On the waterfront in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, a company is quietly building a national reputation for one of the most demanding polyurea applications in the industry: marine and offshore infrastructure. Atlantic Protective Coatings, founded by third-generation marine trades professional Dana MacIsaac, has spent seven years developing the technical protocols and client relationships that now position it as Atlantic Canada’s go-to polyurea specialist for saltwater environments.
The Marine Challenge
“Salt water is the ultimate test for any coating system,” Dana says. “Constant moisture, chloride ion penetration, tidal zone cycling between wet and dry — most coating systems fail within a few years. We’ve had polyurea applications in the tidal zone for six years now with zero adhesion failures. That’s what builds a reputation.”
Marine applications bring unique challenges beyond chemistry. Boat hulls, dock structures, and offshore platforms require working in confined spaces, at height, and in unpredictable weather. Spray equipment must be maintained impeccably because a gun failure on a marine project often means lost tidal windows and day-rate delays on expensive vessels.
The equipment maintenance discipline Dana’s team has developed mirrors the best practices discussed at recent CPCA technical events. The BC Chapter’s spray equipment maintenance seminar covers principles that Dana’s team implements daily — ratio verification before every spray session, daily gun inspection, and scheduled proportioner maintenance regardless of hours in service.
From Marine to Infrastructure
Atlantic Protective Coatings’ marine expertise has translated naturally to infrastructure work. The same corrosion challenges in saltwater environments appear in Atlantic Canada’s infrastructure — bridges, wharves, water intake structures, and tidal flood control infrastructure all face the same aggressive conditions that polyurea handles so effectively.
With climate change bringing more intense Atlantic storms and sea level rise creating new tidal flooding pressures, the role of polyurea in flood control infrastructure is an increasingly important conversation. Dana’s company has been part of several provincial flood mitigation projects that have put polyurea in front of infrastructure engineers who previously specified different solutions.
CPCA Membership as Business Development
Dana joined CPCA in 2020 and credits the association with substantially accelerating her company’s technical development and industry credibility. “Before CPCA, I was figuring things out by trial and error, which is expensive. After joining, I had access to twenty years of collective industry knowledge. The Technical Guides, the member network, the training — I compressed years of learning into months.”
The surface preparation standards and expert Q&A resources available through CPCA were particularly valuable, Dana says. “These aren’t generic resources. They’re written by Canadian applicators working in Canadian conditions. That context matters enormously.”
Growing the Atlantic Canada Market
One of Dana’s goals is growing polyurea awareness and adoption in Atlantic Canada’s industrial and infrastructure sectors. The region’s economy has historically leaned on traditional coating systems, and changing specification habits requires education at the engineering and ownership level.
“I spend a lot of time presenting to engineering firms, not just bidding their projects,” she explains. “When an engineer understands the lifecycle value of polyurea for concrete rehabilitation versus conventional options, the specification conversation changes completely.”
Atlantic Protective Coatings has begun hosting informal lunch-and-learn sessions for Atlantic Canadian engineering firms — a grassroots market development effort that other CPCA members in underserved regional markets might consider replicating.
Atlantic Protective Coatings is a CPCA Certified Applicator and Member in Good Standing. Connect with Dana’s company through the Member Directory or find a specialist near you using the Find an Applicator tool.