Chris Huettig - Seal and Repair in any Weather - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Chris Huettig of KARNAK. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast.

Megan Ellsworth: Hello everyone my name is Megan Ellsworth here at codings coffee shop dot com and you are listening to a codings cast podcast episode I'm here with our friend Chris from knac hello how are you I'm 

Chris Huettig: Doing great Megan how are you 

Megan Ellsworth: I'm also great I'm excited to hear um all about the carne deal six seven one today and you Guys are relaunching at ire this product so I'm excited can you introduces in tell us a little bit about you and introduce yourself yeah 

Chris Huettig: Yeah thanks for giving us the opportunity my name is Chris I'm vice president of technical services at carnac i I've been at carnac for about Twenty six years been in the roofing industry for thirty loved every minute of it and really excited to talk about codings and CE it's the really the passion of knac business is that repairing maintenance and this new product we're gonna relaunch talks about fits right in that space for us 

Megan Ellsworth: Ya this is exciting okey can you tell us a little about carnac origins and how the company and its products have evolved over the years to start us out 

Chris Huettig: Yeah you know its a really fun company that we're family owned and that is very Unique especially in a large construction business to have that but you know our story began in nineteen thirty three Marty Jen Martin Jen his name is the original Founder of knac Martin was a he was a waterproofing contractor one of his company's Jobs was waterproofing the Holland and the Lincoln tunnel going to new York in the thirties which how cool of an iconic project is that 

Chris Huettig: Yeah so so in doing that one of the products, he used was a fabric cuz back in the day then it was it was fabric asphalt fabric as well just redundant Layers that's about all we had and the fabric was called knac and it was from a Supplier called Lewis asphalt Engineering. Um, when he was doing this project. He was late in some of the work. He was doing because. He couldn't get that fabric fast enough so when he looked into it the company that made it was was fledgling they weren't doing well and you know what it must have been an aha moment in his life where he thought you know what I'm gonna get outta this contracting business it's tough and I'm going look at borrowing some money i think it was ten thousand dollars total Investment and he bought Lewis asphalt Engineering and product knac um, so he liked the knac name so much because it really speaks to temple of knac over in Egypt those pyramids in the temple were built thousands and thousands of years ago and they've survived flooding and what and also in history that's the first recorded use they say the pharaohs using bitman as a ceiling between stones so he thought what a great name of a product but what a great name of a company to be able to it after these structures that have been here for thousands of years to be like a testament to the quality and durability of the product so that was ingenious to do that and it really is cool today so today his his daughter Sarah Jane Jen is our president and CEO and Sarah. 

Chris Huettig: Jane son Jacob he's with involved in the company as well and that's that third generation that just keeps us you know going along so it's pretty cool to be involved in a company like that oh, 

Megan Ellsworth: That's really cool i had no idea the origins behind the name and that the egyptians were the first to use a sort of bitman that is really cool you learn something new truly every day that's really neat absolutely and i love a family business im a little prejudice i think that es just really a special thing that es Unique to this industry with multigenerational businesses en the his children and grandchildren are still involved in the company es incredible so that's really cool what trends are you seeing today particularly when it comes to selin and codings for roof repairs 

Chris Huettig: Well i mean we do a lot of trainings on on repairs and teaching contractors you know here's the types of roofs out there because you know not every part of the country has every type of roof system out there so one of the things we see is contractors kind of not understanding maybe what sealants are good for different substrates you know thirty years ago there was more asphalt than anything so everybody was familiar with asphalt a can and figured i can put it on it I'm gonna be able to seal it but today the trends are we have a lot more single play membranes out there and we have a lot more diversity away from asphalt so you know one is having the right product to seal those types of surfaces but also having a product that's got more versatility you know so when we come up with products we we always try to you know push the envelope add different chemicals raw Materials things that can enhance the product so it's got more than just one specific use so i think that that is very helpful and with that contractors not only one a versatile product but they want a product that's gonna be for say perfect conditions it's dry outside but also when the weather's bad you know because people don't call about leaks unless it's raining outside and it's the easiest time to find a Leak is when it is raining so they products that are gonna be able to stick to we surfaces out there so you know those two things along with having products that are just durable long-lasting that that will give that contractor a good feeling and help protect their reputation that they put out there for building owners they want to use products they coincide and do the same thing and share those same 

