Copper Canyon High School

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Kenneth ‘KC’ Totlis is the president and general manager of Riddle Painting & Coatings, a nearly 30-year-old Phoenix-based company. “In 2013, I took this business from an established but fledgling company to a highly respected leader within the painting industry,” says Totlis. Behind his company’s success are three core values: integrity, quality and teamwork.

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Customer

Riddle Painting & Coatings

Location

Glendale, AZ

Completion Date

Apr, 2021

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“It takes the entire team pulling in the same direction to provide the best possible result for our customers,” Totlis says. “We rely on consistent repeat business from our customers and we know the only way to achieve that is by making sure they are happy. So honest, quality work is the only way to go for us.” One important partner on his side is his paint supplier. “Dunn-Edwards is a quality company making quality products.

They have stood behind everything they have sold us for years,” Totlis says. One example of that partnership is Copper Canyon High School in Glendale, AZ. Totlis says the job was what is known as a ‘weatherization’ project. And he turned to Dunn-Edwards for its quality products and service. “The school was experiencing water penetration issues into the building and we were asked to seal it,” he says. “This is a somewhat common issue for structures in Arizona and rectifying it requires a different set of products and procedures than a normal paint job.

Dunn-Edwards is a quality company making quality products. They have stood behind everything they have sold us for years

In cases like this, coatings are scrutinized and are subject to stringent testing procedures to ensure that the building is indeed watertight. As a weatherization, the project called for a combination of Dunn-Edwards products. The base coat for the CMU block walls was the company’s Smooth BLOCFIL Premium, which was sprayed on and back-rolled to ensure it penetrated all the open cavities on the block. Then, two coats of ENDURALASTIC 10 were applied and back-rolled to ensure adhesion and seal.

This project required a pin-hole-free seal with absolutely no voids of any size in the coating in order to fulfill the requirement of a 10-year warranty against water penetration, says Totlis. The long-term warranty is made possible by Dunn-Edwards’ full confidence in their products. “We used ARISTOSHIELD on all the metal on the school’s doors, windows, fences, etc., which is a direct-to-metal paint.” Riddle Painting & Coatings completed the job in February 2018, but three years later it still looks new. Totlis says it’s projects like Copper Canyon that make him value his company’s relationship with Dunn-Edwards. “They help us obtain jobs then complete them on time and on budget, and that’s very gratifying.”