Transcript
Speaker A: All right, guys, so this is Matt and Alex. We are back with another episode of surviving the Pride. And in today's episode, we got Mr. Brian Oliver from Southern Refinishing pros. Brian, how are you?
Speaker B: I'm doing great, Matt, how are y'all doing?
Speaker A: We're doing good. Doing good
Speaker B: Thank you. So, Brian
Speaker A: Brian owns a refinishing company out in the Tennessee area
Speaker B: It
Speaker A: So, Brian, tell us a little bit about yourself, your business, why you got started, how long you've been in business, all that fun stuff
.Speaker B: Oh, yeah. So I'm the owner operator of Southern Refinishing pros. I've been doing it a little bit over eight years now. I got started back in 2015 and went to my first school for it. Been to a few different schools. We are a local family owned and operated company here that services 60 miles from guild, Tennessee. The main thing that got me into it is the cost effectiveness, like being able to save people money. And while I'm doing what I enjoy doing, it's more of an art to me than it really is a job. Each day it's something that I can get up and I go to work, I enjoy it. I don't feel like I'm working while I'm doing it. And that's always a benefit. And at the end of the day, it saves people a ton of money. So I feel like I'm doing my part on both ends
.Speaker A: That's awesome, man. Yeah. Here at digital kings, we kind of live by this mantra that everyone wants to be a millionaire, but we want to help a million people as best we can. And kind of sounds like you got the same mindset there as far as just getting out there trying to help people save money. And like you said, you feel like you're not working, you're just out there helping people. That's awesome
.Speaker B: Yeah, I really enjoy doing it when it's elderly people and they're on a fixed income and then they'll have a contractor come in and there'll be like 7810 thousand dollars for them to do a job and we can come in and get it done for them for less than 1000 most of the time. So I really enjoy being able to put smile on people's faces that way
.Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, if you can do great job and take care of the customer the right way and still save them money, it's a win win for everybody
.Speaker B: Yeah, we're normally about a 10th of what it would cost to do a full remodel and tear everything out. And people don't realize that what it really costs once you start tearing out a bathroom at the hidden fees that you get into, and we eliminate a lot of that
.Speaker C: What are some of the hidden fees that you think of that someone could be aware of or even ask a question of with whoever they're interviewing for that particular job that they're having done? Like the refinishing of a bathroom
.Speaker B: Yeah. So when you have a bathtub or a shower replaced, even though you can buy the bathtub for 300, $400, you still have to replace your drywall around the tub. You have to redo your painting, your flooring. Most of the time the plumbing has to be moved to match. And anytime you're moving plumbing, it gets pricey. So a lot of the times, if you're not planning on completely tearing out your whole bathroom and remodeling it, then it saves a ton of money because just flooring alone, if you have somebody come in and do your floor, you got to tear up the subfloor, you have to tear up the tile, you have to re waterproof everything. So when we can come in, especially if it's a finished bathroom and you're just wanting to clean up a tub, or even if you're wanting to save the old tub and you're going to have new tile put around it, then you can have all the work done. And then we come in, we are a finished company at the end of the day. So we come in, we cover up the whole bathroom and prim plastic, we do our job, and then once we leave, you can't even tell we was on site
.Speaker C: Wow, that is awesome
.Speaker A: So I have a question. So obviously you've been doing this for a while. And there's a lot of different steps, I'm sure, to refinishing a bathtub, for example, or even a countertop. And I'm sure you've seen this going to job sites where maybe the last contractor didn't do such a good job. Let's say somebody is refinishing. For me, what's a dead giveaway that this guy or girl is not cut out for the job? They're not good at the refinishing part. How would I know that
?Speaker C: Like a red flag, right
?Speaker B: Yeah. So you would want to ask them what type of products they use and what their process is. The main thing is a lot of companies will want to walk in and put a wipe on, primer on, and they don't want to etch the bathtub or they don't going to sand the shower if it's a fiberglass shower, you have to sand it. Or if it's a porcelain tub, you're going to want to etch it with an acid. You have to have the acid base so you get a bond to that unit, because if not, then you're pretty much just landed on top of it. You want it to actually bond and mold to the unit. So the main thing is to ask them if they're going to etch it or if they're going to actually burn the tub with acid, because if not, it's not going to last. And if they're using a urethane coating, especially then anytime water, like if you have a small nick, say you drop something in your shower and it nicks it. Any water that gets under there, that tub is going to peel. They don't clean up the soap scum a lot of the time. So you're going to want to make sure they run an extensive cleaning treatment on it. Even after they etch it, you still want to run another cleaning treatment. So it's a lengthy process. Most jobs standardized tub. If we have a window in the bathroom so we can vent out of, and we don't have to have an alternate route for our ventilation. And it takes us about 2 hours to where a lot of companies will go in, they'll be there 45 minutes and they walk out. That's a big red flag. Nobody can do a job that good that fast
