Friday, August 31, 2007

My converstation with Paul McBride this morning

I got a call from Paul McBride, the CEO of Prima Panama, this morning because I have been having problems downloading the 2 hour audio of their Panama real estate investing symposium from their website. During the call he mentioned that he and Sam Talliaferro visited Red Frog along with some banking officials from Florida (who have been providing financing for Panamanians buying real estate in Florida) who are considering offering mortgages for property in Panama. This would only apply to US citizens (at least at this time) and would be more traditional loans to what we have in this country.

There were other positive news items which might signal we are close to the end of the strike and some insight as to why it has lasted so long in the first place.

I don't think I am revealing anything that he wouldn't want me to in saying that our developers have been naïve in how that have approached doing business in Panama (like we didn't know this?!!) . Now that RFB has teamed up with this developers group, I think they are making some great progress and help them to not fall into mistakes they have made in the past; like taking the US construction model and trying to implement it in another country!

One of my main questions, "Why has the strike lasted 8 months?" was explained that, in Panama, the model is the general contractor hires sub-contractors (which Red Frog did not do) and then when the union causes problems, the general fires the sub and hires a new one.

All in all, the conversation was a positive one, and our patience will be rewarded shortly.

Mick @ Lot 83

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Lots for Sale

I noticed on the Red Frog website that in addition to Lot 13, Lots 35 46 and 69 are also for sale. Does anyone know anything about the compensation for the original owners?



I had offered Red Frog to sell my lot for what basically was a double commission with me getting my deposit back when a new deposit was put down and the rest at closing. I thought this was a win-win situation. If I closed, Red Frog would get no commission or at most a single commission if I chose to sell. I wouldn't have to go through the closing process and had a chance of getting my deposit back sooner. Red Frog's response was that we could give you back your deposit when we got a new deposit. Nothing more.



I had thought it would have been a great sales gimmick. If all of us knew we could sell our places at some profit, we would all feel safer about our investments. Selling lots does not seem to be one of Red Frog's weaknesses. The few of us that decided to sell would give Red Frog some extra money. New buyers would see how much money the original buyers were making, feeding new buyers greed that they could do it too.



My dream would be for the strike to end, villas to get completed and closed, and Red Frog decides to do something similar to my proposal. Perhaps if the strike ends, a group of us, a pre-home owners group, could convince Red Frog. It would be hard for there to be any unhappy campers. If so, they could just sell and make a good profit. Any comments?

Friday, August 24, 2007

An environmentalist raises the Red Frog issue!

This month's Bocas Breeze features a lead article about the disappearance of the red frogs. While not directly attacking the project itself for their demise, the author, an admitted enviromentalist, did make the assertion that man and nature can not live together.

"While at the time the cause of the declines was a mystery, we now know that many of these disappearances can be attributed to a fungal disease called chytridiomycosis, which has been spreading eastward across Panama from Costa Rica since the late 1980s. While the disease has been directly responsible for the rapid die-offs of many species, new scientific studies have shown that the disease preys more intensely on frogs that are already undergoing some form of environmental stress. For example, frogs in poor-quality habitat or highly fragmented areas show signs of stress long before the disease takes hold. And when these stressed-out frogs do become infected, they seldom recover," says the author.

Not to let her assertions go unchallenged, I responded with a letter to the editor and stated, "It seems like there is always some nature lover or environmentalist who sees humans apart from nature and not a part of it. I think you will find that the red frogs will be on Bastimentos long after most of us are gone… for one reason… Nature finds a way.

"Let me tell you a story about the water fowl we have in our area of Northern California. Environmentalists were so concerned about over development of this area that they feared the water birds would be wiped out. So in order to have man and nature co-exist peacefully, they set aside thousands of acres of wetlands as “open space” that could never be touched. What happened? These birds can often be seen feeding in the tall grass and shrubs alongside our highways and over passes. Perhaps they never got the memo which said we had preserved the wetlands for them!

"Near our house in Mill Valley there are coyotes running wild down the street along with deer, raccoons and the occasional silver fox. Of course, when our house was built, it was feared it would wipe out all the wildlife. Apparently not."

I alerted Scott Harris to the article to which he responded, "Our PR person in Bocas, Michelle Slough, will be writing a retraction but my initial response is this:

"Our whole property only accounts for 9% of the island and when done, our build out will only be on 3% of the island – not 8% as they falsely claim. Our principal build out so far has been on CATTLE FARMS where Red Frogs weren’t living anyway.

