This testimonial was passed on to us from our friends at AFM in the USA, manufacturers of high quality low-VOC cleaners and coatings. Anyone with sensitivities to harsh chemical smells will no doubt relate. (If you are looking for a great cleaner and/or sealant for surfaces, let us know – we carry AFM products!)

This testimonial comes from Elaine at Sapona Green Building Center in Wilmington North Carolina.

“My husband and I, both architects, spent the past 19 years building our one-of-a-kind custom, handcrafted “green” home located in a rural area in northern Virginia on a thirteen acre nature preserve.  Last year, we lived through the nightmare of a chemical contamination caused by a mitigation company attempting to restore our home after a construction fire.
The mitigation company was informed they could not use anything toxic in cleaning up the smoke smell and stains.  They suggested a supposed non-toxic and non-irritating odorcidal product with an encapsulation feature for removing the strong smoke smell in most of the occupied portions of the house.  After they applied it, the smell from this product was so strong, it not only filled our home, but wafted even outside the house, for about a 20-foot distance.  Worst of all, this “non-toxic” product made our family–all three generations–very ill, and even some of the construction workers.
Symptoms included feelings of queasiness, nausea, and severe retching.  This occurred upon entering a room having the odorcidal smell or even stepping outdoors several feet from the area where the odorcidal product was sprayed, and the symptoms stopped when leaving the area and breathing fresh air.
Despite continual use of high power HEPA air scrubbers, repeated labor-intensive rinsing of the treated areas, both inside and outside our home (and even soda-blasting the outside) the heavy smell and toxic effects of the odorcidal product were still there even eight weeks later!
We had lost the use of most of our home, and spent about 3 months sleeping on the dining room floor, only having use of the kitchen/dining room areas and with almost all of our clothing–bedding, towels, etc.– stored off-site after being cleaned by the insurance company, until we could regain use of our closets.
We then discovered Sapona Green Building Center and the AFM Super Clean and AFM Hard Seal products.  One application of Super Clean completely neutralized the odorcidal product!  It was amazing!  And then, we used three thin coats of the Hard Seal membrane on the surfaces for encapsulating the stubborn imbedded smoke odor.  The smoke smell was completely gone! And the people weren’t poisoned!
Elaine L. Jack, owner of Sapona Green Building Center  was excellent in assisting us and in expediting the orders for these products so the crews could continue working without interruption.
Sapona Green Building Center and the AFM products Super Clean and Hard Seal have healed our home! We have since been using AFM Super Clean for almost all of our house cleaning. It is particularly effective in cleaning the slate, tile, and wooden floors, and  in cleaning the exterior hardwoods and brick. Our builder has also found many uses for it in his work.”

S. P.
Virginia

If you have always dreamed of designing your own log home, but were never sure where to start, check out this newsletter from Murray Arnott Design. It’s a practical approach, starting with Data Acquisition, then moving to Evaluation before even beginning the Drawing Process.

For inspiration, take a look at some of Arnott’s work in their online gallery. It’s obvious they know what they are talking about!

Great work, Murray!

From the ‘Life Blessons’ blog, written by Carmen in Atlanta Georgia, comes this funny story of how she and her husband spent New Years Eve… painting. Not the usual celebratory activity, but what the heck – it’s like getting a resolution out of the way before midnight even strikes. They did their homework on low-VOC coatings, and discovered how awesome the AFM line of products is for people who care about what they put in their home. It’s a great little read, and shows how even chemically sensitive people can enjoy painting… with the right stuff. Thanks, Carmen!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year and we’re all ready for a nice break to spend time with friends and family. And we know you’ve all been waiting for this too.

It’s been an awesome year for us at CBR with new products being developed, old products being tweeked to perform even better, and our pre-stain facility pumping out lift after lift of gorgeous timber. It’s been hectic, chaotic and hysterical at times but we all had fun. We laughed, we labored, we came, we saw, we conquered. It’s been a blast.

Our team has made a huge effort this year to make sure we performed our tasks more dutifully and it has paid off for all of us. We have put many new and improved systems in place to recycle and be more sustainable around here too. I can speak for us all when I say we are all content with our 2011 and we hope you all are too.

We at CBR Products wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We look forward to spending more quality time with all of our clients in 2012. It’s been our pleasure to help and serve you all and we hope to continue with these fantastic business relationships we have built together.

