What makes a workshop not ready?
Almost always temperature. Hesse’s HYDRO range must not be applied or dried below 18°C, and the word that matters is dried. If your heating goes off at six and the unit is down to single figures by ten, anything sprayed that afternoon has not dried. It has stopped, and it will still be wet in the morning.
The other common blockers: no meaningful air movement, so the water has nowhere to go; humidity consistently outside the 55 to 65% range; and nowhere to store product above 10°C in winter.
How do I know where I actually stand?
Measure it, because almost nobody knows. Put a cheap maximum-minimum thermometer and a hygrometer in the part of the workshop where finishing and drying happen, and read them every morning through a cold month. Not in the office, not by the door.
That one exercise answers the question better than any conversation with us. Most people are surprised by the overnight figure.
What should I fix first?
In this order.
Overnight heat in the drying area. You do not necessarily need the whole building warm. A smaller enclosed drying space that holds temperature is cheaper to heat than a workshop and solves most of the problem.
Air movement. Draft-free air exchange, not a fan pointed at the work.
Somewhere to store product. 10 to 30°C, which usually means not the far corner of an uninsulated unit.
Your spray equipment. Anything touching water-based material needs to be stainless steel. Worth knowing now rather than discovering it later.
Is there anything I can do in the meantime?
Yes, and it is worth doing even if conversion is years away.
Not every improvement is a jump to water-based. Within solvent-based systems there are routes that reduce what you are exposed to — moving from aromatic to aliphatic isocyanates removes a significant part of the hazard, and some systems get the same result in fewer coats, which cuts the total amount sprayed. One of our joinery customers did exactly that: stayed solvent, removed the aromatic isocyanates, dropped from four coats to three and solved an odour complaint from a neighbouring business at the same time.
Alongside that, it is worth checking who in your workshop is actually protected. In most of the shops we visit the sprayer is properly equipped and the two people working alongside him are not.
When should I come back?
When you have a month of overnight temperature readings, or when something changes — new premises, new equipment, a permit conversation, or a customer asking questions you cannot answer.
There is no sales process waiting for you. We would rather you came back in two years ready than converted this year and regretted it.
Interested in reviewing your finishing process?
Get in touch with the Redwood team on 02392 233310 or email [email protected] to arrange an initial conversation.