Dash Town: Sarah Wills | Spray Net

All right. Well, we are here on another edition of Dashtown, and I have with me Sarah Wills from Spray Net.

Hi. Spray Net is custom chemistry, smarter painting. Tell me a little bit about Spray Net and the product line that you offer.

Yeah. So Spray Net is better paint, better prep, and better process than anything else that's available in the area. We have a 15-year no-peel warranty on all of our products. Basically, we had a chemist come up with a way to reverse engineer the factory finish process and customize the paint that we use for each substrate that we're using the paint. So we have something for brick. We have something for vinyl, which is very uncommon.

I think we might be the only people that do vinyl. Aluminum, doors and windows, kitchen cabinets, and it's all very UV resistant. It's going to be fade resistant.

It's very durable and obviously has that incredible warranty with the 15 years. Yeah, because normally you're painting more often than that, or at least things are dulling and wearing and not looking fresh. It's standard in the industry.

People like to joke that it's called a tail light warranty, which is you have until you see my tail lights leave your driveway to catch me and have me fix something. So the fact that Spray Net stands behind their quality with such a long-lasting warranty speaks volumes to our confidence in the chemistry. So what is the name Spray Net about? Is that part of the process of the paint application or the coating? Is it paint?

Is it coating? Yeah, so it's technically a coating, but you can call it a paint. That's easier to use for like layman's terms, but we use specialized spray equipment. So we spray it on as part of it and then net is for network.

So we actually have a customized proprietary software that we use for our estimation that allows for standardization of our coating across the board. It's a corporate build out, so we have over 70 franchises across the United States and Canada. So that's the other part of the network is that you can have your home spray netted in more than just Durham. Okay, and locally based out of Durham.

Yes, yes. Our franchise is based here out of Durham. We've been here for three years and Spray Net has been around for about 16 now.

They started in Canada and expanded to the United States four or five years ago. Where does the home base Durham office serve? What kind of regional territory? So we serve about an hour around Durham.

I'm based out of Fuquay-Varina, so that means that we end up having some farther south reach than we normally would because I'll go an hour south of Fuquay, but typically about an hour. Okay, so if I'm wanting a project done around my house, where do y'all come in? What should I be looking at or saying, hey, I need to do this or that? And I think of Spray Net. Yeah, so I'll use kitchen cabinets as an example. So if you're looking at your kitchen cabinets and they're in good condition, but they're showing a lot of wear. So by good condition, I mean, there's not a lot of water damage.

It's not bubbling or turned soft or dusty if you have MDF or there's no like large cracks through it, right? But say you have your standard oak cabinets and it's just orange and worn and you don't like it and you want something fresh and modern. Instead of ripping out all of your kitchen cabinets and putting new ones in for $40,000 to $60,000, you can have Spray Net come in and give you a factory finish with paying in the $5,000 to $10,000 range. So you get factory finish at a fraction of the replacement costs. So does the application happen right there in my house?

Yeah. So like I said, we reverse engineered the factory finish. So what we do is we have a patented process that we use. And basically we come in and we mask everything off to protect the work area. So we're very thorough with this step. And any good painter should be thorough with this step. The prep is the quality, right?

Most of our time is spent on prep. So we mask everything off and then we go ahead and degrease everything. And then we go ahead and disassemble everything.

So we take all the hardware down and off and then we go ahead and scuff it. So that's like a light sand which improves adhesion of our product. And then we go ahead and do our primer and then our cross linking polyurethane. So that goes on in two layers. So you end up with a total of three coats of our system. And then we cure that with infrared light, which allows you to be able to use your kitchen right away.

And reassemble everything. So cabinets is one of your bigger products that you do. But you also got other offerings that you've expanded into or that Spray Net is figuring out a good way to... Spray Net actually started with exteriors and modified it for interior use due to popular demand. So we're trying to build out our exterior presence, but most of what we do right now is interiors just because that's what's taken. But for the exterior...

I mean that kind of cost savings, I would imagine it does take off. Yeah, and I mean you have similar cost savings with the exteriors as well. So we've had clients that had aluminum and vinyl siding from the 1970s. And it was this super ugly yellow and they were like, I'm sick and tired of this color, but my siding is still good. I don't want to pay tens of thousands of dollars in order to get new siding when it's still good.

