In Finishing, Shop Blog

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In my introductory blog post, I mentioned that there are a lot of fascinating advances being made in the coatings industry. This one may top the list.

Most of us guys have done it, and maybe even some gals (but it’s different). We’ve come out of a bar or club late at night and relieved ourselves in some dark area, likely against the side of a building or a wall. When this happens a lot, the area begins to stink, and clean up is expensive. What to do about it? How does the neighborhood or city get this to stop?

Signs and warnings don’t help much. Neither does paying a guard to stand there all night because the perp will just find another dark area.

The party district of Hamburg, Germany, called St. Pauli, came up with a better solution. They coated the walls and sides of buildings with a super hydrophobic and oleophobic paint called Ultra-Ever Dry made by Ultra Tech International in Jacksonville, Florida. Hydrophobic means water repellent and oleophobic means oil repellent in this context.

The paint is made with a nanotechnology that creates billions of tiny peaks with air in between. So, essentially, there is an air barrier that repels the droplets of pee.

Check out what happens here…


When you’ve stopped laughing, see some other uses for this coating here.

Until next time…

— Bob Flexner

Editor’s note – You’ll find all of Bob’s books in our store: “Flexner on Finishing” and “Wood Finishing 101.”


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Showing 3 comments
  • josephjmclean

    In London about 120 years ago, all the alleyways between the nicer establishments used to have low grates that angled outward to direct…undesirable fluids…back onto the shoes of the perpetrator. Same desired effect as this Finish. Not a new idea!

  • snacky227

    Wow, right out of the gate and you start with a pee video. Such a high bar has been set. I’m expecting great things with this blog.

  • pmac

    It’ll just be a matter of time before some enterprising young German creates a line clothing for German bar hoppers coated in that stuff.

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