.Speaker A: Interesting. Okay. I think that's super helpful information for anybody coming to this, looking for these kind of questions. Or just someone that's maybe a new homeowner. Like for example, I was curious if I did get a new bathtub or a new countertop. Typically, what do you see? How long does it take until I would need a refinishing job done and then is that something that you get done often or regularly, or is it kind of a one time deal? What's that like
?Speaker B: So if you bought a brand new tub, that depends on the cleaning products you use. And if you have a hard water in your area, like in Tennessee, we have a lot of iron and a lot of calcium in our water. So tubs will last seven to ten years. If you don't use the proper cleaning products on them, you can get 15 years out of them with the right cleaning products. Now, with refinishing, it's not something you have to do all the time. As long as you use the right products and you stay away from certain chemicals. A lot of people like to use that spray. Soft scrub comet, that is a major no no because it will deteriorate the life of your unit by half. I've seen people have brand new shower pans put in and they should get ten or twelve years out of them, even with hard water. And they're putting that spray comet on there and they don't even get three years and they're having to have them refinished. Wow. Even like brillo pads and stuff like that, they're not good. They're pulling the enamel off of the porcelain or off the fiberglass. So you want to stay away from those real abrasives. What is that ajax that people use all the time that is worse than comet? It's just so abrasive. It just causes porcelain to get these little pores in it. And even though it looks really good, then when you get done cleaning it, afterwards, when you take a bath in it, it starts turning black and dingy again, so it doesn't last that way. The best thing to do would be to use, like scrubbing bubbles by Dow Lysol, things like that. It's not them. Real hard abrasives. Also, kitchen cleaners are a big thing to stay away from on your bathtubs. Interesting
.Speaker A: What about for countertops? Are there any products in particular that you think are good for cleaning and bad for cleaning? Kind of like what you just mentioned
?Speaker B: Yeah. So barkeeper's brand is not too bad if you have a surface like granite or something like that. If you have a refinished unit, I would stick more towards The Lysol, depending on what product your refinisher used. We don't use any urethane coatings anymore. We got away from those about three years ago. We have a company that we partnered with. They have an epoxy that we use. So you can use bleaches and everything like that on it. It doesn't dull the surface, it doesn't make it hard to clean. Now, if they are using urethane coatings, you're going to want to stay away from the bleaches. You're going to want to use more like 409 without bleach, Lysol without bleach. Any kind of disinfectant that you can use that doesn't have a bleach in it, we don't have that problem anymore. I'm very fortunate for it. Our stuff, you get 1215, 20 years out of it, and it looks like the day it was sprayed. They are a beautiful product. When we get done with countertops, you could walk in. We just did a set. We made them out of wood and then sprayed the epoxy over it and walk in, you can't tell it was ever wood. It looks like you got a piece of stone sitting in front of
.Speaker C: That is crazy. Going back on the bathtub stuff. As far as cleaning, that, too is some of the products that you mentioned are probably some of the most bought
.Speaker B: Products for cleaning, especially that soft scrub. Comet
.Speaker C: Yeah. I remember seeing commercials all over the place for that. And for that to be bad for as long as your tub lifeline, I guess, would work. So it's eye opening for us, and it's something that everybody needs to understand as well, because that's costly. Can you explain a little bit on the hard water as far as understanding or knowing if you have hard water