I just don't like the color. And so we came in and we do a chemical and mechanical soft wash on the outside. And then we do our primer for the vinyl.

No primer is required for the coating that we use for our aluminum. So again, it's customized to each substrate. And then we go ahead and put our coating on there. And that gets cured really easily with exterior conditions. And she was able to have a brand new looking house for $7,000. And she said that her neighbors would drive by, back up, and whip their heads around looking. Probably appreciate the house no longer looking like the 1970s.

So much better. And she didn't have to have her house under construction for weeks. Like, you know, we were done in three days. So it's a lot faster, too, than replacing it. And that's a decent price for a complete new look to your exterior. Another big one that stands out is brick. So that's another one that we've done a lot of is people are kind of getting tired of the old multicolored brick look, where you have that red and the lighter colors mixed in and everything.

And people are wanting that white, nice clean look. And the problem with that traditionally is that when you paint brick, you seal in the moisture. And that results in destroying your brick over the course of five to seven years. And so you start to see what's called spalling, where your brick starts to flake off in chunks. And it looks really bad after about five years.

And there's not a way to fix it. With our stain, we use a mineral stain. So again, it's customized to each substrate. And with ours, it bonds chemically and mechanically with the brick, which allows it to continue to breathe. So you can spray net your brick and put that into white.

And it will come with that 15-year no-peel warranty. And you're not destroying your brick. You can even stain it different colors multiple times if you would like to. Brick's kind of challenging, too, because it's two distinctly different materials, pores.

But you've got the mortar and then the brick itself. And, you know, I like the differentiation look in the red brick, but it is kind of dated. And you don't get a uniform look with the red and the brown and the shades. People go with black or with, you know, whatever color you'd like. We've had some people go with mist gray, people that just want a different look, a different color without having to Any limit on the range of colors that y'all can offer? We have about 70 colors in our standard deck, and then we offer custom color matching as well. So we have a chemist on staff in our factory in Toronto is fully equipped to put together customized solutions for our clients.

So if you have a white that you're in love with that's not in our color deck, then we can match that. And substrate is the material to which you are applying. Yeah, so substrate is what your house is made of. So that can be brick, it can be stucco, it can be hearty plank, which is really common around here. It can be all sorts of different materials.

So substrate is just the material that we're working with. How did you get into this? So I was actually the vice president of an IT consulting company. And then with the advent of AI, we saw a massive downturn in the industry. And I wanted something a little more future proof. And at the same time, some family friends of mine had started this franchise and realized that they were both introverts and needed some help on the sales side of things. So I started out part time with them and then worked my way up and saw a lot of opportunity really fell in love with the product and the potential for this really great system. And its potential in the triangle especially, and decided to make the switch over full time.

And then they made me part owner based off of the amount of help that I gave them in the company. Nice. We got a lot of varying weather in the triangle.

Yeah. I guess right now, a lot of people's questions probably are, how does this handle pollen? Yeah, so we actually have a really large stucco project that we're getting ready to work on. And we actually delayed it by about a week because that pollen is all right.

You don't want to paint. Because we do power washing, right? Right. But it takes a day to dry after that. And the pollen is stuck right back on.

And the pollen is right back on. And we want to make sure that adhesion is correct. So we're always going to be careful of the weather conditions when it's an exterior project.

It has to be a little more flexible so that we can make sure it goes on right. And once it's on, is it durable, washable? Like you can just hose it off? Yeah. What about power washing?

Very durable. Power washing is fine. Our vinyl coating even has some great agents inside of it that help with preventing mold growth. And like, you know, that green look that you start to get. Yeah. It helps prevent that.

So it's a fantastic, very washable, very durable. Yeah, there's usually one side of a house that starts to get a little out. Yeah. And then the roof on one one side.

Yeah. Another really exciting thing that we're getting ready to launch as a whole corporate entity is our roof product. So we have come up with a roof rejuvenation project product that will re-granule your roof and protect it. So it actually has more than two time or I'm sorry, three times the puncture resistance of a normal roof. So for an area like here that occasionally has hurricanes coming through and things like that, it's incredibly useful. We're really excited to be launching that probably in the twenty twenty six season. All right.

