: Good advice. In this case though, that is not as easy as it sounds. The Rot
: Doc operates out of a basement in a residential neighborhood in Seattle.
: He buys the material from a manufacturer in California (I wouldn't expect
: him to divulge the source, but it may be worth a question to him), and
: gets it shipped to him via UPS. Marketing and sales is all done through
: the internet. That is to say that he is not a chemist, has no
: manufacturing facilities, scant storage facilities, and a staff of one. He
: is not the last word on technical matters. He is an entrepreneur who knew
: a good product when he used it, seized the opportunity and made it work.

: That said, it really is a good product. I am only saying that you will not
: get the same level of technical expertise from him as you would from
: Gougeon Brothers, System 3 or other mainstream formulators. So anecdotal
: evidence from other users is of greater importance than it would be
: otherwise.

A staff of 4, actually, plus a new 25 X 70' steel warehouse in Port Orchard. And we're adding 2 new people this Spring.

Those details clarified, I would like make the distinction between the the "technical' people and the "user" people. We began marketing CPES because after years of using it we never saw rot return to wood that had been treated with CPES, and we never saw wood even begin to rot if it had been throughly treated with CPES during fabrication. And so this began a few years of experimenting, consultation, and testing of the wood-derived line of epoxy products. This was on larger boats, homes and log buildings.

What we found during consultation with the technical people is that their experience was fairly limited to test results. Few -- if any -- of them owned old wooden boats or log buildings, and so their practical experience was limited. On the other hand, we used it extensively in the field and formed a large base of on-site user experience. So, sometimes what we have to say about what works well and what doesn't is more pertinent than what the technical people have to say. This is not to depreciate in any way the tech folks at West systems or any other epoxy vendor, but our resins are "our resins" and they are not the same as those of West and other manufacturers.

Wood protection and the use of resins to repair deteriorated wood is a very specialized area, and sometimes the opinions of the "user-experts" are as valuable as the opinions of the "technical-experts". Anyway, you guys are going about things in the right way: Assemble all the "advice" and opinions that you can, sum it all up and then make your decision on what to use, how to use it, and when to use it.

Jim
THE ROT DOCTOR
http://www.rotdoctor.com
Phone: 206 364 2155
Fax: 206 364 4744