Megan Ellsworth: Ya ya like the water product apply roof is wets so important for these Repair Jobs and maintenance Jobs that kind of what is carce six seventy one and why was it developed for these occasions 

Chris Huettig: Well i means a single component product it's a single component Moisture caring a hundred percent silicone that choose for making repairs that has a lot of uses for it and you know one of the things contractors also like our products that they don't need to open up and mix and add something to it this is a single product so it just again makes it easier on Crews that you know Crews are switching today somebody's doing job eight today they're on job b and on Wednesday they're gonna be ceing something so having a practice it's gonna just be easy for them to to kind of understand is very helpful and we made that with the six seventy one carna seal it's it's a very easy product to use you know to work with and one of the Reasons why we wanted to develop it it also it was developed because we needed a we needed a silicon seal we had this in the background we just didn't bring it out yet and i think talk about that in a few minutes as as to why's a product that many cases we're finding into there's a lot of silicone out there so you're needing a silicon the contractors are needing a silicon se to make those repairs because only silicone is gonna stick the silicone right 

Megan Ellsworth: Exactly so what would you say are some of the key benefits of using this product because only silicone takes the silicon well 

Chris Huettig: You know the first thing is it Gives them a solution that they don't have the gas or have to do some crazy things to actually Repair already been silicon coded or that's got silicon seing on it's the big driver there and the reason why we we push we created this product to actually put out there you know it does some other great things too is that allows them to to to work en en en situations that maybe didnt know what they were using at the time they did know the types of products to use out there and we using products that weren't Performing longterm for 'em the silicon seant is is a wonderful product other benefits it resist ponding water there's so many times these critical repairs are in a ponding condition or around a drain bowl or scarper someplace that water just doesn't train off well and this allows 'em to make that Repair and it's gonna be a permanent Repair under that roof there and it's not gonna degrade it's gonna Bond to the substrate it's low voc which is very good low odor so they can use it in a number of different instances where that might be an issue and again as an emergency Repair it will stick to a we Surface so if they're doing emergency Repair work they can still do that with the six seventy one 

Megan Ellsworth: Carnas Awesome in the no fumes is huge like school buildings office buildings medical facilities you don't want those fumes going into the air Ducks and going throughout the building that's a nice added detail to that product 

Chris Huettig: Absolutely. 

Megan Ellsworth: Okey, so can you dive a little deeper into how the carne handles prolong son exposure en other Environmental stressors 

Chris Huettig: Sure sure i mean dos they start you know en thinking about that question you can get kind of geeky on it you know a product so i try to make it as simple as possible i mean we do we do weathering test on this and accelerated weathering and really you know silicone itself manufactured with silicon is just a product that has excellent UV resistance accelerated Aging shows no chalking or cracking of the material which which is which is Awesome to see because it's almost like the ceiling is almost more durable a lot of times in some of the substrates it's going over it doesn't it doesn't shrink or crack over time which helps keep things water tight that's really the reason why it's so important to use the product and to use it and to have trust in it because whatever their ceiling it's not gonna the product itself won't fail and it won't chalk and it's got such a wide temperature use as well which helps it from other stresses i mean the service temperature range of carne seal is negative seventy five degrees fahren night to three hundred eighty five roofs should never be going to those temperature ranges 

Chris Huettig: Most roofs don't but every 11 in a while you may get a pipes that come out of a roof that are kind warmer than they should be and knowing the ceiling can take some pretty high temperatures higher temperatures than like i said normal roofing Materials that are on those roofs as well it just Gives you some added insurance that this product is really gonna you know 