Sarah Wells again with spray net, spray net Durham. Now, you personally interesting tidbit. You compete in jujitsu. I do.

Yes. How did you get into that? I started jujitsu for self-defense. I think all women should train for at least six months. I think men should train as well. But I'm particularly passionate about women being in that sphere.

I just wanted to be able to defend myself better and then fell in love with the art and the puzzle and the strategy and the challenge and the community. And now it's pretty serious competitor. I mean, yeah. You compete in this.

Yeah. I took second place at the European tournament in Portugal just a couple of months ago. I took third place at the Pan American tournament last week. And I have taken second place at the Masters World's competition in Las Vegas.

So I'm pretty serious about it. I'm last I counted a ninety three time medalist. If you just count all of my medals. Wow.

Across varying federations, organizations and different styles. I also cross train in judo, wrestling and Sambo. Again, I started for self-defense.

So I was like, I just want what works, especially in real life kind of scenarios. It's been really exciting because I've gotten to help teach at some different self-defense seminars in the last year, which has felt very full circle for me because that was my first entry was a self-defense seminar into the sport. But yeah, I'm very passionate about it. It's completely changed my life. I've lost 100 pounds and gone from a victim mindset to a champion mindset. And I can't say enough good things about the sport. You've got you've got the medals and belts and all kinds of things.

And definitely, you know, a not to be messed with writing like that, you know, my powers for good. Which is great. But as far as self-defense, feeling more confident and capable as absolutely all of this training. And, you know, kind of the average person that they ever needed to or unfortunately had to get into an altercation. Like most people don't know how to get past maybe 10, 15 seconds.

You're you're in longer. People don't even know what their normal reaction is. So you have your typical responses to panic, right? To high adrenaline. And that's going to be your fight, your flight, your freeze.

And a lot of people have lived very comfortable lives and they haven't even had to find out what they do in a situation like that. So for me, I tend to freeze. And so when I started competing, I would freeze.

And that is not going to work. So part of why I got so into competition is because I was like, this gives me the environment that I'm looking for to practice changing the way that I react to these high adrenaline spikes. So now I can perform calmly under pressure, which is an invaluable skill, in my opinion, and has saved my life at least once. I moved to North Carolina in two thousand and twenty. Before that, I lived in Columbus, Ohio, and I started training in jujitsu in twenty eighteen. So I had just gotten my blue belt in jujitsu and went to go buy something off of like Facebook marketplace to celebrate.

Met up with a couple of like high school kids in front of an elementary school in a very busy street. Well, it lots of people around and they helped me up at gunpoint. And I was able to maintain a calm composure and talk them down and de-escalate the situation and get out of there without getting hurt, which I don't know that I could have done that without my experience in competitive jujitsu.

Not because I used jujitsu, because jujitsu doesn't work against bullets, but just your mental state. Yeah. And work through a very panicky situation otherwise. Absolutely.

And just F.Y.I., there is a place in Fuquay right in front of the police department that if you're doing those kind of transactions, you can go and meet right in front of the police department. A little just situational. Yeah.

Help as well as be in the right setting. But like it sounded like you were doing all the right things, like in front of a public space. And yeah, that's wow. That's I'm sure a scary. Yeah. Yeah.

I get on North Carolina a lot better. So I was going to ask you, has your jujitsu training helped you in any like real life? Incredibly. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Like you can't even begin to understate how much it's helped in that kind of situation. How about like in in work life, trying to tie this back into spread?

I'm not sure if there's a great pair. Oh, yeah. But I joke with people a lot. The joking side is work is a lot less stressful when there is nobody trying to actually like fight you.

So if I go training in my evenings and we're practicing fighting with friends, basically, you know, you saying no to a sale is not that stressful. I'm fine. I was recently at a baseball game and my wife was actually commenting on the positivity of this other person. And I was like, well, last week he made the comment that at least they're not firing rockets at us. Right. And like his his profession has had him in that situation before. And she's like, well, with that perspective, you can't help but be positive.