?Speaker B: Yeah. So a lot of the times, if you see calcium deposits building up around your drain, or if you're noticing you're having to clean your tub a lot more frequently, instead of just kind of wiping it out with some water and a sponge, you'll notice the white marks around the tub. A lot of those times, those are calcium deposits. If you have red, that's popping up around, like, your caulking lines or anywhere that the lines meet the walls, that would be the calcium in the water turning red. Or not the calcium, the iron in the water turning red. I'm sorry. And that'll cause that red tint that you see a lot. There's also a website that you can look up. I'm trying to remember it off the top of my head. I'm sorry. I use it all the time to check the areas that we're in. But it'll tell you exactly what's in your water. It'll also tell you the carcinogens that's in your water. And nowadays, soft water systems are getting so affordable, they're really good to have on your home. It's good for your skin. It's good for your appliances. It's just good for everything that you have. They have some that's really expensive, but they're unnecessary. Nowadays, you can get them and attach them to your shower head and use them just for your shower. That way, when you wash your hair or clean out your bathtub, you're not getting all those mineral deposits into the unit itself
.Speaker A: Interesting
.Speaker C: Okay, that's awesome. And you're right about the soft water being a lot more cost effective. And it seems like it has a ton of benefits on this as far as on the refinishing on the bathtub refinishing, or even the cabinets, whatever. But what's the average time frame from start to finish on some of these refinishing jobs for you to be in the home and then leave
.Speaker B: So that depends on the size of the job. So a standard size bathtub, just a regular porcelain or fiberglass small bathtub. Those take between two to 3 hours. That depends on the layout of the home. And if there's a window in the bathroom, if there's a lot of stuff we have to maneuver around, if there's a lot of things we need to move and cover up, because like I said before, we do cover everything in the room up with paper and plastic. That way, when we leave, we don't have to worry about anything being left behind. We clean up all the dust. We just be able to pull our stuff down. We sweep them off the floor, and we walk out. Showers, they take between three to 5 hours, depending on the size of the shower, how dirty, once we get there, because we have to clean it before we can start prepping it. And then once you get to the countertops, that depends on the color that they choose from. We have two different options. We have a quartz option that looks like the marble that you see, that have the veins and the lines in it. And then we have another option that's called a multi spec option that has the little dots everywhere with different colors. And a lot of those could get really busy sometimes. And if there's a lot of colors in it, we have to let it sit overnight. That way, we can run a quality control day on it before we do the clear coat. So the countertops anywhere between four to 6 hours for a simple color and a two day process on really hard to do colors. And we really like that second day just for quality control, so we can make sure everything is nice and smooth and it doesn't get lumpy a lot of the times. What we see is with these other refinishing companies, they come in and they're going to want to do a really detailed color, and they want to do it in, like, 2 hours. So they'll spray their primer on, and then they'll come in and put base coat down. They'll let it sit 15 minutes, they'll put another coat down, then they'll let it sit 15 minutes, and they'll clear coat over that. And what that does is it gives it this really bumpy texture, and you can tell it's been done. At the end of the day, when you're refinishing, you're not supposed to be able to tell it was refinished if you can look at it and be like, oh, that's been painted before. Then it was painted. It wasn't refinished. That's why we resurface it. We refinish because you're not supposed to tell it's fake. You look at it and you really have to feel it to be able to tell it's fake. You don't want to walk straight in the room and be like, oh, well, that doesn't look right at that time. Then it's not really a professional job. Right
?Speaker C: Man, I tell you what. You have the most knowledge on this and just on point. You're very confident in everything that you have on this. It's amazing. I can tell. You've been doing this a long time
.Speaker B: And I really enjoy it
.Speaker C: Yeah, we can tell. I mean, you can hear the passion in your voice for sure
.Speaker A: Oh, yeah. And I actually have a question that some of our viewers have sent in as well. And I think I know the answer to this, but I want to hear your answer. So what exactly is reglazing? And is that part of the refinishing process? If so, is that something that is worth getting a standalone purchasing that service? Or are you better off just doing the full on refinishing? So let's start with what is reglazing
?Speaker B: So reglazing is just another term for refinishing. So when you reglaze a tub, you're putting either the urethane or the epoxy. It'd be epoxy, in our case, over the existing porcelain. So reglazing is another term for it. A lot of the times people will try to upcharge and call it a reglazing fee. It's the same thing. At the end of the day, if you're going in to refinish a whole tub and you're not just doing a repair, then you are reglazing it
.Speaker A: Interesting. Okay, so I mean, it sounds like you're better off just getting the whole refinishing anyways, right