"Of course, there will still be some small areas affected, [but] they will be moved before any construction takes place. And next build out area is in the teak areas, not the jungle. In our EIS, we have been required to have many “thoroughfares” or passages for ALL the fauna.

"I wish this person would really do her research on the EIS provisions before making bad assumptions about our intentions and the project. And the study of Red Frogs was made by senior scientists over the course of several months. No telling how long or how scientific her study was or what her credentials really are besides being a frog lover. We are frog lovers too."

So are we. I guess we're just stressing them out!

Monday, August 20, 2007

More on the 30 day visa issue

I heard from Sam Taliaferro on Friday that September 3rd is the next time the 30 day visa issue will be on the table. Apparently he is working hard to get this law changed back. Here is what he said:

"I received a call this morning from a legislator who informed me that the 30 day visa issue will be on the agenda on September 3rd when they come back to session. He is head of the opposition party and is bringing it to the floor. We have the ruling party leader in the legislature stating they will not oppose returning it to the way it was. If they keep their word and we continue to apply pressure I believe we will achieve success." - Sam Taliaferro

Blades gets it wrong... again!

This guy is dangerous to the tourism industry in Panama. Recently he published an article called, "The real estate business is not tourism by Rubén Blades" which proves he does not understand the phenomenon going on in his country.

To boost tourism in Panama, they are going to need resorts for people to stay. And who is going to build these resorts? People like us who have invested in contruction projects. So, in essence, real estate business and tourism are tied together.

For this reason, it is imperative that we make our voices heard. If you are so inclined, please drop by http://www.visitpanama.com/eng/page.php?page=contact_us and leave a note.

Friday, August 17, 2007

Clarification on Downsizing Security at RFBC

For Your Information

I asked Scott about their property and our villa's having reduced or no security.

He responded: Our people on the ground determine the level of security needed at any given time and as the threat level from the labor union is all but gone, they have recently made a reduction in security force. Thanks… Scott Harris Executive Vice President

I followed up asking him to please amplify for better clarity having read lot 11's input.

He responded: Ron has already addressed his concerns with Ana regarding security. If he doesn’t trust our security people, he is more than welcomed to hire his own as he is paying nothing for it right now. You and the rest of our clients should recognize that we have always relied on the expertise of our security people and have really never had a security problem other than that first skirmish with Suntracs earlier this year. So there is no need to be alarmed as our security force has everything under control. No property has been destroyed and no one has had any personal harm come to them. We have never published any specific reports on security levels in the last four years and I don’t see that changing until the HOCA starts paying for some of it. Scott Harris Executive Vice President

I appreciate Scott answering my inquiry. And I hope his assessment "No property has been destroyed and no one has had any personal harm come to them." continues, for I doubt anybody would desire to rent a villa if such did happen.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Note to contributors

I need your help. Recently several people have placed posts and comments as users different than they are logging on with, thus making them "anonymous". While this is permitted by blogger, "lurking" is not in the spirit of this blog.

I am not trying to be heavy handed here, but in fairness to everyone, I am requesting that you use your ID to leave comments and posts. If not, they will be removed. And please keep them constructive. Snide comments, are not necessary nor welcome.

Should you be borrowing someone's account, please send an e-mail to micko@sfresidence.com and I will gladly add you to the user's list and send you an invititaion.

Thanks for your cooperation.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Construction questions answered

Julie at lot 29 was kind enough to send questions about construction issues. The responses from the construction team are below:

Q: I think in the last owners' conference call there was reference to new window company and new roofing company. Why is there a new window company?

A: Because we have found a new company that has the screens built in and because we believe they will be more responsive to our delivery and service needs.

Q: Is there anything wrong with the windows already installed on some of the villas?

A: No, they are a high quality insulated window with the exception of not being made to support a built in screen as well as some handle issues that have needed replacing. Again, the old vendor has not been very quick with the replacement parts.

Q: What if their villa is only in the framing stages - no roof or windows or drywall installed yet, but probably ordered?

A: If already ordered, the former window supplier will be used, if not ordered the new supplier. But all of Phase 2 and beyond (including all condos) will have the new windows.

Q: If there is a new roofing company, will ALL of the villas and condos get the benefit of the improvements to materials and installation methods?