I feel less stress. Yeah. Yeah. The more, you know, sincere aspect of that is we do in-home consultations for sprain and I am a solo female. And so walking into someone's home alone is a higher risk situation.

We obviously normally have fantastic clients have never felt unsafe with any of them. But the situational awareness and the confidence that comes from knowing that I can defend myself. I need to.

Yeah. Is is a great confidence booster. And I'm walking through my daily life doing doing house calls is it's it's a fine line to walk and scary and productive and necessary for the job. Like it does put you in a situation where, you know, you don't know necessarily always what you're walking into. I used to do a lot of sales from the road and I would take pictures of the driveways that I was about to go down and send them to my wife. Just say, here's where I'm at, just in case. Like, and I'm guy, you know, and probably couldn't handle myself. But it's it's good that you've got that confidence in making those kind of interactions because, you know, it's a personal role in the business that you have.

All right. So if somebody is looking to rejuvenate, give their home a new look, is look into interior, exterior, maybe even the roof coming in. The future wants wants to update or protect their home. Where do they go? How do they get in touch?

What do they need to know? You can call 187745 spray. That'll take you right to our call center and they can book you or you can book online at spraynet.com. We also have an Instagram, Facebook. We've been featured on HGTV.

We're on Netflix, we're on YouTube. Pretty easy to find us if you just Google us as well. We're also pro vendors for Lowe's. So if you walk into any of the Lowe's around the triangle, you'll see our poster right up front at the paint department.

And you can work with an associate to get your questions answered that way as well. Which one of those resources would you say is the best to see kind of a before, after? Here's what it looked like.

And then here's now what we are. Our main website, spraynet.com. And that lets you book an estimate with me. And then it also has tons of information on there. So once again, that is spraynet.com. Spraynet.com.

Very easy name to remember to spell. Go there, see before, after samples of the work, the different types of materials, examples of what you all can do. So that's spraynet.com, spraynet.com. And Sarah, you actually have an example of what this looks like. Can you show us?

Yeah. So this is a great sample board. The top white area here is our spraynet factory finish. And the bottom gray area is a actual factory finish.

And so I like pointing this out to people because on the factory finish, probably not going to show up on there, but you can see here that there is white showing through. There's some little bubbles. Yeah, some takings, cracks. Several imperfections. Yeah. Look at the other side.

And what do you think of that one? Yeah. Wow, that's sharp. Yeah, there's none of the bubbling and caking in between the divots.

The factory finish actually doesn't look as good as the spraynet finish. Yeah. OK. All right.

Fantastic. Now, if you are going out to somebody's home that is looking to make, can you bring samples like this and say, hey, here's what it looks like? I have another sample board that has some Sherwin Williams painted on it that's two years old. And I've been bringing it in and out of people's homes and you can see it flaking and chipping and just wearing. And it's even starting to yellow some. And it's only been two years. And then on the other side, I have our coating, which still looks like it's just been painted.

So that is a great visual example. What's the longest project you've seen? Like what's the longest duration that you have seen of a spraynet product like lasting and still looking fresh? Our CEO has his home painted as a vinyl exterior that painted dark brown and it looks like it was painted yesterday. They painted it 16 years ago. Yeah. So I have a lot of confidence in the product and I love getting to show people how great it looks. The other really cool thing that people don't always take into account is that if you have a lower quality paint, it's only going to last you three to five years if your painter follows the same process that we do for the prep. Right. If they don't follow that process.

I see people calling me within three months of getting their kitchens painted like so fast. And so even if you're going to save a little bit upfront. Yeah.

If you're going to save a little bit upfront on going with the cheaper guy. Keep in mind, you might have to do that three, four or five times in order to even get the same amount of length out of it. As you would with spray net.

Yeah. So if you multiply your cheaper quote by five versus comparing it to spray net, we're actually a really great cost savings. Spray net dot com again is the Web site. Eight seven seven four five spray is the phone number.

Give him a call. And I'm going to try to figure out how to get some close ups of this into the video so you all can see. Because I know like it is impressive, actually, the difference in quality if you're looking at this up close. So I want you all to see it there. And Sarah Wills with Spring Net. Great to meet you all. Thank you.