Ground Floor Up: New Museum at Prime Coat Unlike Any Other

The idea for an exposition at Prime Coat Coating System’s headquarters hit President Chris O’Brien eight months ago.

“It is common for customers to ask if they can visit one of our installations and it is really hard to get people into correctional facilities,” O’Brien said. “It is much cheaper to bring people in here.”

Since the museum opened to the public in early January, 50 people, as of press time, had walked through the computer-controlled, 3,000-square-foot space replete with a double-bunk jail cell, operating shower, and medical exam room.

The museum’s interactive stations are fully operational with a shower that turns on, working X-ray lights and a resuscitation Annie on the exam table.

The computer-controlled interactive tour includes 44 unique displays. Participants can view the entire walk-through, which is 28 minutes long, or jump to sections of interest. The state-of-the-art tour can be paused, muted or abbreviated using the iPhone or iPad interface.

Because it is challenging to arrange visits to a correctional facility in use, O’Brien said the exposition allows customers to not only see the systems in a comfortable and convenient setting, but discover all the systems that can benefit their facility.

“We are well-known for our seamless shower system, yet we also install systems in correctional kitchens, infirmaries, restrooms and hallways,” O’Brien said. “Our coatings deliver long life in difficult correctional environments and this exposition is the simplest way to see it all in one place. It allows us to be flexible in how we train and teach.”

The exposition showcases resinous floor, wall and specialty flooring systems allowing professionals to touch, see and learn about each system’s unique purpose and look. When you enter the exhibit, overhead searchlights spin patterns as speakers blast Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” The lights then lead you to each exhibit with the narration.

A full-size cell provided by Trussbilt features the different finishes available, including PC Invisiseam, PC Antimicrobial, PC Anti-MRSA, and graffiti proof Matt finish. Two Derby Industries mattresses were provided by Cornerstone.

The shower uses the company’s seamless system, which is 100 percent bonded to the substrate with no anchor points, seams, grout lines or weaknesses.

“Lifecycle costs are reduced by using this system,” O’Brien said. “Most correctional facilities are constantly dealing with shower issues or kitchen problems.”

The hospital/exam room display area offers a mockup of soft flooring and wall applications designed for correctional medical areas.

O’Brien said he is proud of what his company has developed for corrections, particularly its patented shower system.

“The fact that we are both the manufacturer and installer of our systems has allowed us to adapt to the demands of the industry for renovation and new construction,” he said. “We have years of working partnerships with corrections agencies that have taught us how to save our customers time and money.”

Prime Coat’s specialty coatings have been installed in more than 300 correctional facilities’ showers, floors, walls, dayrooms and cells.

The company’s work is 50 percent occupied prisons and 50 percent new construction. Recently, the company worked with CCA at the Jenkins Correctional Center in Millen, Ga., and was involved in South Correctional Entity, or SCORE, in Des Moines, Wash.

“We did all the floors, walls and a variety of stuff from showers to the cells to the concrete floors,” O’Brien said. “We had a huge contract on that project. I don’t think there is another company in the country that has as much prison experience as our company does installing specialty coatings.”

Prime Coat is also working on the Stockton and Adelanto projects in California. The majority of its work is in California, Washington and the East Coast.

O’Brien started the business in 1990 and Ballou joined the company in 1996. Ballou is a third-generation painter, as both his father and grandfather were in the coating profession.

When Ballou came on board, he and O’Brien were “installing it all.”

“We were the guys in the trenches out doing it and all the guys who are now doing installations were trained by us,” O’Brien said. “It is a unique swing, we did not buy this company, and we did not inherit it. We built it from the ground up. The way we discovered the issues was from talking to people and basically working one-on-one with owners to proof these things out. We’d get in, work with them, run it through a test, refine the process, refine the products, until we got something that we know works.”

The skill required to do the seamless system for the walls and floors crosses four different trades, O’Brien said, so it is tough to go into a town and pull labor.

“You are performing the work of a laborer, of a cement finisher, of a painter, of a terrazzo guy to produce the finished product,” he said.

Ballou heads up the architects and engineers and O’Brien focuses on the company’s strategy.

“Our guys are like Seal Team 6, they get shipped to wherever they need to go and they are extremely skilled. We are one of the few companies you have worked with where every employee has been in prison — because we work in them every single day,” O’Brien joked.

The Waukegan, Ill.-based headquarters, an hour from O’Hare International Airport and 45 minutes from Milwaukee, is 49,000 square feet. Contractors and architects can see, make and apply the coatings.

“If you are an architect and you want to see what it smells like you can do that. You can go into one of the other buildings and install it,” O’Brien said. “They can walk, touch and bump into it on a larger scale than you can just handing someone a sample without the hassle of having to go to an occupied prison.”

The intention, he said, was to create a space so visitors “would be able to see the system and then walk right into our lab and mix some of the material up and see what happens — how does it turn into a solid?”

Comments from visitors, he said, have ranged from “There is nothing like this I have ever seen before” to “This is over the top.”
As the company’s research and development efforts continue, the systems displayed in the exposition will also evolve.

“With a floor you usually have one or two complaints — either it’s too hard to clean or it’s too slippery. There is a magical section that is in the middle and it is something that every owner needs to understand — the coefficient of friction is a critical thing,” O’Brien said. “More people slipping and falling is a headache, more paperwork for these guys to handle. So if we can help them avoid that and take this off their maintenance list, we feel like we have done a really good job.”