A: The roofing material is still the same excellent product, we are just improving the company doing the installation, delivery and service. Everything is under warranty at this point and so all will be properly repaired.

Q: What about the coral stone upgrade that has currently been installed? We hear there is a tremendous problem with mold. The solution has been to spread bleach crystals periodically (weekly or every other week?) as a treatment to kill the mold by people who are already living there.

A: The mold problem with the Niwalla Yellow is being addressed and we are looking at an epoxy based grout sealant to fill the decking which will eliminate or minimize aggressive cleaning methods For now floors are being cleaned with bleach and depending on the weather they can stay clean between 1 1/2 - 2 months (according to RM) this all will be avoided once the sealant is applied.

Q: If the environmentalists get wind of this bleach treatment could this be a major problem? Will bleach run off into the coral rich coastline killing the coral?

A: Very unlikely from hundreds of meters away and natural cleaning of run off.

Q: Is there a chance that owners can replace their pool/patio material from coral stone?

A: If they want to do this instead of using the sealant, they can do it at a cost of the new material.

Q: Does RFB expect the HOA to be financially responsible for any of the 70% of the protected areas or only our directly adjacent common areas? I'm not sure how this works.

A: Each of the individual HOA’s will belong to a Master HOA and this issue has not been decided on yet.

Q: Is the HOA financially responsible for any potential future litigation for claims of title by outside parties against our common areas whether they be "rights of possession" or "titled" land?

A: No. (My understanding is that this is what the title insurance is for.)

Friday, August 10, 2007

Good news update on rights of possession

Got a note from Scott Harris this morning regarding the rights of possession question I put to him yesterday. What he said was very encouraging:
===================================
I actually had a long conference call with both Paul and Sam yesterday as well and they did tell me that they had spoken to you. Yes, we are joining with them and we will be part of their steering committee.

They asked some questions to me about our ROP and they really weren’t up to speed on the Law 2 that passed in Jan. 2006. But the bottom line is that we have ALWAYS been well aware and talked very openly that banks will not lend on ROP property. That is why we clearly understand that we need to get the property titled BEFORE we complete any units in the ROP sections, Phase 2-3 mostly.

You may or may not know but we were working with Pardini and Associates on this action and we contributed to the lobbying for this bill to pass – to allow island property to be titled. The other developers in the Pearl Islands also lobbied for this as well. But if you remember, President Torrijos even came to Bocas to officially sign the bill as a show of support for Bocas. For the last year or so, this was the chief inititive we required of Pardini, to get the other roughly 20% our lands titled (the rest already are).

After very little action, we finally have taken this back... and given this job to some other attorneys, and they submitted our package in the middle of May. There has been some progress made but not much in the last couple of months. But our people are constantly there hounding them.

So our plan right now, is to not build any units on ROP until we are sure that we will get them titled in time. Our newest attorneys thought they could get it done this year and we hope that it happens. We are not quite ready to build in Phase 2 or 3 anyway so this hasn’t hurt us yet. We are optimistic that we will get our lands titled as this has already been done in the Pearl Islands since this bill has been passed.
===================================
That sounds very positive to me, especially that there is a precedent with the Pearl Islands.

Mick @ Lot 83

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Contacting the government about the 20 year tax exemption

In an effort to head off the disasterous (to investors and the country of Panama) end of the 20 year tax exemption, I contacted Sam Taliaferro about it and asked to whom in the government we might plead our case.

He suggested e-mailing the vice minister of international trade, Carmen Gesela Vergara, who is sympathetic to our cause and understands it. She may be e-mailed at cgvergara@mici.gob.pa.

Mick @ Lot 83
===================================
Updated 8/9/07

My letter to Ms. Vergara:

Dear Vice Minister,

I am writing as an investor in the Red Frog Beach Club development on Bastimentos and want you to know that I support your efforts to change the government’s course regarding the end of the 20 year tax exemption. To those of us who chose to invest in Panama so as to eventually retire there, this is a huge issue and could affect many of us financially should the tax go back into effect. It could also affect other people’s decision to buy property in Panama at all.

As a student of economics, what many governments fail to realize (US is probably the worst with its onerous taxation) is that the harm which comes by taxation, meant to do good, is not seen for several years. By the time it is seen, it is too late to reverse. The favorable tax laws have a profound impact on the sudden growth and popularity of Panama. To make that go away at the end of the year will hurt the economy more than I can describe, maybe not immediately, but in the long term.

