Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Who is working on your project?
Saturday, July 17th, 2010
Sometimes consumers will walk into a retail store such as Home Depot and order up a bunch of flooring and labor and assume everything is good to go. The biggest thing people are missing is that ALL of the labor that retailers use is entirely subcontracted from that point onward. This is where most communication breakdowns happen particularly regarding a site finished wood floor. Let’s look at why.
Most retailers have only ever sold flooring. I have rarely encountered a retailer where the sales staff has ever sanded a significant number of floors. They rely on the people to whom they are subcontracting the labor to maintain a high standard. Any problems that arise with the floor at that point are being handled by the subcontractor and not the retailer. It’s like passing the buck and it puts relations at a tricky point.
The best way to purchase a site-finished hardwood floor is to hire a reputable wood flooring professional. Go to the National Wood Flooring Association website and evaluate from there who fits your needs. All wood flooring contractors who specialize in site finished wood floors have access to wholesale distribution showrooms with equal or greater selection than most retailers. In fact, a lot of retailers purchase products from the same wholesale distributors as the contractor. The contractor can handle all materials and labor and reduce or eliminate any mis-communication liabilities if they are more closely involved in the process from the beginning.
Tags: hardwood choices for the wise consumer, hardwood floor contractor, portland oregon hardwood contractor
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Finish technology, the great unknown
Thursday, June 10th, 2010
I was at my distributor today and overheard something amazing. A company owner who has been in business many years was asking for some product. Here’s how it goes,
Owner, “I want the lightest colored finish you can use on maple.”
Dist rep, “You need BonaSeal for the lightest look.”
Owner, “Can I put Glitsa Infinity on top?”
Dist rep, “Sure”
Owner, “I just want whatever is cheapest for this job.”
If these are the questions of a “veteran” and the operating principles, then it’s no wonder homeowners are lost when comparing estimates. Would this make you confident to know it was your floor?
Homeowners, here is the way to solve things. Look the contractor in the eye and say the following question, “If this were your house and you could use any product to make your floors most durable, then what finish would you use and why?”
I would love e-mails about any stories.
Tags: floor finish durability, Hardwood floor durability, hardwood refinishing, portland oregon hardwood contractor, waterborne finish
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Craigslist, it’s not just for used goods anymore
Sunday, May 16th, 2010
Craigslist is a well used internet site and is definitely a great way to get rid of used furniture and old scrap metal. The odd thing to me is that people will actually go there and choose a contractor to work in their house and do a project. Craigslist doesn’t do a really great job of policing the users and their integrity. Besides being a haven for scammers, and shady contractors, it now is a resource for murderers as you can read here. With all that said why would anyone trust a Craigslist contractor to complete a quality project? It’s a big risk. Don’t believe me, then let’s just look:
This ad says “All floors installed fast and fair!”. Craigslist finally required all contractors to list a license number recently. When you look into this guy’s ad you will see he is unlicensed. Why does that matter? Let’s say that you decide it’s time to save $200 bucks and hire this guy. Day one he starts and walks into your house and starts sanding the floors. Day three comes along and he has just finished sanding and staining your floors. You have to leave the house because you can’t be there and walk on the floor. He decides to leave his sanding dust and used stain rags in a trashbag in your two car garage. You left for the night and your house is secured and Mercedes is parked away safely in the second bay. While in your hotel room you get a phone call at 2am and your neighbor is explaining how your roof and house are up in flames. Think I’m joking, then just read this. A few days go by and after it’s all said and done you realized that you will have to foot the bill to rebuild your house. Why? you find out that this guy is unlicensed and has no insurance to rebuild your house. You find out your policy doesn’t cover unlicensed contractors working in your home. In the end the $200 savings costs you $250,000 or more because of a lapse in judgment.
Consumers please consider the following thought:
Don’t ask what something costs before considering what it is worth from all angles.
Tags: hardwood floor contractor, hardwood floor professional, hardwood refinishing, portland oregon hardwood contractor
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The importance of a team
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010
About a week ago our company was really buried with one project in particular. We had a goal of completing the project for the general contractor by a certain date. By about 2 o’clock that day it was apparent we were a little off schedule. Another project was also at a critical time for completion. I could sense some frustration on one of my employees regarding the progress.
I had planned to be away from the project the remainder of the day for estimating. I made a decision at that point in time to put my work clothes back on and pitch in a hand. Once I arrived and everyone rallied together the mood really picked up steam. It became apparent that we would meet our goal. We all laughed and worked diligently until 7:30pm.
While this may seem like an irrelevant blog to the field of hardwood floors in general, it is a window of insight to the inner workings of our company. I have the greatest employees who always rally and pull through for me. There is real unity in our company and is the keel that guides our craftsmanship.