?Speaker B: Yeah. There are terms to where, or there are cases to where we can go in and do, like, just the bathtub floor or just the shower floor. Like, say they have a crack in it and the unit is in great shape and it's a newer unit. It's not hard to clean. It's still got shininess to the enamel, things like that. We can go in, we can repair the crack. Sometimes they're just really bad. And there's been a lot of water under the unit. So we have to cut that floor out, and then we go in and we put in support systems, and then we'll refiberglass the floor. And if that case, we do just the repair jobs. Sometimes people will drop stuff and it'll bust. The unit, put a hole in it, things like that, then we repair them. But if you have one that's just really hard to clean, and every time you clean it, you seem like you have to go back in there and clean it again after you take a bath, things like that, then it's better to go ahead and have the whole unit done repairs, though that depends on the circumstances. Like, I had one woman, she fell, and they put a hole in the seat of the shower, and we went out and we repaired just the seat for things like that. Then it's cheaper and more affordable to go ahead and get the repair done, because if the unit is not in bad shape and it's not hard to clean and it doesn't look dingy and things like that, then repairs are possible at that point
.Speaker C: Gotcha. And I guarantee everyone that's going to listen to this is going to be thinking, man, I wonder what my tub looks like right now. I'm thinking, go take a look at my tub, maybe Facetime, Brian, and find out what needs to be done to save the tub. Because I've got kids and young kids, so they're in there splashing around and doing all kinds of different stuff on there. And all the things that you said, I mean, it's common stuff that we put in these tubs or to clean or the walls near it. And now I'm thinking, shoot, I don't know, do I need another tub or do I need it refinished or what
?Speaker A: Should I refrain from bathing my dog in my bathtub? It seems to be making it dirty
.Speaker B: Well, that depends. A lot of people bathe their dogs in the tub, and depending on what coating you have on your tub, once it's refinished, it's safe. We bathe our dogs in our tub all the time. We've never had an issue with the odor. Urethane coatings. Seen that an issue a lot. Because once the dog's nails get under there and they start chipping it, like I said about the water getting under it before, it will cause that to peel out. But you can always put a bath mat down if you want to wash your dog in there. And even if your tub has not been refinished, it kind of helps preserve the life of the tub, but it's not really that big of a thing with animals. You don't want to take a fork in there and scratch up your tub or anything like that, but the chemicals are the biggest part of it
.Speaker A: No more spaghetti in the tub
.Speaker C: All right? Spaghetti in the tub
.Speaker A: So one interesting thing about Brian is that he also offers refinishing specifically for vintage bathtubs in the Chattanooga and surrounding areas. And Brian a. I just think that's interesting that you do that enough to where you've even got a page for it on your site. But I also wanted to ask, kind of, there's got to be some differences in a refinishing for a vintage versus a newer model, right
?Speaker B: Oh, yes, absolutely. So the differences would be most of your vintage tubs and your antique tubs are all cast iron. A lot of people don't realize with the antique and vintage tubs, there's not as many of them around as there used to be. Back in the 30s when we had the war going on, they melted a lot of them down for mission and things like that. So if you have one, it's good chance that it's a rare, depending on what the european cast iron. But the ones from the pre 30s, they're hard to come by. We've worked on one just not too long ago. That was from 1897, and it was a beautiful tub once we got done with it. Wow. So the difference with cast iron is it's hard to get a bond to it, and it rust really fast. So we always send our vintage tub out to have sandblasting done first so we can get down to that bare cast iron. Then we put our rust proof primers on there, and then we put our top coat. We have to let it sit for a few days to make sure everything's good and dry because they are very heavy. I mean, they're anywhere between 380 to 460 pounds for some of them bathtubs, even the sinks alone, some of them are up to 400 pounds with the cast iron ones. So we let them sit for a few days, then we flip it over, we clean the inside with acid. We do any of the repairs because nine to ten of them, they have all these little divots that you can't see until you start cleaning it with acid. So we have to go over and make sure all those little divots are out just so everything is nice and smooth once we get done. Because you don't want to have a lumpy bathtub. Definitely. Sure
.Speaker C: Especially if you're investing that much money into it as well
.Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. And they go for some high dollar once you have a fully refurbished antique bathtub. I've seen some of them sell for up to $5,000. I've seen some sell for $1,500. And it just depends on the year of the tub, especially if you can get some old colders and things like that. They are hard to come by