Cheers ~~ From the whole CBR Products Team!

Well the time has come, inevitably too quick as usual, for me to head back to my home country of New Zealand. It is with great sadness that I must bid adieu to CBR to pursue some other avenues of interest.

My 6 years spent at CBR has been amazing. The gratifying work that I have done here has helped me grow mentally and professionally. I have had the pleasure of working with a plethora of great people and companies and I will surely miss a lot of the great banter, conversations, challenges and laughs that were shared by us all. There has been ups and downs, and lefts and rights, and things flying all over the show but it has been an amazing time spent here.

I want to say thank you to all the staff past and present who have inspired me, cracked me up, helped me out, peeved me off, covered me in stain, stolen my pens, made me laugh until I cried, brought their little dogs in to play and brighten my day and most importantly just being a bunch of stand up people who have made my tenure here so easy and enjoyable. Y’all know who you are!!

The biggest shout out must surely go to Bill though. Thanks for everything! It has been my pleasure working for you and I wish nothing but the best for you and CBR Products. I hope to see the business grow and prosper because what you have done here and what you are still doing is something to be proud of. Your company has a huge heart and I know it’s only going to get better and brighter for all involved here!

So wish me luck, thanks a bunch, See you again, stay in touch!!

On June 11th 1989, down in the depths of the lava flowing caverns of Mount Zeus, a child was born. Conceived by the Gods of Metal as their version of Jesus, this child was a gift to the Earth.

He was made for a specific gnarly task. He was created to head bang. He was created to skate. And that’s exactly what he does.

His name………….Jamie “Mount Zeus” Maley.

To anyone on the street, Jamie is just your regular 22 year old long haired skate skid rat who resides at all hours down at Hastings bowl or Leeside, smoking old man rollies, drinking Pacific Pilsners, grinding rails and frontsliding his way to oblivion, but to us at CBR he’s a legend.

Jamie’s a riot, he’s the younger brother that everyone wants and a straight up, no worries kinda dude. He’s that guy who’ll tell you about any form of metal you want, from circus metal to nature metal to sword metal, and he’ll take you down if you slander it. He’s the genius version of Deaner from Fubar. He’ll roll into work in his Cadillac 82′ Coupe De Ville with cracked ribs, broken wrists, road rash and cigarette burns on his face but he’ll always be here ready for work on time. You simply can not cut this kid down in anyway!

Jamie just recently nailed the front cover for Canada’s leading skate mag, Concrete, and we couldn’t be more stoked for him. It’s a huge thing to make cover in the skate world, much like making the Rolling Stone cover if you’re a musician, and for that we applaud the kid. He’s been with us at CBR for almost 3 years now and he’s been wrecking himself the whole time for this. And now he’s done it.

Jamie rides for C1rca, Anti Hero Skate Boards, Spitfire Wheels and East Van’s own Boulevard Skate Shop and I’m pretty sure he’s the international mascot for everything ‘metal’.

Congrats on your achievement Jamtart! Keep on keepin’ on!

‘Mill Glaze’ is something a lot of people seem to forget about, most likely because they can’t ‘see’ it, however it is more than likely sitting there right underneath your nose silently waiting to hinder your staining attempts.

‘Mill Glaze’ is a fine oily residue left over on your freshly milled timbers from the blades of milling machines. The picture above shows pieces of smooth Cedar with half the pieces having had the ‘Mill Glaze’ removed. It’s simple and easy to remove and this is a must when it comes to applying a penetrating stain or other such coating. Using a belt sander and sanding with 80 grit will definitely remove what residue may be there.  Be sure to sand with the grain so no sanding marks are left streaking across your wood. This would apply for very smooth wood with no ‘Mill Glaze’ also.

There are products on the market that remove ‘Mill Glaze’ chemically too. But be weary of anything that may leave a residue or film on your wood that will hinder your staining efforts and put you right back to square one! Oxalic Acid works very well so our ABR X-180 is right up your alley. Certain products can and will raise the grain so sanding will be required after using this product. But clean of dirt, grime and that nasty ‘Mill Glaze’ your wood will be! Read here for more info on the magic of ABR X-180 and Oxalic Acid.

There are so many different things out there that function in more ways than we know. Whether it be fish oil in vitamins and WD40 or corn in almost…….well, everything!

