All right. Sitting down with a man who almost needs no introduction. He's been in almost as many Hardscape Mentor videos as I have the Michael Jordan of hardscape accessories, Greg Crouse from SEK Surebond. Thanks, Dan. It's a pleasure to be here and do the podcast from this year. This is awesome. Yeah, a lot of energy in this room, this week. So when I say hardscape accessories, when I'm talking about SEK providing hardscape accessories and Greg being the expert on those, I'm talking about all things sands, sealers, adhesives, edge restraints. And you know, they've been dominating the market on that. And the best in the market on that for a while. But now SEK is coming out with some interesting I'm going to call them niche products, you know.
And I'm excited about those because I like to be creative in my designs. I like to have different ways to solve people's problems. So let's dive into a couple of these products that, SEK has been developing, that I think could be a niche service for these contractors. We have several things coming out on the market, but I think the one we're most excited about is the new resin bound paving called ResinScape. It's a new system. We're basically bringing it in from the European market, from the UK, and it opens up a wide range of opportunities, especially for permeability, for renovation jobs. It's it's an untapped market here in the U.S. and it's a unique perspective on paving systems, for sure.
so basically we're taking aggregate and mixing it with a two part resin. And then we're basically just leveling that over an existing stable base. So we could do it over concrete for example like a concrete front porch. Maybe we're replacing a sidewalk or a patio. And the front porch is just not as attractive as is the project we've just finished. So we can use this thin layer, you know, three quarters of an inch on vertical surfaces and horizontal and give a look of similar to the old, like, exposed aggregate. It's that kind of appearance, but it's updated, you know, for current times. We could do it over asphalt. Even so, if you've got a driveway that's stable and in good condition, but it's just not the look of whatever the renovation project is.
We could certainly put it over that. And it's vehicular rated. And then I think we're most excited about, we've talked a lot about our EZ Set trass, permeable bedding material, and we're using that on porcelain and turf and other things. But we can put it right over that. And now we have a truly permeable system. I was going to say that that's the application that I'm super excited about is for pool deck drains. Like that's what comes to my mind right away. You know, I've always tried to just use my open graded base as a drain and just get it down into there somehow, whether that's spacing, pavers or, you know, leaving a groove for the water to drain into or just doing something decorative to hide that sort of drain.
I think that's what we can get into with this stuff. You know, we got to experiment with it. A little bit at Hardscape Mentor Studios and got a little creative just in the in the walkway. We did inside of there. So I think you can solve people's problems with this stuff, you know, and if you're one of the only guys offering this and your designs, like you're going to separate yourself. Yeah, I think so. I really like the idea of the pool decks because so often we have very little elevation change. So we're creating these giant swales and our paved surfaces with our pavers. Or we're using trench drains. Well, we can certainly do the whole surface with trass.
And the ResinScape product and, you know, slip resistance. It's attractive. The water is not going to sit on there. But also we could do drainage beds where we do a little bit of pitch or a little bit of grading with a permeable surface with this ResinScape and just handle all of our water problems in a much more creative and attractive way. Yeah, it's just another tone texture, you know, like like that's why I get excited about it. But it's really like, you know, solving the client's problem in a unique way. So they have a drainage issue. Or like you said, we are putting in a pool for them, and the other guys have showed them a metal strip drain or a plastic strip.
Drains like this is where I'm going to, you know, the water is going to go and you come in and present that to them. I think that's really good separates you, you know. But you know, what I did notice about this is that, it takes some education. It does for sure. It's it's similar to what we're already doing in the field. So we're we're setting an elevation either with the trass or over the existing. We need to have pitch a way to control the water because it's the water runs, you know, directly through it. But basically we're just troweling, you know, so it's a little bit more finesse maybe than what we're already doing. But similar processes, similar concepts.
It's elevations. You're, you're compacting it with one troweling movement and then you're leveling it and making sure it's smooth with another. So it's not difficult. But it does require a little bit of finesse. Definitely training, which obviously that's what we're known for and we can help you with. But for sure, it's, it's a niche market that I think also opens up a whole avenue of untapped market. You know, I was in California with our rep out there a few weeks ago doing a training meet a contractor in LA that's running four crews every day, doing this resin bound system. That's that's what I meant when I talk about a niche for these guys, you know, whether that's a niche within your business.
So because we talked about this yesterday a little bit when you were visited us in the booth and it's like, this is going to be a team that starts on your crew. Or like you said, in California, there's companies who are only putting this out there. Correct. You know, and it's the old adage, like, you know, no one wants this or you, but you have to let them know that it exists. Right? So I think that's just the awareness, getting this out there, educating yourself with SEK Surebond training, Hardscape Mentor training so you can educate your clients on the trend in cutting edge materials. And then I'm just my theme of the week, I guess, and all the time is just how do you separate yourself?
But going back to the training, you know, the mixing part of it was something I thought there were some details in. Right There is for sure. We have a specialized mixer called a forced action mixer where you load from the top, and it does a great job of mixing all these components together consistently and quickly. We want to make sure we're keeping our production rates where they need to be, and then it easily comes out of the mixer. And it's just a several components are mixed together. We have it pretty laid out in the video we did at the studio as well as on the instructions. So it's it's there's a lot of moving parts, but it's very easy to do.
Yeah. So with anything a niche, you know, all the stuff we do is detailed. So I just can't stress enough that if you're interested in this in a product like this, you know, reach out to your local SEK Surebond rep for for sure to provide more information. We've starting to develop training videos with Hardscape Mentor for the ResinScape product so you can create, another division of your company and solve people's problems. And, or you could just have a specialized crew to do this, but I just can't stress the education enough. When you go into any new thing that is coming out in the hardscape industry, do not go into that project blindly. You need a rep in your back pocket from SEK Surebond to help you with this stuff.
So Greg, thank you for sitting down here with us today. If anyone is interested in this ResinScape product or, you know, I know you guys do some live trainings with this stuff. There's a lot of resources out there for these guys, right? Absolutely. And it'll be more a plus the hands on training if you're really interested in this, as you mentioned, will come out and either one of our winter time training events, you can get introduced to it or, you know, contact our reps across the country and we'll we'll get you in touch and we'll help you get this under your portfolio. Yeah. Thank you so much. I was super excited about what we pulled off there at Hardscape Mentor Studios.
You know, how we got to be creative with the rails in there. Separate the colors. So another way to separate yourself at a niche service to your business or create your own niche business is with SEK ResinScape. Welcome to Hardscape Mentor, the go to training platform for learning real job site skills anytime, anywhere.
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