Megan Ellsworth: Ya also you know dos roofing companies up there en Minnesota, Wisconsin maybe they have an emergency call and they need to get to a roof in Repair quick and its. Hey maybe it's minus ten outside you know 

Chris Huettig: Ya you have to work sometimes in some very Strange conditions and you know you need products that can you know allow you to do that 

Megan Ellsworth: Ya totally ok, so when it comes to using the carce six seventy one how simple es the application process are there any tips for contractors to ensure they're getting the best results 

Chris Huettig: Yeah you know the product is really easy to use we we manufacture in a it's in a two and a half gallon plastic bucket i like the plastic bucket because the lids come off nice and they can go back very nice and tight using it is simply opening it up and then using your trailer brush to pull it out there and apply it to the substrate now what they do wanna be Mindful of is the substrat itself i mean you're making a Repair on a roof that's existing in its spin out there so it's gonna have their could have chaing oxidation things like that on it so like any sealant you wanna start with a clean Surface so you wanna wipe the ceil clean i typically suggest denatured alcohol it's a very mild solvent it's a great solvent to clean a Surface and remove some of the dirt and contaminants and it is easy to get or they can use other oil free Solvents as well any of those are gonna help remove dirt and sometimes when you have a Surface you could have some just condensation you know a lot of if you're making a Repair to an existing silicon roof it's white and you might have some due from the morning that just doesn't evaporate off cuz the roof stays so cool well as practice is to get that water off and using a solvent light alcohol just kind of helps to evaporate any of that little water that might be on that Surface you can open the container now this is a product that is Moisture curing so again maybe it's a little different than other seance but if anybody who's applied silicon coding they have to do and think about the same things it's Moisture curing so as soon as i open it airs gonna get to it and wherever there's air there's humidity and that triggers that process so to help the use of that in the long longterm stability of the product in the bucket we also put a plastic liner laying on top plastic so typically we just peel that plastic back that allows me to just go right in do my Repair as I'm doing my Repair again we always recommend using fabric fabric reinforcement helps bridge over cracks and gaps and allows you to fill those so that that Repair stays nice and tight i think that's a key some some products out there and you know they'll say you don't need fabric our experience our history and we're not the only ones I've seen plenty of people in the industry back me up on this fabric reinforcement is always a good idea to have it's not gonna hurt anything and it's just gonna make sure you seal that crack where it's water tight for a long time you know that's gonna be your Repair you still do the carne seal polyester fabric and carne seal and then when you're done put the plastic back the way back on top and you'll be able to use that that same product for a number of weeks 

Megan Ellsworth: Thats Awesome i love that that you can it you don't have to obviously use it all in one field swep for one job you have it for a few weeks it's nice you Guys thought all the different little things like it's plastic bucket use easy take top off easy keep the humidity out the plastic ing i think that es something sets knac apart en a lot of the little things that you Guys think about 

Chris Huettig: Yeah i mean these these products costs money and we hate to you we wanna see a contractor when they open a bucket can whatever it is be able to use one hundred percent of that we don't wanna see it go to a landfill it's all part about Sustainability and we wanna keep that and everything we think about 

Megan Ellsworth: I love that i think that's great so as silicon roof are becoming more common why would you say is car so compatible with these systems 

Chris Huettig: That's a good question one of the things we did in the chemistry of is really a very AGR adhesion promoter package those promoters in the product it to stick to so many different substrates we promote carne seal for really repairing existing silicon out there that's where we want to use it but it's also able to be used directly to smooth built up asphalt Modified bitman TPO PVC pdm metal concrete so so just about every sub you're gonna have out there but also more importantly which is cool it sticks aggressively in well to our own silicone but also other industry produce manufacturers silicones out there as well so you know its really makes it a kind of a goof proof if you wanna say product for when you need when you need something that's gonna be able to stick to what you have out there 