Please stress to your peers that by continuing the exemption, it will attract investors to Panama who will dump loads of money into the economy by way of purchasing homes, boats, cars, etc. which will result in higher standards of living in areas such as Bocas.

I am pleading with you to make our case, and I hope to be able to meet you one day as we sit on the beach at Red Frog. Thank you for your time.

===================================

Her reply:

Thanks so much for your mail. The Government of Panama is reviewing all of its policies to better attract foreign direct investment.

I am sure that with the help and encouragement of investors such as yourself, we will realize our goal to make Panama a preferred destination for tourist and for retirees alike.

When you come to Panama, please let me know, as I will be very happy to meet you personally and share with you some of our plans for the economic development of our country.

Best regards,

Carmen Gisela Vergara
Viceministra de Comercio Exterior
Ministerio de Comercio e Industrias
Tel: 560-0655 / 560-0656 (fax)
e-mail: cgvergara@mici.gob.pa
web: www.mici.gob.pa

Truth in advertising

Just noticed a new addition to the RF web site: "All the words, graphics, and numbers herein are for purposes of illustration only. Developer is describing its current intentions and not promising that any of the properties or amenities listed will be built"

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Getting financing in Panama

Sam's latest edition of Industry News has an article about securing a mortgage for an offshore home. In it is a link to an article in the Wall Street Journal's Real Estate Journal about this topic.

The short version is to either buy in a development that offers owner financing, or pay cash. Wish we'd known that when we got started. However, the link to IMI Group looks like they could work for owners who want to finance. I will check into it and report back.

Mick @ Lot 83

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Conference call with Paul McBride, CEO of Prima Panama, SA

The converstation with Paul lasted over an hour. He was very gracious with his time, considering he just got back to California from Panama and will only be here a week. So I thank him for that.

The first 15 minutes was spent with him giving us a run down (Janis was in on the conference call with me) of his accomplishments as a developer in Panama, establishing his credentials. Then he described some fo the problems that they have run into while doing their project; problems which foreign investors also had to deal with when doing business in the country.

Since he made it clear he really has no first hand knowledge of the day to day operations at the Red Frog project, we kept the discussion at a very high level. Though he did hint that he may be becoming more involved in some of our issues. To help solve them would be for the good of the Panama economy as well as for other developers. For this reason, I was not able to get answers to specific questions about material choices or other questions or complaints specific to the Red Frog Beach development.

However, what I did get was a promise that he would go back to Joe and discuss with him ways to go about giving the owners more information than we have been getting. He agreed that the Red Frog policy of not sharing openly about what's going on with the project only lets peoples' imaginations run wild.

As you may know, he and Sam Taliaferro (developers of Valle Escondido) have formed a lobbying group of foreign developers (of which Red Frog is one) who are all dealing with the same sorts of issues; everything from government (or sometimes lack of it), the courts, the unions and so on.

One of the things we asked was, what can we, as owners do to help get the government on track and he suggested we could contact our senators and congresspeople and get them to pass the Panama Free Trade Act. The state department had this article on file from 2005 so it makes ne wonder why it has not passed yet. Guess who's going to e-mail his representatives tonight about this?

He touched on the SUNTRACS problems and what the unions are trying to do basically is have the developers pay them so they can get their 2% off the top before they pay the union members (Sound like the IRS?). Of course, the union workers are completely against this, but it's the union that is holding up the process to get this concession (or so I'm told), even in some development projects where the workers have not even voted a union in! Isla Viveros is one of those developments.

As for the question of developer liability, it is different in Panama and limited to one year... however, as Paul said, no developer wants a project as big as Red Frog to start falling apart before they finish building the last of the units. And as we know, the developers don't make their money back until the end of the project anyway, so it is in their best interests to keep everyone happy and produce a quality product.

We asked about financing options and he said he would check with Joe and get back to us. I would suggest if you are in the situation where you need some financing now, you might check with Sam@PrimaPanama.com. He has been very responsive to my questions. I tried to ask my realtor contact in Bocas about tinancing, but he is out of the country for a family medical emergency.

Another topic that came up was the rights of possession land, and Paul said he thought that land without title could not be financed. For that reason we are extremely concerned since our beach front lot is rights of possession which we were told would eventually become titled land. (Perhaps the lawsuit concerning the Pelican Bay-Cayman Beach area will have some effect on that issue.) But as it stands now, we were expecting to finance a portion of our villa purchase. As the time draws closer to the beginning of construction, this will be a big problem that will need to be fixed.

