EPA Ruling

As I am sure you guys already know, the EPA announced this week that it is phasing out the use of CCA treated wood for residential use. The recommended abatement process for existing structures is sealing with an oil base semi transparent sealer. Any ideas how to market this without appearing like an ambulance chaser?? ...........If you LOVED your kids, you would seal that deck........A seemingly innocent children's playset becomes a DEATH MACHINE.....film at eleven!!

Check it out at the EPA website consumer Q&A.

www.epa.gov/pesticides/citizens/1file.htm

Warren,

No doubt we will see hordes of fly-by-night deck builders and sealers appear using scare tactics to get people to tear down there CCA lumber deck and build a new one or talking them into sealing jobs, at inflated prices. And the sad thing is, There will be a lot of people fall for it and get ripped off, giving the honest deck building and restoration companies a bad rap. If you are going to market sealing treated decks, do it quick before the roaches start crawling out from under their rocks and give everyone a bad name.


On a personal note, I was glad to see the EPA's decision to phase it out, should have been done years ago. About 10 years ago I read that the arsenic can leach out over time and that it can be absorbed thru the skin or accidentally ingested by handling CCA treated wood then eating something, or touching you mouth before washing your hands. When I was in my early 20's I got a mild case of arsenic poisoning, from drinking untreated water from a mountain stream. If you have never had it, trust me, you don't want it. Imagine the worst stomach flu you have ever had and then multiply the effects by 10, plus passing out along with it. Then imagine having it for 4 days, nothing stays down, not even water. No fun at all, and that was a very mild case. Needless to say I haven't bought a CCA treated piece of lumber in years, even try to avoid handling it without disposable gloves. As for using scare tactics to sell a sealing job, not me. If it's CCA treated, they can find someone else. Arsenic poisoning, Been there, Done that, Didn't like the puke stained tee shirt.

One of the local news stations did a piece on this last week. They claimed a 16x16 (may have been + or -) PT deck can contain up to an ounce of arsenic. Then went on to say that it was enough to kill 250 people. Advised everybody to look into sealing their decks, playsets, etc...

Paul Freeman

Warren , We plan on marketing the ways we have in the past but are informing the public about CCA treated lumber and letting them make their own decisions about their options. I do not believe in scare tactics either. I have been informing customers about the websites so they can see for themselves. Most people will make the right choice. You just have to know how to aproach the customer. If you build your company on honesty and interguity the work will come to you. That is the only way to do business and be there year after year. Be involved in the community and build relationships with your customers, trust will take you places that you want to be. This is why I beleive in the Better Business Bureau. I hate to see people get cheated. When you do people wrong it always comes back to you many times over.

Steve,
I agree with everything you said about relationship building and integrity in business. I have been struggling with how to bring this issue to the public's attention without being either alarmist or manipulative. Perhaps the best strategy is to rely on the EPA and other public institutions to do the education and then just answer the customers' questions. Thanks again for the response.

If you spend too much time trying to not look like an alarmist you may be doing your customers just as much of a disservice as being an alarmist in the first place. If you are worried about looking like an ambulance chaser, your competition who doesn't care what they look like will be the one's taking your customers for a ride while you are sitting there trying to come up with a conservative approach to make sure you "look good". Print the report from the EPA, the USA Today story or the multitude of other media outlets that are picking this up now and either order reprints or copy them and include them with your estimate/contract forms. We are doing special ads for it, I could care less if people think we are trying to scare people, we are. That's nasty stuff in that wood, if we scare people into getting a deck done that they might not have had done for another year or so, so be it. I can sleep just fine at night knowing that I'm helping to resolve this problem. Better that I contact them about a $1,000 sealing job than a local deck company hooking them into a new $10,000 deck when all they needed to do was seal it.