06.12.09
Top 10 little known “Must Have” tools for the hardwood flooring contractor
By Mike Hoy – sales manager for the Great Lakes States and surrounding area.
#10 Wall Jack — The perfectly designed tool for finishing up the installation of a floor or for working in tight areas. Too many times I’ve seen great flooring installations go awry around the edges, where a flooring jack would have been used to tighten the floor up. Board Pullers fall in this same category and for the same reason, but board pullers require a hammer, where a Wall Jack just requires a wall to push against
#9 A Vac System – It doesn’t matter if you’re a small job specialist or a high-end, big job, multi-crew contractor, if you’re working jobs without a dust containment system, you are behind the power curve. Dust matters. Indoor air quality matters. A vacuum system for equipment is a must have these days.
#8 Bostik’s Best Adhesive in the 28 oz. Tube – This is one product that is sorely under-used. This adhesive will eliminate the need to go through all sorts of contortions when trying to face nail the last board.
#7 Stair Jigs – If you do a lot of stairs, one use of this and you’ll ask yourself what you’d do with all the time you wasted in the past. This is the jig you’ll keep on every jobsite as it works for both treads and risers.
#6 Vent installation kits – For the same reasons for getting #7, vent installation kits make your life easier, especially on retro fits of venting into older floors. The kit is put into place and the hole routered out for the new vent. It’s almost too simple and quick.
#5 Round-over router bits – I always had several of these on my job truck. They are perfect for making a custom reducer if they are kept sharp and available. Grooving and Plunging replacement router bits go along here as well. It’s one of my personal “most often failed to do things” was keeping extra router bits on the truck. Sure, when I restocked I knew I was good for a few weeks to maybe a month before I’d run into a situation where I needed a sharp router bit, but heaven knows when I needed one the most, I’d find myself with nothing but dull or broken bits.
#4 Tape. I know this sounds very basic, but I can not count the number of times I failed to have the tape I needed. Not only for gamelining, but tape is one of those things everyone seems to overlook as the product that is essential to a job, but always seems to be in short supply.
#3 Applicator Storage Containers – this could be one of the top money savers on the truck. I stopped wrapping my applicators in plastic bags from the store after the first time contaminates had me refinishing a floor for free. Mark the containers for your sealer applicators and the other for finish applicators.
#2 A heavyweight t-bar for the E-Z Way Gym Floor applicator. Another product you’ll use once and say “Now that’s nice.” Gives much more consistent coats than other finish heads.
#1 The Back-up.
When going on a big or very important job, I always have back-up help, in case my primary crew can’t be there for whatever reason.
I back up my computer data every week because my IT guy demands it.
As a sales manager, I am the back up for hundreds of Floor Style clients who have questions concerning hardwood flooring, everything from choosing the proper or best wood to put down, all the way to the final coat of finish and beyond.
But I don’t know everything, so I have back up from the vendors who provide products to Floor Style. The vendors host schools to continue my education, just as Floor Style puts on schools to continue the education of their clients.