Tags: hardwood floor contractor, hardwood floor professional, portland oregon hardwood contractor
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Great remodelers are a gold mine
Friday, February 26th, 2010
It may seem as an unlikely source for an opinion, but specialty trade contractors are a likely source to refer some of the best general contractors. Modern Tech Floors is a specialty trade contractor and we have worked with a number of general contractors around Portland. Over the years I have noticed that the following shared traits define the best remodelers:
1) Humble attitude about experience. They won’t tell you how much experience they have or how great they are. However when you ask them very detailed questions about a project they will have an answer or agree to finding an answer for you.
2) They encourage VERY thorough communication between homeowners and all parties to conduct the work. This avoids any chance of failed expectations, which I have seen waste thousands of dollars and countless hours for all parties on a project.
3) They listen intently and allow everyone to speak in turn, as opposed to the general contractor whose phone is about to explode with phone calls and is answering the call while you are talking to them. That is a huge sign of disrespect in my opinion.
4) They have a genuine love of people and that is what drives their process and how they work to help the customer get value out of a project. They will inform customers where to invest money in a project based on experience so that they are yielded a project with great longevity.
5) They are diligent about paying all parties quickly. This is something so HUGE I cannot explain enough. We will perform much more responsively for a quick paying contractor. We generally avoid working for slow pay contractors because it is just an indicator of other potential problems in their business.
6) They have a team of specialty trade contractors (or “subs” even though I hate that word) who know each other and work like a well oiled machine. A remodeler that has a long time crew of the same subs really doesn’t even need to be at the job too much because the subs should almost be able to run the project amongst themselves.
If you would like a referral for a qualified general contractor in Portland, Oregon please feel free to call. We have a large list for enthusiatic referrals and will help make a good match to your needs.
Tags: portland oregon remodelers
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Treat your floors well this holiday season
Monday, December 21st, 2009
This year with all of the spills of goodies, drinks, and food please avoid the tendency to damp mop your entire floor. The best way to clean your floor is to use a dry tack mop like the one offered at www.glitsa.com. This will get up all of the dust, pet hair, and dirt. Occasionally (once per week) a light spritzing with neutral pH hardwood specific cleaner will retain the original luster.
Please avoid vinegar and water to clean your floor. It may seem to work well, but over time the acidity of the vinegar will attack your floor finish.
Also avoid heavy residue cleaners like Swiffer wetjet, Murphy’s oil soap, and Pine Sol. The residue will gradually dull the shine of your floor and make refinishing very difficult. Also avoid cleaners like Mop-n-Glo because they contain trace amounts of silicone, which make recoating your floor (cheaper process) not possible because it ruins the chance for adhesion of a new layer of finish.
Tags: wood floor maintenance
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Loyalty versus price
Thursday, November 19th, 2009
I have been having a lot of discussions with my contractor friends lately about the status of the remodeling market. What I have been experiencing and continually hearing about is that even contractors with great relationships with longstanding clients are being “bid against” by two or more other contractors. It is hard to speculate why, but I have a few opinions I would like to offer up to the consumers.
If you are bidding contractors against one another you are certainly only going to eliminate the opportunity to work with the best in the business. The reason that the best contractors have been in the business for a long time is that they understand the costs and time necessary to do a job properly.
Because the best contractors have strong ethics, they will not cut corners or provide mediocre product on a job. If you combine this with the fact that the operating costs of a business rarely decrease significantly, then it is irrational to think that this is the time to seek a bargain in the contracting world. Despite what you are hearing from the news and print media, experienced contracting professionals are not willing to reduce their price to match the cost of an inexperienced low quality contractor.
Another observation I can tell you I see all the time is that a low quality job does NOT show it’s ugly head until months and even years after the job is done. Once the check is written to the low priced guy, the odds are he won’t even be in business when you need your repair done. Remember the guy who you trusted and USED to use for your work? People have a memory of disloyalty and when the economic conditions return, as they already are beginning to do, you may be surprised that your best asset disappeared. So when your floor squeaks, your roof leaks, and your toilet overflows you may find your best guy doesn’t have the time for you because his loyalty isn’t there any more.
Finally I would like to point out as a member of the Oregon Remodelers Association that I do not know of a single contractor who strikes me as REALLY WEALTHY regarding money and material items. They may live a comfortable existence, but our trades are filled with simply great honest people who would rather work for a living and deliver quality service to good people. Wealth is measured in so many ways beyond money and the wealth of a quality contractor is his client relationships. So please consider that bargain hunting only hurts consumers, not quality experienced contractors with integrity.
