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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Customers are the best judge
Sunday, March 21st, 2010
We often get asked about dustless sanding by many customers. We are known for using this technology and use it on jobs as much as possible. The system really does work amazingly and I can “pitch” that all day. It is much better when the observation comes from someone other than me because third party objective review is the strongest voice. We have reviews on the web at sites like Yelp. What’s even better is when you have a client send a small note in an invoice without us asking for a review. Here is a scan of the small Post-It note that we got from our client Shawn in a payment recently. It makes our day to know we are doing our job and people really feel value to our service!
Tags: dustless refinishing, hardwood refinishing
Posted in Dustless Hardwood Refinishing, Hardwood floor Portland, Hardwood floor refinish, floor refinishing portland oregon, portland floor | No Comments »
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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Local radio exposure for our knowledge
Sunday, February 7th, 2010
We recently wrote a response to a listener of local handyman show by Handyman Bob. We were honored when he shared it with his audience. It’s good to see great people still championing the cause of quality contracting.
Tags: floor finish durability, Handyman Bob, hardwood refinishing
Posted in Dustless Hardwood Refinishing, Hardwood floor refinish, hardwood floor, hardwood floor finish | 2 Comments »
The new face of low-VOC
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
Waterborne finishes run the gamut for durability. At our home we have two of the world’s greatest floor finish durability testers, boys ages 2 and 4 and a half. They lay credit to the fact that waterborne finish can be durable.
In the change of the market towards waterborne finish, California has set the standard at 275g/L VOC maximum. In response, on of our favorite finishes (Dura Seal X-terra) has recently been re-formulated to be in compliance. In addition to being a very durable waterborne, this finish performs flawlessly on the job. We love the look and workability of this finish. 
Tags: dustless refinishing, floor finish durability, waterborne finish, wood floor sanding
Posted in Hardwood floor refinish, floor refinishing portland oregon, hardwood floor finish | No Comments »
Beware of the boutique
Saturday, January 30th, 2010
Recently our shop was approached by a “boutique” wholesaler to subcontract installations and sanding. It sounded like an interesting way to grow our business possibly. I had my reservations based on conversations with other remodeling colleagues who previously used this group. Specifically I was concerned that they were unwilling to pay a fair market rate for top notch contracting because of the types of installers they typically use. A brief conversation with the outfit quickly verified that my intuition was correct. The rates that they were willing to pay to installers were about 60% of the going rate for the best full service hardwood flooring contractors in town.
Normally I don’t want to discuss price, but it is valid in this case. I know that quality service requires time and very careful effort. The mathematics of a service business require that to lower price you must lower service unless material costs are lowered.
What I urge consumers to do and always will is to specifically work with reputable small retailers with great experience. Flashy “high-end” boutique retailers pay considerable overhead in rent for facilities and staffing. To stay competitive they must create downward pricing pressure on subcontracted labor, which invariably results in mediocre work.
In these days of the internet research I advise consumers to really investigate service providing retailers before making an “impulse” buy with your hardwood floor. Stay informed with resources such as the NWFA.
Tags: hardwood choices for the wise consumer
Posted in hardwood floor choices, portland hardwood professional | 1 Comment »
Staying on top of technology
Friday, January 29th, 2010
I am pleased to announce that we will be adding a new piece of equipment to our lineup this week. It is the new Clarke SE7 Pro edger.
Given that most dust generated during sanding comes from the edger, we are pleased to switch to this new machine. The dust collection is state of the art and greatly superior to most edgers. Dust collection systems generally are unable to capture the dust from gear driven edgers like the Clarke Super 7. The new SE7 Pro edger is belt driven and extremely clean.
For more, click here
Tags: hardwood refinishing, New hardwood edger, wood floor sanding
Posted in Dustless Hardwood Refinishing, Hardwood floor Portland, Hardwood floor refinish, hardwood floor finish | No Comments »
Restoring a botched sanding job
Sunday, January 24th, 2010
The other day we received a phone call from a distraught homeowner. She had unfortunately hired a “fly-by-night” contractor for a job. Originally when he was hired he was there to install tile, but assured the homeowners he could also refinish the wood floors. Because of the unethical nature of this person, I am willing to release that his company was called “A Touch of Class”, or at least that was the name under which he was operating. After checking his license I determined that was an inactive license with several judgments and orders to pay damage fees.
During this first portion we sanded the floor at a slight angle to remove the drum marks from the original sanding process. Here are the results after the first round of sanding.
Afterwards, we filled the floor to remove gaps and the process is shown here.
To illustrate the dust collection process we have a video clip of the process as seen here.
Final finish sanding is done using a Lagler Trio.
After all sanding was completed, we dampened the floor to prepare for staining. The floor was stained as a mixture of Coffee Brown and Golden Brown. Afterwards, two finish coats of a traditional Glitsa Swedish finish system.
Tags: dustless refinishing, hardwood refinishing, Swedish finish, wood floor sanding
Posted in Dustless Hardwood Refinishing, Hardwood floor Portland, Hardwood floor refinish, floor refinishing portland oregon, hardwood floor finish | 3 Comments »
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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