AsktheBuilder.com Issue #1227 (I think)

April 1, 2023

Dear ,

You might be a new subscriber. I'm so glad you're here.

This issue is being delivered a little early. I'm the keynote speaker at a home improvement conference that begins on Monday morning in Zihuatanejo. I'm really looking forward to walking along the beach mesmerized by the deep-blue color of the Pacific Ocean. It's my first time there, so I'm pretty excited.

I have to fly out of BOS at Noon today. Normally I'd hit the SEND button at 5 AM tomorrow tomorrow while I take the first sip of my steaming mug of java.

But lucky you. You get the latest news today!

This Week's Inspirational Quotes

"It's down there and I'm in here. I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy livin' or get busy dyin'."

"Just never quit."

"They're coming after you. I'm just standing in their way."

Let's get started.

Roofing Shingles Breakthrough

Each week I get no less than twenty press releases from public relations (PR) folks and media reps from major and mid-size manufacturers.

It's easy to pass over them because of the quantity and often the announcements are filled with more fluff than you'd find in a pillow filled with down feathers.

In the thirty years I've been doing Ask the Builder, I've never seen a press release like the one I poured over three days ago. GAF, Owens-Corning, and Certainteed have combined their R&D teams and come up with an asphalt shingle they claim will last 99 years.

"The breakthrough came on a Friday night when one of our scientists was working late in a lab. After a long week, he became distracted while a batch of asphalt was being blended. He didn't realize his scale was out of calibration and added fifty percent more dense soda ash to the experiment than was called for. When the asphalt cooled off, it was more supple than the skin of a 17-year-old private academy teenage girl," said William Thompson, the CEO of GAF.

Brock Lovett, the CEO of Certainteed, chimed in saying, "We expect these shingles to fly off the assembly line late in Q2 of 2023. Inflation is still an issue but we expect these to be priced just 13 percent more than our current lifetime-warranty shingles that barely last twelve years. But who's counting?"

Bottom Line: If you're looking to replace your roof, WAIT until July 1st when these new shingles will be stocked at Home Depot, Lowe's and Menards. You can pre-order them now at a new website launched by the three industry giants.

Go to AlwaysandForever.com.

BIG Thanks!

Last week's issue touched the Generosity Nerve of Dan, Larry, Stephen, and Ron.

They each dropped a 1 oz silver bar into my hard hat while I was strumming my Gibson 12-string acoustical B25-12 guitar. I finally have mastered Give a Little Bit by Supertramp.

If you want a 12-string guitar like mine above just GO HERE.

If anything in this newsletter helps save you time, money, or makes you feel warm and fuzzy, maybe you want to reciprocate and buy me a popover & a cup of coffee? That would be appreciated!

Self-Sealing Blacktop

Acme Asphalt Company (AAC) is hosting the conference I'm attending. I've lost count of the number of Editors' Conferences I've attended in the past thirty years.

My first one was in 1994. It was put on by Georgia-Pacific (GP) lumber company. One of the best PR pros I know, Kathy Ziprik, was GP's PR person in charge.

The conference was in Atlanta, GA and was the perfect mix of news about the latest GP products and fun places to see. I'll never forget the fancy dinner we had at a local art museum. Once the museum closed for the day, we got to wander around inside alone. We then sat down to a candlelight dinner surrounded by fine art!

AAC is probably going to be upset if they read this, but since I doubt they subscribe to this newsletter, I'm going to take a chance sharing a huge embargoed announcement.

Don't ask me how they've done it, but somehow they've figured out a way to create blacktop that can seal itself. Tar and chip road surfaces are similar in that the tar can flow on hot days and heal small cracks.

But creating a blacktop that never has to be sealed again is a huge breakthrough. All AAC has shared with me about this is that it's a photo-reactive process that happens when the air temperature is above 83F. The sealer is released from the asphalt matrix at night while most sleep. It can only happen in the three-day period of a new moon.

It's got to be very very dark for the process to work. If you're a submarine captain, you know that the best time to make an impact is during the new moon.

"While we're excited to roll out this new blacktop, we're still trying to perfect how to alert homeowners who work the second shift. In early testing, there have been tracking issues when these folks come home from work around midnight. We're focused on creating a sealer that dries within 15 minutes to minimize problems," said Herb Dupp the AAC CEO.

I can tell you I'd install this blacktop in a New York minute as it's such a messy job slopping blacktop sealer on a driveway.

That's enough for the first Saturday in April.

If you need to talk with me you have two choices:

Try 603-867-5309. If you get a funky message then go here to set up the call.

Tim Carter

Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com

APRS Man - www.W3ATB.com

Do It Right, Not Over!

P.S. 

I can fix lots of things but not broken hearts or shattered egos.

"It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes, to blind you from the truth."

           "What truth?"

"That you are a slave, INSERT YOUR NAME."