.Speaker C: Now that's a tub you definitely are not going to wash your dog in
.Speaker B: No, you don't want to do that. They're more show pieces. We did one for a candy apple red for a lady, and she uses it just for her grandkids. They love the tub. And it was already like almost a burgundy red and she wanted to have it a brighter red for her kids. She was painting her bathroom a bright red color and we went in and took all the old coating off and done that for her and it turned out really beautiful. It was one of my favorite projects
.Speaker A: That's awesome. I don't know. It might have answered my next question, which was, what was the oldest and or most interesting tub or counter job you've had
?Speaker B: The oldest one I've done was from 1895 when I first got into refinishing. One of the first tubs I'd done was out in Phoenix, Arizona. And we did, it was from 1895, and that was probably one of the heaviest ones I've ever done as well. It was six and a half foot long and it took two of us just to get it up on stands to move it around the shop. It was outrageously heavy, man
.Speaker C: That's my kind of tough. That's a big one
.Speaker B: Yeah
.Speaker C: Wow. Once again, just the knowledge that you have on here and your passion and everything like that, it's amazing the work that you put in and it shows and
.Speaker A: Yeah, that's one thing I was going to say as know, obviously you've got all this experience, but for the listeners, if you guys go and check out his Google Business profile, he's got a ton of five star reviews over the years. And your work clearly speaks for man
.Speaker B: Oh, thank you. Yeah, I really enjoy what I do. I don't know if I could do anything else. We do some antiques, but I don't enjoy them as much as I do doing the bathtubs
.Speaker A: If you had to switch up your industry, what line of work would you get into
?Speaker B: Probably building furniture. I like working with wood. I like working with my hands, if you can tell. But I really enjoy working with wood. It's kind of a hobby, so that would probably be the only thing I would really get out of it to do. And I don't see that in my future, really
.Speaker A: So as far as hobbies go, let's let the viewers get to know you a little bit. Are you a sports guy? I mean, you mentioned wood. Do you whittle? What do you do in your spare time
?Speaker B: Like I said, I like working with wood. I like building furniture. I build some stuff for my wife, things like that. I like working on my cars, and I enjoy building custom motorcycles. I paint those on the side. I'll take old harleys from the, tear them down and rebuild them from the top up and then paint them. I do them myself, my brother, things like that. Wow
.Speaker C: Yeah, I feel good. If I finish an Ikea dresser. You're on point on getting this stuff done
.Speaker B: I'm a busy body, as my wife says. I have a hard time sitting still. So if I sit still more than ten minutes, I'm going out of my mind. I have to be up doing something
.Speaker C: Yeah, there you go. It shows. I mean, you're doing a lot of things, and you're moving in a lot of areas. Now, you did say real quick, one more thing about the work side is you mentioned a tub in Arizona. So are you going outside of just the local territory for certain type of jobs
?Speaker B: No, sir. No. I got started in Phoenix, Arizona. We moved out there and actually was painting cars at the time. We moved out there, and nobody was really needing any car technicians to do auto body. There was plenty of them there. And a guy needed help doing bathtubs. And I was with him a couple of months, and he asked me if I wanted to go to school because I really enjoyed what I was doing. And I already had experience in spraying, and I already had experience in doing fiberglass repairs and things like that. So he paid for me to go to the first school that I went to, which was in Chicago called Napco Industries. And then my wife got homesick, and we kind of moved back here and started our own thing in Tennessee
.Speaker A: Right on, man. Well, obviously you found your mean everyone's, you know, saying that. As far as your reviews and all your happy customers go, I think that at this point, we are kind of at the end of our little interview here. So one thing I would like to do is shout out Brian. And, guys, if you want to get in touch with Brian, one of the best ways to do that is going to his website, which is so refinishing.com. He's also got social media. Follow him on Facebook. His contact information is there. And Brian, is there anywhere else that people can reach you? Or find you the Google, my business
.Speaker B: The website we're on chattanoogab.com. That's pretty much it, man. I think you covered it
.Speaker A: All right, well, if you guys are in the area and you need any sort of a refinishing done countertop, cabinets, bathtubs, the vintage as well, you guys know who to call
.Speaker C: Yes, sir
.Speaker B: Thank you, sir
.Speaker A: Thank you, Brian. It's been a pleasure
.Speaker B: Yes, sir. Y'all have a great day
.Speaker C: You as well. Thank you
.Speaker A: Thanks. Bye
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