Posts Tagged ‘hardwood floor contractor’

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.

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Posted in Hardwood floor Portland, Uncategorized, hardwood floor, portland hardwood professional | No Comments »

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.

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Posted in Hardwood floor refinish, Uncategorized, hardwood floor | No Comments »

Lowest price=Lowest Common Denominator

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

I had a thesis advisor who did a lot to help me avoid one of the common pitfalls that happens to people. He always referred to it as the “lowest common denominator” as a suggestion that people would rather be a minimalist in their ways than really try to achieve the most that they could in every endeavor.

The problem  that consumers don’t realize is that all contractors pay roughly the same cost for materials, unless they are stealing material, which I doubt. Therefore, to have a lower cost the contractor must have a lower labor cost.

To have a lower labor cost either jobs must happen faster or employees must be paid less. HERE are the pitfalls of such a model.

1) Faster jobs-If you want attention to detail on your project, then forget it if the job is a production job that has to be done quickly.

2) Low paid employees- Underpaid employees really don’t want to do the best job, end of story.

Here is my challenge:

If you know the name of a licensed hardwood floor company in Portland, Oregon that is “cheap” and always a low bidder, and has legal employees covered by workers compensation then please give me their name. I want to know their model and secret if their work looks good. I will donate a free premium Glitsa tack mop and cleaning kit once I see the job and you can convince me that their work is really a quality product if I know what finish they used on the floor.

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Posted in Hardwood floor Portland, floor refinishing portland oregon, portland hardwood professional | 1 Comment »

Older businesses can disappear

Sunday, May 9th, 2010

About a year ago following the fallout of the housing market I was reminded by a friend that a company in Vancouver, WA was bankrupt and shutting down. This was significant because this company had all the markings of a “big successful floor business” such as a showroom, tons of vans and crews, etc… In many people’s eyes this is what defines a company that is solid and “real”. Looking behind the curtain though, there is a lot of overhead to maintain this type of business and with just a few unfortunate circumstances this business was gone in no time.

During a recent estimate I was discussing with a customer the gaps she had in her floors in her newly built house. She said she contacted her builder and he had been unable to locate the contractor who installed the floors originally. After talking we both realized that the warranty claim will never be done because the company in Vancouver did the original installation and they are no longer in business. This was just one person I ran into by chance. How many hundreds of people have warranty claims that will never be resolved by this “pillar” of a company?

The point of my blog is to suggest simply that the best contractors don’t need a huge showroom and tons of vans running around to be successful. In fact choosing a smaller and more efficiently operated hardwood floor business may be your best option these days if you want someone to return your calls in six months.

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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.

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Are you dealing with a jack of all trades or a specialist?

Saturday, July 11th, 2009

The other day I was in a discussion with a colleague about a new direction that a local wood flooring company is taking. They are a larger company and have a lot of employees that they need to keep working. Rather than let go of employees and focus on their specialty of wood floors, they are now doing remodels as well. This is interesting because it illustrates the phrase, “Jack of all trades, Master of None”. They aren’t a premium quality wood flooring company to begin with and with the added dimension of full service general contracting I really wonder how they will manage to maintain their quality in wood flooring.

As I understand it, a recession happens when the amount of available cash in circulation is reduced. It started to occur to me that during this time it is best to reduce your volume, increase your service, and specialize in a few specific facets of your trade. Passing more referrals in areas that are not your specialty allows more cash to circulate to other trades around you. This allows you to manage profitability much better in my opinion because you do what you do well and do that only. It improves your performance as a contractor and allows you to focus on service and quality.

The intent of this blog is to serve as an educational piece for those in any industry. If you are dealing with any professional who will always tell you they can do every part of your project, then I would really question their potential for quality. I have a favorite saying with which to end: “If you think you can enrich yourself by diluting others, you can only end by diluting yourself”.

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Posted in Hardwood floor Portland, portland hardwood professional | 1 Comment »

What’s the value of hiring a professional?

Sunday, June 14th, 2009

For about a week or so around my home I had a broken faucet in the sink. The sprayer head had simply broken off and it was a little tricky to use but worked. Despite how busy I am I decided to do the task myself and save some money. Well, I must say that the end result was that the sink was fixed, but I almost messed the faucet up by doing the work because I am not a plumber, I am a hardwood professional.

