Here’s Why The Festool Dustless Sanders Come Standard in Our Paint Crew Vans

By Steve Nafranowicz, Chief Financial Officer for Nolan Painting

For 23 years I have worked my way through Nolan Painting. First as a trainee, then as a painter, crew leader, estimator, and now as the CFO. I’ve seen this residential repaint company as a $300,000 per year business, and last year we reached $6.1 million in revenue – a 15 percent increase over the year before. Our goal is to see $7 million in revenue this year.

I believe our success stems from our solid work ethic. In fact, everyone here operates under the guidelines of the Nolan Painting Promise™ which requires we start and finish our work on time; maintain a neat, clean work environment; provide a total commitment to all details; stand behind our work; and pledge an assurance of high quality. We truly believe in this promise – every detail of it.

Depending on the season, it takes between 70 and 90 skilled employees to operate this scale of business and still produce the high-quality and honest workmanship that we do. We hire and train each employee one by one. We detail everything from the proper preparation for interior and exterior paint jobs to repairing rotted wood and detailing decorative moldings.

A typical day for us involves between 20 and 35 projects. That’s a lot of jobs to keep track of to ensure everyone is using the proper equipment and getting the work done right. But we do.

We cover Philadelphia and its northern and western suburbs, so you can believe our work involves older homes. This means lead paint is an issue we deal with daily. We don’t test our surfaces for lead – too time consuming – we just presume they have it and abide by EPA lead paint regulations. That’s where Festool comes in for us.

We use the Festool CT Dust Extractor to accomplish the dustless sanding required when working with lead paint. This, I have learned the hard way, is not the case with all vacuums. We pair the dust extractor with Festool RO Rotex Sanders so we can create the smooth finish our customers want. No need for scraping and sanding by hand. That saves money and time and helps us create a finished surface that meets our standards.

Truly, the Festool RO Rotex Sander has become our go-to all around tool that we use 90 percent of the time. It’s like owning a sprayer for us. When we equip our vans, we load up ladders, airless sprayers and Festool RO 90 Rotex Sanders. It’s versatile enough that we even use it on residential interior projects that involve lots of trim. For these complex projects, we can quickly customize our sanding pad to match the profiles of different moldings. It’s allowed us to prep whole houses in a fraction of the time while also keeping dust down to a bare minimum. It doesn’t get any easier. Paired with the CT Dust Extractor and our work is efficient, clean and high quality.

I have seen my company grow and I’ve grown right alongside it. Using equipment like our Festool sanders and dust extractors, I know we are staying the true course and keeping the Nolan Painting Promise.