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Taking one for the team
Thursday, October 8th, 2009
I was working on a remodel recently and wanted to make light of how stuff happens. This remodel was very tedious and managed more along the lines of extreme home makeover on ABC. At about 7:30pm the night before finishing I was walking around the kitchen doing some quality control observations and walked into a shelf. The shelf was 1/4″ plate steel with a rather sharp corner and it blended quite well with the color of the grout/mortar for the brick wall into which the shelf was integrated. The worst part was that I dropped a can of finish on the already finished floor and had to wipe the excess finish up with one hand and apply pressure to the injury with my other free hand. It was quite a memorable moment. Eight stitches later and all is well again.
Sometimes you have to take one for the team. Either way, I still love my career and consider it a reality check for how we all could slow down occasionally.
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Happy Contractors make great projects
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009
I was having a discussion recently with two colleagues I really like, Blair Edmiston and Kent Huffstutter. These two friends of mine have really great energy and enthusiasm for their respective professions and I believe it has a lot to do with their attitudes towards life, which Blair talks about here. One of the amazing virtues of a challenging economy for me has been that it flushes out the true optimistic John F Kennedy types. They’re the people who say, “I am going to become this…” and start to work progressively towards that goal. They learn to open up to new techniques and tips that make their businesses and lives more efficient and consistently implement those things that work.
The great benefit I often observe of the contractors who refuse to participate in the negative hooplah is that serendipitously they actually end up raising their level of service because the extra positive boost that is needed to keep on track. The contractors who have an upbeat attitude are the guys who do the little extras after the job is done and send “Thank You” notes as appreciation. They are the guys who sweep AND vacuum the job because they want to leave a product and service with great value. They’re the guys who show up on time and add back value to their customer’s life by sharing a positive idea instead of grabbing the check and EXPECTING the next referral.
The emotional impact we all have on each other in the world of consumer/contractor has a lot more worth than just a bottom dollar in my opinion. Is it worth to harbor resentment over a final product just to save a few dollars? Sometimes the emotional bank account gets so drained for both parties that I consider it professional blasphemy when the lowest price becomes the number one point of value added service. So everyone cheer up, hire the contractors with a smile on their face and a deep list of happy clients for referrals. You’ll be glad you did and you’ll never look back.
Tags: portland oregon hardwood contractor, portland oregon remodelers
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To salvage or not to salvage that is the question!
Sunday, May 31st, 2009
One of the latest rages in hardwood flooring materials is to use salvaged flooring materials. As you know we are all fans of the motto “reduce, reuse, recycle”. The word reuse is in play with salvaged materials and there are some things to consider when you reuse material that was already an existing floor.
Most hardwood floors have approximately 6-10 sandings available depending on the type of material and the aggressiveness of the sanding. Less dense hardwood floors such as old growth fir may be closer to six available sandings whereas a more dense material such as Brazilian cherry may be able to be sanded up to 10 times.
Keep in mind that every wood floor is connected to a subfloor, which is connected to the foundation of a home. While homes settle and shift over the years the hardwood floor follows suit. After a few sandings and a number of years your wood floors may be sanded to a thinner dimension in a hallway than in a bedroom, etc…
The salvaging process that we speak of is the removal and reassembly of an existing wood floor into a new area or home. When you remove and reassemble a floor that has been sanded multiple times, the true variances that are exascerbated by the settling process will be even greater. In reality when you reassemble a salvaged wood floor, there is an extreme amount of what we refer to as “over/under wood”. This greater amount of variance requires a greater amount of sanding in order to achieve a flat wood floor.
So what does all of this mean? If you install a salvaged wood floor in your home the consequences are good for the environment and possibly bad because you will need to pay more for the floor to be sanded because there is more effort to remove the necessary material to achieve a flat floor. A second consequence of the additional sanding efforts is that your floor will be closer to the end of its lifespan. This is especially important because with all of the interest in people requesting salvaged wood floors these days, after sanding I am seeing floors that literally have no more sandings available because there is virtually a paper thin wear layer remaining.
It is most important for me as an ethical wood flooring professional to advise you that salvaged wood floors have a lesser value for the life cycle of your project because of the greater reduction in wear layer. If you choose to use salvaged flooring, then I have two suggestions. The first suggestion is to either remill the flooring material or have flooring milled from dimensional lumber. The other suggestion is that if you choose to reuse salvaged flooring material without doing a remilling that you adhere to a very strict maintenance schedule of recoating the finish on your floor. This will greatly prolong the life of the wear layer of your floor and add more value to your efforts.
Tags: domestic hardwood floor, Hardwood floor durability, hardwood refinishing, Portland hardwood floor, salvaged hardwood portland, sustainable hardwood, wood floor sanding
Posted in Hardwood floor Portland, Portland fir floor, Uncategorized, hardwood floor, sustainability | 2 Comments »