Galileo, one of history’s most famous scientists, conducted one of his legendary experiments in Italy—at the Tower of Pisa (aka “Leaning Tower of Pisa”). There, as the story goes, using the convenience of the overreaching balconies, he proved that gravity was undiscerning and would pull any object of the same air resistance to the ground at the same rate, no matter the weight of the object. A ton has been written about the experiment. I found much less information (make that zero) about his thoughts on the real elephant in the room—the tower’s foundation. In my opinion, it was quite simply the wrong design and so the tower yielded to the forces of gravity. You won’t believe how much money and effort is still being invested, trying to correct a botched job that began nearly 850 years ago.
Italians are extremely proud of their architectural achievements. So how can an obvious mistake find such blind eyes, and get by for so long? Have you ever been responsible for a mistake that was glorified? I haven’t.
I shout this out to any finisher whose responsibility is creating great results on a daily basis: Visualize the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The world’s tallest symbol for “get-the foundation-stuff-right-first!” If you’ve ever been down that road in a futile attempt to save a job that didn’t start out in the first place with the right primer (the right foundation) and who nearly lost his shirt because of it, this is a feel-good story.
Finishing outlasted prep (by a couple centuries)
What’s amazing, the tower’s sway began early in construction when they began the third level and yet they persisted! Later on it also began to rotate as it leaned. The foundation (a footer-style slab consisting mainly of marble and lime) was laid in a circular ditch at a depth of only 5 feet. Apparently, though material cost was relatively low, there was a limit to how much marble the Italians were willing to bury.
Ultimately, the foundation was the wrong spec, given the area’s sandy soil properties. I found lots of blame for the shifty soil, but come on, that’s like blaming the unprimed poplar when the paint starts to peel. A pile foundation design would have done the trick, but of course they didn’t ask me. The shallow slab proved far too unstable to support an eight-story structure that would weigh in at over 14,000 tons. Like using a water-based primer on exterior concrete, anything you put on top of it just ain’t gonna to stay put.
“The Tower of Pisa was primed for failure, instead it was glorified as one of the seven natural wonders of the world”
Fast forward. Okay, there were a couple of wars. In one instance the construction stopped for about a century. When they came back (in 1272) they had had more than enough time to reflect and criticize somebody else for the shoddy prep-work. Instead, they built the next four floors at an opposing angle in an attempt to offset the appearance of the unintended tilt. Have you ever noticed how rarely we’re short of geniuses when there’s a mistake to be covered?
After more than 200 years in the making, all eight stories were completed around about 1373. At that time, the intended seven bells (one for each note of the musical major scale) rang out across little Pisa. And since just 1990, more than $40 million has been spent on what has become a continuous process of shoring-up and keeping up the illusion that everything’s okay.
The point of the story is to illustrate how much time and effort can go wasted trying to cover for poor design planning at the prep stage. Footers or finish primers, they all do essentially the same job. They keep stuff from moving around when it shouldn’t and, they make stuff look better, wear better and last longer when it should.
No limelight for most finishers
Finishers tend to be perfectionists by nature. They were the kids that got blown away by the color of the shiny paint jobs on cool cars. Some were more fascinated by how they could transform a piece of raw wood into something of awe and beauty. But as professionals, they are their own worst enemy. Because they are perfectionists, they see the problems most people don’t. They know what’s real and what is illusion. They’re persistent in the pursuit of doing things right the first time—because they know they will profit more. They also know there’s no glory in any other way.
Primers are your friends. Choose them well
Finishers know just how fast you can get a job handed back to you when a coating fails to perform to expectations. Ironically, many times, it’s not the paint finish that fails. It’s the prep work, the primer, the foundation—or the lack of one—that is to blame.
When a finish fails, it’s really too bad because a primer is such a friend. The right primer will improve the appearance of flawed, uneven surfaces so that the final coating looks its best. Paints and other coatings do not generally hide dimensional or material defects. For that matter, primers don’t either. Primers will aid in revealing finish defects that can be filled or sanded. They can also save you material and a boatload of time in reworks.
Primers do a few other things well. They help make finishes wear better. That’s because they create a bond with the substrate and increase adhesion with the finish. With blocker additives, they can retard stains from showing through or help you change a black to a white with fewer steps. A good primer will help you achieve more uniform color and the sheen you require as well. All this, while creating a superbly sandable surface.
INSIGHT:
Currently, the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa is displaced horizontally by more than 12 feet from where it would be if the structure were perfectly vertical. Experts have long been divided on the real cause. Some have even argued that it was an intended effect, designed by the original architects. At any rate, what we’re talking about here is the world’s appetite for fascination and illusion—and how much we’re willing to support it. If you’ve ever watched a magician, you know how important perfection is to illusion. And in the finishing and coatings business, isn’t perfection the whole point?
I welcome your comments, questions or more discussion.— David Stahl