Something occurred to me while watching TV the other night.  My favorite game show was on - you know the one – a long-running hit game show that features families feuding with each other by guessing how 100 men or women responded to a given question.  At the end of the show, during the “fast money” round with real money on the line, the host asked for an answer that just struck me.  The host indicated they’d polled 100 women, and asked them to “name something that’s required to change a flat tire.”  I really like this show, and it’s the wide variety of strange, quirky characters the families bring to Hollywood that make it entertaining.  Long story short, even the clueless, bug-eyed bother-in-law, and the crazy, kind of trampy aunt from the ‘hood knew that a “jack” and a “lug wrench” were the obvious tools for the job – nailed it #1 and #2 respectively for the $20,000. 

Could you change a tire with just any wrench?  Would a pipe wrench work?  Hmm, not with my truck tires – without that lug wrench I’m stuck.  How about that jack?  Can you even change a tire without one?  In our business, restoration contractors face the same question every day.  What tool best fits the applications involved in architectural restoration?  Fire damage, failed coatings, mold growth, flood damage, and water staining are just a few of the applications that might require a tool like media blasting.  I get calls at least once a week from contractors asking what blasting tool to use for a given application.  With big money on the line, it’s important to know which tools fit the application, and which ones don’t.