Megan Ellsworth: Ya it plays well with everybody on the playground is nice that's something you want in a product so can you explain how carni six seventy one resist issues like ponding water cracking and chalking 

Chris Huettig: Yeah here's where it might get a little bit nerdy in some of this so I'll try to keep it out 

Megan Ellsworth: Like the nerdy 

Chris Huettig: I mean carce it you know it's a high solid silicon based product so high solid means it's got a lot of silicon in very minimal filler or other things that would be needed in it silicone. Si and Coatings you know they resist poing water to their Unique properties which helps them in these situations of why they're so durable silicone is inherently hydrophobic you know so so it means it it reppel water it doesn't like water won't swell so from that doesn't absorb any Moisture which allows it when you put it down to really stay true to itself it stays it stays inform and it resist any passage of water into it or through it you know it also is a flexible product that you know so like carce has its flexibility so besides not allowing water in it also is able to expand the contract with temperature changes that it's not going to you know crack at all it just adds to the durability of it you know the Chemical structure of silicone a lot of people may or may not know about but it's a it's a really a product that is really ultra resistant to UV radiation so compared to other ceings in codings which are like made with you know carbon-based Materials silicone is not a carbon-based material it's made with silicon which is a mineral you know a rock and it's very UV UV resistance so it doesn't it doesn't degrad in UV so you don't get the chalking you don't get the yellowing you don't get the shrinkage of it it really add to the durability of the products 

Megan Ellsworth: Awesome i didn't know that silicon silicon had all those natural things to its i mean that's great we found this great thing that Works on roofs 

Chris Huettig: Absolutely yeah is really ne 

Megan Ellsworth: Okay, so why should contractors and building owners. Um, use this product 

Chris Huettig: Absolutely yeah you know we'd love contractors to come by and ask us about the product we want to teach 'em you know we're gonna have the we're gonna have the product there we will have it that they can open it up they can feel it and spread it themselves if they'd like tos great samples of it so they can kind get a a feel of what it looks like 11 it's been applied and cured out there we'll do some demos of it as well and they can learn about the cornille how it's used maybe how they wanna fit it in into into their business i mean i don't think i think every Repair truck out there you're gonna come across silicone at some point you know just proven in the industry we see it the numbers there's there's millions of gallons of silicon going down every year year after year if they haven't seen it yet when they go make a Repair they're gonna run into a place where the roof is gonna have a silicon ceiling or coding and they're gonna have to have a product like this nothing else is gonna stick no matter what they think they have wood it's gotta be silicone so you know they need to know how to use it so we can talk about that we can shareem share with them our other great ceings and how maybe in some instances they might be a Preferred choice over others and then know most importantly we're friendly people we're fun people down to earth we wanna help 'em and we're interested in not just selling our product but we're interested in helping them grow their business en a product like a carne se is just gonna help them do that the better the better they're able to handle their customers de important they are more beneficial we become to them as suppliers of these of these great quality products 

Megan Ellsworth: Absolutely and i can atest that the knac people are the best people y'all are so fun and so nice and you always have a really great hospitality party at i i went to your anniversary party a few years ago and was so so fun. Um you Guys you just make the best products and you really are just so so great for the industry for your contractors you want the best for everybody so i really appreciate that about carnac 

Chris Huettig: Well we're Humble for anyone who comes by and wants to learn about our products we're very Humble that they think of us as as potential someone they wanna do business with and we don't take it lightly and again we're trying to just give 'em with the best advice best you know experience that we see out there of our many years in the business to help them do their 

Megan Ellsworth: Aj. Ok everyone out there listening can learn more about the carne se six and all KNX products on their Directory on cods coffee shopp dot com they also just did a coding to go check that out can more about their others en products on that go check out we'll see you next time on codings cast. 

Chris Huettig: Si in San Antonio, Megan take care Awesome 

Megan Ellsworth: Thank you Chris.