Craft and Quality 4 min read
Why Sez of N&A Epoxy in Sydney Puts a Seven Year Warranty in Writing
After 21 years in the trade, the Sydney installer says the finish is only 10 percent of the job. The other 90 percent is prep, and he will put his name on it.
Key takeaways
- N&A Epoxy gives a seven year written warranty, well beyond what manufacturers offer, because it diamond grinds every floor.
- Diamond grinding opens the pores of the concrete so the primer or moisture barrier can penetrate, instead of just sitting on top.
- Leads answer three questions and get a ballpark price before Sez drives out. He says about 90 percent of his quotes convert.
- When work is slow, his answer is door knocking in new subdivisions.
Most installers will not put a seven year warranty on paper. Sez, who runs N&A Epoxy in Sydney, does.
The manufacturers behind his products offer a warranty, he says, but “it’s nowhere near seven years.” His confidence comes from somewhere else.
“It’s all in our prep work,” he says. “We diamond grind everything. We own some of the biggest grinders in Sydney.”
He has floors he did 15 years ago that, he says, still look brand new.
Ninety percent prep
To Sez, the part of the floor a homeowner admires is the smallest part of the job.
“The finished product that you see is only the slightest thing. That’s 10% of the job. The prep work is 90% of the job,” he says. “I have a lot of pride in our prep work.”
“The finished product that you see is only the slightest thing. That’s 10% of the job. The prep work is 90% of the job.”
Why diamond grinding, not acid etching
Some installers prepare concrete with acid etching, a chemical wash. Sez diamond grinds every job, and he explains why in plain terms.
“When you’re diamond grinding the concrete, you’re opening all the pores of the concrete, you’re making sure that the primer, the moisture vapor barrier that you’re putting down is actually penetrating that concrete,” he says.
Grinding leaves what he calls “little honeycomb holes” for the primer to soak into. “Every epoxy can look good on top of it, but it has to penetrate,” he says. That is what makes a floor resistant to things like hot tire pickup, when hot tires lift a poorly bonded coating off the floor.
For homeowners, that gives a simple question to ask any installer: will you diamond grind my floor?
Australia is catching up
Sez thinks Australian installers can already compete with the best in the United States. He names several talented resin artists in Sydney and beyond.
The gap, he says, has been materials. Now products used by big American resin companies are available in Australia too. “Now we have access to that material,” he says. “I think we could overlap what they’re doing there.”
Don’t be so hard on yourself
His first floors were for relatives, and he made mistakes. He still makes them.
“Everyone makes mistakes. If they say they don’t, they’re being up themselves a bit too much,” he says. “Every day you make errors and you just got to learn from it and just keep moving forward.”
The lesson he took from it: “Don’t be so hard on myself.”
Teaching the next crews
Many people who have worked for Sez now run their own epoxy companies. He teaches so others do not have to repeat his mistakes.
Not every story ended well. “Some of them done it to me in bad ways where they lied to me,” he says. “But you know what? It’s life. I still get happy when I see their work. I actually taught them how to do that.”
Today N&A Epoxy is small, with two workers. At its biggest it ran three crews. The company does more than resin: sprayed concrete, new concrete driveways and construction.
Quoting without wasting a trip
Sez’s marketing asks every lead three questions before it counts as qualified. He then gives a ballpark figure before driving anywhere, which matters with diesel around $3 a liter in Sydney.
It filters out mismatched budgets. If a garage will cost $3,500 and the customer has $2,000, they know before he arrives. “If they’re happy for me to go out, then that means their budget’s up there as well,” he says.
He says about 90 percent of his quotes now turn into jobs.
“My price is my price”
When customers say they are getting other quotes, Sez does not fight it.
“I don’t need to convince someone that I’m the best at what I do. They could look at my social media,” he says. “My price is my price, their price is their price.”
He does not undercut competitors or ask what they quoted. If he learns a friend has quoted the job, he does not quote at all.
When work is slow, knock on doors
Sez’s answer to a slow month is not ads. It is door knocking and networking, especially in new subdivisions where fresh concrete is going down.
“If you knock on 20 doors and one of them gives you a job, there’s your $2,500 that you’re gonna make,” he says. “So I would knock on 30 doors, 40 doors for $2,500.”
The part that never gets old
About half of N&A Epoxy’s work is commercial and half residential, with only around two metallic floors a month. After 21 years, what still excites Sez is the reveal.
He loves older homes, where someone has lived for 20 years and never touched the garage, because epoxy only recently became popular in Australia.
“You rejuvenate it and make it look brand new or do a mad metallic floor on it and they go, wow,” he says. “That’s what I get excited for.”
Watch on Epoxy Growth Guy
Clips from the interview
See Sez tell it in their own words, on Instagram.