jobs. Making Graco’s results perhaps the best data available, when forecasting demand for architectural coatings. And

Lawsuits topped the news last week with independent hardware cooperative Ace Hardware getting served with a summons alleging a hub-and-spoke price fixing conspiracy and Behr settling their copyright infringement case with ABKCO Music for their unlicensed use of the Rolling Stones song Paint it Black, in a marketing campaign. The case against Behr lasted as long as I presumed when I covered the filing in January of this year, when I called Behr incompetent for allowing an in

The Sherwin-Williams manufacturing facility in Rochester, Pennsylvania continues to make paint illegally, doing grave harm to the people and planet there. With little regard for the impacts of their actions beyond growing their own earnings, which Sherwin announced were up in the first quarter of this year. A callousness even I did not believe Sherwin-Williams could possess. Because the effects of Sherwin’s illegalities there are evident prima facie, Monty that means it

On Monday of this week specialty coatings manufacturer and distributor of Pittsburgh Paints , Mercury Paint announced a price increase, one of a plethora since the beginning of the war with Iran. In a letter to customers, Mercury refers to the ongoing conflict and the supply chain disruptions its causing, which if not for the situation in Rochester is all I would be writing about. Because like the news from Rochester, inflation is not going away anytime soon. Already th

A retraction becomes necessary when something a writer proffers as fact turns out to be untrue, a crow I have not eaten often as I tend to measure my words. But while facts can’t change circumstances can, so despite all efforts I find I must now suffer the embarrassment of a retraction . Last week I blogged that Sherwin-Williams was illegally operating their plant in Rochester, Pennsylvania, which is not the statement I need to retract . Nor will I need to retract my

Once government and the lawyers arrive in Rochester, a map will show the vast spread of Sherwin’s plume across Western Pennsylvania. Now as much a part of that region’s topography as the Appalachian Mountains and Allegheny Plateau, the chemicals of Sherwin’s greed forever covering that earth. The plume from years of PFAS venting may stretch as many as 50-miles from Sherwin’s stack, depending on airflow patterns and topography. In the range Pittsburgh, Penn Hills, Youngstow

With an insidious disregard for both humanity and the law, Sherwin-Williams CEO Heidi Petz has exposed thousands of Pennsylvanians to the hazards of her process. Leaking and venting a cocktail of waste ladened with the neurotoxin Methyl Methacrylate (MMA). And other Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances or PFAS, also known as forever chemicals . The effects of exposure to MMA are instant: a sensitizer which changes your immunological profile immediately after induction.

One of the chemicals Sherwin-Williams is venting on the people of Rochester—or perhaps leaking—is Methyl Methacrylate or MMA, a liquid, which wants to be a gas as badly as I want to see Heidi Petz held responsible for the venal avarice of her personage. Monty, that means I think she’s an asshole too. At room temperature MMA contains a vapor pressure of 40 millimeters of Mercury (mmHg), so that evaporation happens even at that temperature. Twice as fast as water and there