It seems like a fine point, but not really. You see, for a period of time I kept stalling and managing to deal with a less than ideal faucet until I could make the time to fix it. The day that I did manage to fix the sink was quite an adventure. I came home in a rush and tried to install the sink. I sort of glazed over the directions and managed to put the sink in and it took two tries to do improperly. I rushed out the door for a networking event and returned at 8:30pm and tried one final time to fix the sink and was successful this time. Thank you to my wife for being the brains the third time around. During the removal of the faucet the second time I almost stripped the brass threads that connect the faucet to the sink. Through some frustrating moments I managed to get the sink installed after a third attempt. I love the sink.

You may ask why a hardwood floor guy is talking about plumbing and a sink. If I had actually realized what I REALLY should do and call my plumber friend and pay his company to install the new faucet I would have saved time and frustration. In addition I almost destroyed a $120 faucet due to my less than par plumbing knowledge. Sometimes there is a reason to call a qualified professional because they have the tools and knowledge to do things right the first time. I learned on this one and won’t make the mistake again.

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Who cares about the mill?

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

Years ago, I had an experience that made me care more about the milling tolerances for products I install. The floor was a 5″ hickory floor that the homeowner purchased online from some mill in another state. I rarely am asked by a customer or general contractor to install hardwood material that my company does not provide. In this case, I agreed to install the material and made a mistake of assuming the quality was good. This turned out to be a major mistake because on average one out of every three boards was milled 1/16-1/8″ to wide or too narrow. This may seem trivial until you consider that forcing this material to become straight was virtually impossible. The floor may appear to be straight and well sealed early on, but after a few seasons of an improper fit the boards will win out over the fasteners and cause a loose floor. To the bargain hunters of flooring material, there is often a reason the price is too good to be true. A low price is a likely indicator of mis-milled product that was sold to reduce inventory for a mill, distributor, or retailer.

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Acclimation….How Long?

Sunday, March 8th, 2009

If there has ever been one wood flooring question with a great deal of answers, it is: “How long should I acclimate the flooring?” I’ve heard everything from overnight to 2 weeks. The truth is that you want the flooring to be acclimated to the point where it will no longer lose or gain moisture while being acclimated within the area of installation. Sometimes wood flooring is within a moisture content that is compatible with the sub-floor as soon as it arrives at the jobsite. Other times, it may take 2-4 weeks for the wood to be at an acceptable moisture level. Two driving factors affecting these numbers are how well the HVAC system is working and what species of wood is to be installed.

A few things to keep in mind:
1) Wood flooring should NEVER be acclimated within the garage of your home.
2) Never install or acclimate your flooring at a temperature that is less than 5 degrees of where you keep the interior temperature of your home.
3) If your flooring is strip flooring, then the subfloor and wood flooring must have moisture levels that vary by no greater than 4%. This number should be less for wider flooring.

These suggestions are for solid hardwood flooring. Flooring materials such as engineered and laminate flooring do not apply to these rules. E-mail us with further questions.

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Pre-finished flooring warranties

Saturday, February 28th, 2009

My colleague Tony and I were discussing a job that he had done years ago around the restaurant where we were having lunch. During lunch he mentioned the name of the flooring manufacturer and said that they were not around any more as a company. What happens to any warranties at that point is that they cease to exist or be honored. I have never heard of an exception. My point is that when you see Bob Vila on TV selling you a 50 year warranty for Bellawood that you shouldn’t pay attention to that number even though he won’t tell you that. If you read the warranty you will notice that there are a number of loopholes and that the warranty is non-transferrable. The average turnover in a home is seven years and that’s what the manufacturer is counting on. After you move, that warranty is only worth the value of the paper on which it is printed. My best advice is to buy ONLY from reputable retailers and have a thorough understanding of your expectations and how the product may or may not meet them. As a final point, please ask for references of customers who have bought the product and get their reviews on how the product is performing prior to a purchase if possible. This will keep you from falling out of love with your floor because it is worn prematurely.

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