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The Flood Company,
Hudson, Ohio
The Flood Company, which sells wood-care products and additives around the world and through some 15,000 U.S. home centers, lumber dealers and other retailers, began its transformation from painting contractor to product manufacturer during the Great Depression.
by David Thompson
for most of the company's top-selling products, such as CWF-UV Clear Wood Finish, and Solid Color Deck & Siding Stain, which Flood touts as the longest-lasting stain on the market. It's also in FloodPro Penetrating Oil Finish, part of the company's line of products designed specifically for professional painters and contractors.
“Penetrol is really, really superior in its penetration characteristics,” says Coughlin. “It takes stains deep into the wood — allowing them to put up with whatever traffic and weathering they're going to get.”
 Penetrol can be found in the company's latest product, Semi-Transparent Penetrating Oil Finish, which was introduced March 1. This finish, designed for older, weathered surfaces, helps cover the ravages of time while allowing wood's natural beauty to show though. It's available in a neutral base that can be tinted, and it comes with a three-year guarantee against peeling and fading for decks and a similar five-year guarantee for siding.
Another new Flood product, Solid Color Deck & Siding Finish, utilizes Emulsa Bond in a coating which Flood says “blends the penetrating and adhesion benefits of an oil finish with the color retention and flexibility qualities of a latex finish.” The result is a product with ambitious guarantees — five years against peeling on decks and 15 years on siding. The finish works well on a variety of non-wood substrates, such as cement fiberboard.
 This latest Emulsa Bond-fortified finish represents a new direction for The Flood Company, which is now headed by company president and CEO Peter Flood, son of Earl D. Flood. Recognizing the emergence of a variety of alternative building materials in the marketplace, the company has begun to shift its attention toward developing non-wood treatments.
“We're trying to expand our scope and open our horizons,” says Coughlin. “Traditionally we've been a wood care company, but more and more we're looking at finishes and treatment applications that go beyond wood care.”
The company has about 125 employees, and all of them — from the technical service consultants to the maintenance crew — are required to become certified paint consultants. To train them the company established The Flood School, where everything from wood anatomy to weathering to paint application techniques gets covered. The idea is for every Flood employee to serve as an ambassador for better painting and proper wood care.
“It's a benefit overall to the brand for everybody to have a thorough understanding of our products and their design,” Coughlin says.
To learn more about The Flood Company and its products, call (800) 321-3444 or visit The Flood Company Web site.
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