So, how about Rhubarb? I don’t know about you but Rhubarb for me was the worst thing imaginable as a child. Even my Dad wouldn’t eat it and he would throw back almost anything. My Mum would make pies and jam-like crud out of that nasty stuff and my brother and I would kick up a major fuss if we even smelled it in the house. To this day I wouldn’t touch the stuff even if you paid me………well, how much are we talking here? Mum, we can negotiate a price perhaps.

Ok, enough with the digression.

The Rhubarb plant has many uses ranging from the stems being an old source of sugar, to the roots being consumed in order to help along a number two. However, the Rhubarb plant has leaves which are usually discarded when it comes to cuisine, but in the world of construction/restoration they are actually very useful. These leaves contain a substance called Oxalic Acid which is very handy when it comes to cleaning almost anything but it has a tremendous ability to restore weathered wood to it’s natural state.

We carry a product here at CBR called ABR X-180 Weathered Wood Restorer and the people we know who use it, swear by it! X-180 contains Oxalic Acid and a detergent additive to completely enliven old wood and give your deck, fence, roof or siding that original ‘fresh from the mill’ look we all love! From timber frames during the in-construction period to 30 year old Cedar decking to old black Cedar roof shakes. It cleans it all!

It’s simple to use and virtually anyone can use it. Check out the above link or call us for a ready-to-use sample. We know you’ll absolutely love what it does!

Bet you won’t look at Rhubarb the same way after having tried this awesome product!

Was the question I asked on a recent request for a colour match from one of our esteemed clients. “I want the wood to look like it has been pulled from a bonfire” he said to me as I stood there looking confused.

Wow, I thought, now that sounds like a challenge if ever I heard one! Time to get my colour match on!

Now, knowing where to begin was almost the most difficult thing about this task. Do I start with a blackish colour? A dark brown colour? Both mixed together? Half and half of both mixed together? Uuuuugh…….

The wood was to be Pine and so I asked for a sample of the actual wood to be used in the project and was promptly sent a nice smooth piece of standard flat grain SPF.

Now what……?

Well, what does burnt Pine even look like……..?

Hot damn, lets burn some!

I took to that piece of pine with a blow torch and charred it good and proper. Now I had a control sample to play with.

On a fresh piece of Pine I decided to begin with a black stain and dilute it down 75%, 50% and 25% increments to see how the grain was affected. I wanted the soft grain to pick up most of the “burnt look” effect yet still have some hard grain showing through to prove it was still wood. This worked best with the 50% stain version I had previously tried.

But it still needed something else? I tinkered and toiled for the better part of 2 hours before it really started to come to fruition. By this stage I had added yellow, brown, red and even violet pigments to give it a subtle shade of brown underneath a blanket of black and had brushed out near 25 different versions of stain but……….voila! I had done it!

The client was most impressed and it has been chosen now by 4 other separate clients as their ideal choice of colour for an array of different projects. Once these projects have been completed I’ll add some photos but for now, all you get is the original masterpiece.

By Simon Kear

Here at the ‘Golden Purple Monster’, what we affectionately call our rather large and rather purple and gold  painted warehouse, we are constantly looking for ways to help you guys and gals out there with application tips, hints and how-to’s on the easy use of Broda Products. Herein lies the basis for our quest to one up ourselves each and every time.

We have found that videos seem to be the best way to guide people through the simple processes that we pride our product on. But do we have it right? That is the question!

When you work for a company that manufactures it’s own line of products, and you know these products like the back of your own hand, it’s very easy when talking to customers to assume that they know exactly what you’re talking about……..now this is not necessarily correct. Things need to be explained in layman’s terms when it comes down to the nitty gritty. This is why we feel that step by step guidance through video helps exponentially.

Now, to do these videos it does take a lot of time, equipment and patience as well as great voice for narration and a down right funky soundtrack. Narration and soundtrack is the easy part but pulling together all the gear, writing the script, filming the shots, editing it all for hours on end in order to come up with something that explains what you need to say while staying simple and easy…….that’s the hard part.

We have a lot to do here in the next coming weeks and we’d really love to hear your input on what you’d like to see. How can we help you? What can we explain better? What can we show you that’s the most helpful?

Write on our Facebook wall or message us on Twitter

We’d love to ‘like’ and ‘follow’ you too so make sure you let us know about your social media sites too!