By the time we got to this last topic we had talked for a little over an hour and didn't want to monopolize any more of Paul's time, so we signed off and promised to keep in touch. Sorry I couldn't get to more of the specifics about how Valle Escondido handles their business end and it didn't seem appropriate for the high level of the conversation. However, you might shoot an e-mail to PanamaTravel@mindspring.com and see if he can answer the questions for you.

Mick @ Lot 83

Monday, August 6, 2007

Topic: Red Frog Rentals - Updated 8/9/07!

Updated 8/9/07

Anna responded to my request to clarify: "To answer your questions. The exploration tours is now a 1 night stay here at Red Frog and we have it once a month so it is only a minimal of the rentals that we are currently getting. The commission for the resort management is %30."

Previous response:
===================================
Hello Mick, I hope you are doing well.

As you know it is very hard to give you any accurate numbers since the rental program started 1 month before the strike started so we have been affected by it.

We are preparing a strong marketing strategy which we will launch as soon as we have more villas and amenities. In the meanwhile we have a lot of returning owners, exploration tour clients, a lot of prospect buyers that want to experience Red Frog before buying and also some people that find us through the website.

In average you can put in your blog that the villas are renting an average of 8 days a month( at a daily rate of $380) but again, remember that this number are greatly influenced by our current situation…

We have steady reservations throughout the rest of the year and already many of them for Christmas and New Year.

Well, I hope this information helps you but for any additional questions please let me know.
===================================
Does anyone know owners who are in the rental program and how much the Resort is taking? I forgot to ask. Thanks.

Mick @ Lot 83

New Topic

...continued by request from "More on the Construction Issues"

We know from this and prior blogs, which lots are closed unfinished and rentable. We also know that Lots 19, 48 and 65 have been rented in the past. There would not seem to be a case for you friend in this scenario? Can you add his number? There have been no tour groups using the Red Frog Boat to the island for a couple of months.

04 Red Frog Sales Office
48 Complete and Rentable
11 Not Rentable
12 Not Rentable
65 Complete and Rentable
34 Unfinished
27 Red Frog Property Management
19 Complete and Rentable
26 Unfinished
30 Unfinished
33 Unfinished

20 year tax & SUNTRACS update

http://primapanama.blogs.com/_panama_residential_devel/2007/07/good-bye-to-the.html

http://primapanama.blogs.com/_panama_residential_devel/2007/07/isla-viveros-un.html

Red Frog Bloggers, I need your help!

In anticipation of my conference call tomorrow with Paul McBride, CEO of Prima Panama, I would like your help to put together a list of questions pertaining to the Red Frog Beach development. I will do what I can to address your questions and concerns. First on my list are:
  • The strike - what caused it and when do they expect it will be resolved?
  • Is there is any knowledge of financial difficulties with Pillar Panama?
  • Are the choices of building materials used in the construction of villas (and eventually condos) appropriate?
  • Should the quality of work (or lack of it) be a concern or will that get fixed?
  • Is there a 10 year developer liability in Panama like there is in the US?
  • Ask about tourist visa issues
  • Ask about property tax exemptions

E-mail micko@sfresidence.com (or post here) any questions which are different than those I have on my list. I will do my best to get them asnwered.

Mick @ Lot 83

Sunday, August 5, 2007

Bocas del Toro makes the news July 19, 2007

And it's not good news, either, as it relates to the effect on the Bocas economy by the shut down of our Red Frog project. Here is the link from Panama Investor Blog.

Mick @ Lot 83

More on the construction issues

I was encouraged by Solarte12 to contact some local builders and find out the real story about the problems at Red Frog. So I e-mailed two of the developers and got a nice note back from one of them, Sam Taliaferro whose project is www.valleescondido.biz. Here's what I wrote:
===================================
Sam,

I am an investor in the Red Frog Beach Club project on Bastimentos and was sent to you to get your opinion on the progress (or lack of it) of the project.

I would appreciate any insight you might give about what’s going on over there. Thanks in advance.
===================================
His reply is as follows:
===================================
HI Mick,

I have not been over to the project in a few months, but I am fully aware of some of the challenges they have faced. I have also been in touch with the developer and some of the people who are currently in Bocas and on the property itself.

