sealcanvas
Member
A little history. Back in the late 80's and 90's, I started a business called "Mid-America Building Maintenance Services"...it was a mater of survival. We had gone thru bankruptcy, foreclosure and repossessions; I was unemployed, with four children...one in college, one in middle school and the two youngest ones in grade school. I would do ANYTHING for revenue!
I connected with a couple of commercial Property Management companies (one small and one major). I contracted to do trash cleanup...better defined as "garbage" pickup, and do minor asphalt maintenance to strip mall parking lots; add to that, sidewalk snow removal in the winter. I would work between 10 p.m and 6 a.m seven nights a week...just me and my dog; I was also "blending and peddling" some pretty generic cleaning chemicals...stripper, floor polish, neutral cleaners, etc. during the day.
I was in the Apple Valley Radio Shack store one afternoon trying to sell them some of our floor finish. Unbeknownst to me, I was talking with the "District Manager". He said "Do you do the stripping and waxing?" I lied and said "Oh sure...we do that all the time"...I had no clue how to do it! He said, "Tell you what, do this store, if I like it, I'll set you up to do all the stores in my district, some tile, some carpet squares"...he had 27 stores in Minnesota, eastern Dakota's, western Wisconsin and northern Iowa.
He wanted it done THAT night! I called a friend (in a similar personal situation) that had done some janitorial and convinced him to help me out....with his 13" single disc and a wet/dry vac we started at 10 that night.
At 9 the following morning we put down the final coat (of three) of floor finish....the store was to open at 10, and looked darn good! The DM followed thru on his commitment and we did a lot of traveling.
Fast forward a few years...we got the City of Apple Valley contract to do all the floors in all the city buildings, city hall, fire departments, park buildings, Central Mainenance Facility, Water Treatment Plant, police station, etc. By now carpet cleaning was equal to hard surface floor care square footage we were doing and we had a couple of other guys doing our parking lot duties.
We had gotten a Hydramaster walk behind, an early version of the RX, some other off brand portable and a couple of 17" single discs....we did a LOT of bonnet cleaning! Our customers loved our work....in spite of the low tech, uneducated processes we did, we worked hard and never left a job until it looked REAL good! By now I was "longing" for a TM....every time I would see one, I would stop and "dream" about "someday". But I also developed a curiosity as to why the doors had to be left open. I literally had a dream about a "device" that would just pop into the doorway, thus blocking the outside from entering the inside...the concept of Seal-A-Door was born.
The very next day, in the "Businesses For Sale" section of the MPLS Star/Tribune I saw "Canvas business for sale with product line and orders". It was a Sunday morning, I contacted little old Vern From of Fromco Canvas....a retired Northwest Airlines upholsterer that had a retirement business in his garage. He had only one product and one customer, but I saw it as an "omen" opportunity to make Seal-A-Door real.
I moved out of Vern's garage to industrial space in NE Minneapolis and started Seal Canvas Products. Hired a couple of stitchers, expanded the existing product line (aerial bucket covers) and customers, to include OEM's, Mpls Fire Department and Xcel Energy....now I had a real nice base and it was growing!
I continued on the next 5 years working the canvas business during the day and floor care at night. In 202, I went full time in the canvas and gave away the maintenance business. As the canvas business continued to grow (products and customers) I didn't make the time to pursue Seal-A-Door...I tried to "spark" interest in the concept with our contact at HydraMaster in Seattle, but no interest. Had a very raw sample I tried to attract ServiceMaster interest...they liked the color (our sample was yellow) but nothing else...no interest.
Seal-A-Door went dormant until 2010 when I started browsing the internet and discovered forums, business pages and carpet cleaners and eventually, Mark Saiger! Seal Canvas Products continues to be a very diverse business, but Seal-A-Door is my pride and joy....really, you could say, my legacy product.
There's a lot more to the story...but I suspect Fred and Mike are getting upset with me consuming so much space already...sorry! We've worked hard to get here...I hope you will consider becoming a part of our "legacy"... http://shop.sealadoor.com is open for business!
I connected with a couple of commercial Property Management companies (one small and one major). I contracted to do trash cleanup...better defined as "garbage" pickup, and do minor asphalt maintenance to strip mall parking lots; add to that, sidewalk snow removal in the winter. I would work between 10 p.m and 6 a.m seven nights a week...just me and my dog; I was also "blending and peddling" some pretty generic cleaning chemicals...stripper, floor polish, neutral cleaners, etc. during the day.
I was in the Apple Valley Radio Shack store one afternoon trying to sell them some of our floor finish. Unbeknownst to me, I was talking with the "District Manager". He said "Do you do the stripping and waxing?" I lied and said "Oh sure...we do that all the time"...I had no clue how to do it! He said, "Tell you what, do this store, if I like it, I'll set you up to do all the stores in my district, some tile, some carpet squares"...he had 27 stores in Minnesota, eastern Dakota's, western Wisconsin and northern Iowa.
He wanted it done THAT night! I called a friend (in a similar personal situation) that had done some janitorial and convinced him to help me out....with his 13" single disc and a wet/dry vac we started at 10 that night.
At 9 the following morning we put down the final coat (of three) of floor finish....the store was to open at 10, and looked darn good! The DM followed thru on his commitment and we did a lot of traveling.
Fast forward a few years...we got the City of Apple Valley contract to do all the floors in all the city buildings, city hall, fire departments, park buildings, Central Mainenance Facility, Water Treatment Plant, police station, etc. By now carpet cleaning was equal to hard surface floor care square footage we were doing and we had a couple of other guys doing our parking lot duties.
We had gotten a Hydramaster walk behind, an early version of the RX, some other off brand portable and a couple of 17" single discs....we did a LOT of bonnet cleaning! Our customers loved our work....in spite of the low tech, uneducated processes we did, we worked hard and never left a job until it looked REAL good! By now I was "longing" for a TM....every time I would see one, I would stop and "dream" about "someday". But I also developed a curiosity as to why the doors had to be left open. I literally had a dream about a "device" that would just pop into the doorway, thus blocking the outside from entering the inside...the concept of Seal-A-Door was born.
The very next day, in the "Businesses For Sale" section of the MPLS Star/Tribune I saw "Canvas business for sale with product line and orders". It was a Sunday morning, I contacted little old Vern From of Fromco Canvas....a retired Northwest Airlines upholsterer that had a retirement business in his garage. He had only one product and one customer, but I saw it as an "omen" opportunity to make Seal-A-Door real.
I moved out of Vern's garage to industrial space in NE Minneapolis and started Seal Canvas Products. Hired a couple of stitchers, expanded the existing product line (aerial bucket covers) and customers, to include OEM's, Mpls Fire Department and Xcel Energy....now I had a real nice base and it was growing!
I continued on the next 5 years working the canvas business during the day and floor care at night. In 202, I went full time in the canvas and gave away the maintenance business. As the canvas business continued to grow (products and customers) I didn't make the time to pursue Seal-A-Door...I tried to "spark" interest in the concept with our contact at HydraMaster in Seattle, but no interest. Had a very raw sample I tried to attract ServiceMaster interest...they liked the color (our sample was yellow) but nothing else...no interest.
Seal-A-Door went dormant until 2010 when I started browsing the internet and discovered forums, business pages and carpet cleaners and eventually, Mark Saiger! Seal Canvas Products continues to be a very diverse business, but Seal-A-Door is my pride and joy....really, you could say, my legacy product.
There's a lot more to the story...but I suspect Fred and Mike are getting upset with me consuming so much space already...sorry! We've worked hard to get here...I hope you will consider becoming a part of our "legacy"... http://shop.sealadoor.com is open for business!
Last edited by a moderator:
