The Medina site consists of fifty-three acres of land that needed some development for the intended purpose. Initially, ten acres were cleared for exposure. The early exposure testing was performed on alkyd primed redwood and southern yellow pine, testing the extremes of substrate durability. The first building on the site, 1,800 square foot building, was a combination administration and application building.
In 1990 construction of a storage building was completed. The 3,520 square foot building is used as storage for substrates, an exposure library for retired and pre-weathered panels, golf cart housing and storage of other equipment used during exposure process.
Standard substrates continued to grow as building materials and the marketplace expanded. They include but are not limited to latex and alkyd chalk panels, chalky aluminum, vinyl siding, hardboard and other popular and problematic building materials. Panel inspection was done on a very limited basis and today has grown to a full time task.
From 1991 to 1993 substrate varieties continued to grow to include complaints and problems encountered in the field by consumers. During 1993, a full time Information Technology expert was added to the Medina staff to develop the database and man the computer operations.
In 1995, construction of a 3800 square foot Administration building was completed. In 1996, an additional ten acres of exposure land was cleared for weathering of exposures. This doubled the exposure space and provided opportunity for growth. In 1998, testing of cementious coatings, sealers and stains was added to our services.
Currently, the Medina Weathering Station is a full time weather exposure test site with numerous acres for future growth.