I believe the issues they have been dealing with will be resolved in the next few months and they will be back on track. They have joined our group of foreign developers and we are earnestly lobbying the government on their behalf. I don’t believe there has been any intentional misdealing by those involved with the organization. They are dealing in a difficult area to do a project to say the least. Give them a few months and things should turn around.

Do you subscribe to my weblog? http://primapanama.blogs.com/
===================================
I do now.

Mick @ Lot 83

Changes to the blog

I added a new e-mail account for myself so that we can implement something new. You will need to identify yourself and your property location somewhere in your user name.

Most of you already have, but I was using our SFResidence account to post, which I will no longer do. So from here on out I can be identified as Mick @ Lot 83 and I encourage the rest of you to do the same. If you are in a condo, please specify your unit number (for example, 206 West).

Thanks for your cooperation.

Mick

Friday, August 3, 2007

Letter to the Red Frog Construction Team

Folks,

There has been a lot of discussion about the contruction materials that are being used at the Red Frog site, so I thought I would go to the source and see if I can get some clarification. Here is the letter I wrote to Scott this morning.

Please note that another site offering luxury villas found by another one of our owners does not list construction materials either. I believe this is intentional as, "your results may vary!" Their site may be seen here.
===================================
Scott,

Is there a place on the Red Frog website that has a list of materials that are being used in the construction? If not, I think it would be helpful for owners and prospective buyers to know what kinds of products are being chosen to build the villas. Of course, I would expect to see a disclaimer saying that “materials may vary due to price and availability”, especially with some of the challenges you have with building on an island in Panama. And I expect there might be some sort of statement saying the Red Frog team would make substitutions with equal or better quality choices. What do you think of this idea?

One of the two biggest questions has been what material is being used on the underside of the eaves where the Densglass walls meet the overhang? In the construction photos it looks like different material. The other question is about the brand of roof we are getting. Can you clarify what roofing material is being used? A list of materials would be helpful so that these types of questions could be easily answered. Thanks in advance.

Sincerely,

Mick Orton
===================================
Bloggers are up and about today! It's still early here in California. As I look out over Mill Valley, I see the fog is heavy in San Francisco. On the whole, I'd rather be in Panama!


Mick @ Lot 83

Updated 8/5/07

Scott responded to my e-mail yesterday, but it was hardly a satisfactory answer. Basically he pointed me to the following pages on the website:

Villas - http://www.redfrogbeach.com/villaspec.html
Condos - http://www.redfrogbeach.com/condospec.html

These are hardly informational! He further explained, "More specifics are in each contract..." but I have no list of building materials in my villa contract. Does anyone else?

To his credit, he said he would pass along my question to the team and would get back to me. More to come.

Mick @ Lot 83

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Building materials used for Red Frog construction

In a previous post about the finished units at Red Frog, the discussion turned to drywall materials and whether or not it was appropriate to use drywall in a tropical climate. Here's the quote from Tasboy's earlier post on the blog:

"...Along the theme of construction, I pointed out to Scott Harris, that after viewing photo's of our villa dated from Feb.07, that drywall material was defective on over hang areas of our Tortuga model. I have checked with several builders here in the US, and drywall is not a product that should be installed in a humid/wet climate, such as RFB..."

On this topic I posed the question to Scott in an e-mail on August 1 about the drywall material. My concern was if the above statement is true, were they any plans to change the choice of material when construction resumed? Here is a portion of his reply:

"...have been using Densglass Gold which is a super high quality mold resistant drywall..."

After the exchange I went to the Internet to find more information about this material and found it was made by Georgia-Pacific. So I shot off the following e-mail:

"I have a project we are considering building in Panama. It is an island locale, and someone suggested we use Densglass Gold drywall under the stucco. Does that sound like a reasonable plan? Thanks in advance. - Mick Orton"

To which I received the following reply:

"Yes for the exterior wall application (see attached brochure). For the interior surfaces I would suggest the use of Denser Plus Paperless Drywall (see attached brochure & product bulletins)."

Here are the 4 document attachments, Technical Product Guide, 2007 DAP Sweets, DAP Finishing Tips and AT Multi-purpose Primer, all very interesting reading... if you want to take a nap!

Bottom line is, I can see no reason why they would not tell me the truth. If another product would have been better for this purpose, I think they would have offered it. Questions?

Mick @ Lot 83