The satisfaction of a job well done, a beautiful finish and a happy customer goes a long ways to helping your team feel good about their job. The creativity, hard work and innovation associated with resinous flooring can make it a uniquely fun and rewarding profession.
In today’s home services industry, attracting and retaining a productive crew is of vital importance. A happy and productive crew can make all the difference for your business. Taking steps to help ensure a positive environment for your team will pay dividends over the long-term. manufacturers have established quality control protocols.
Know Your Manufacturer
One of the first steps in creating a productive working environment for your team is establishing trust in the products you use. When working with a material supplier, be sure to determine if in fact they are the actual manufacturer. These days there are many “white label” floor coatings available that promote unrealistic product capabilities and are backed-up by hollow technical support.
Things to Consider With Your Supplier
Working directly with an actual manufacturer will help to ensure that you receive needed
transparency of your supply chain. Your manufacturer should have a fully functioning and operating laboratory, complete with comprehensive quality control and production batch retain protocols.
What is a Batch Number? Every time your manufacturer produces a new batch, that batch is assigned a number. This number may be tracked by material sale purchase orders. It also may be listed on your product label. Production batch retains are samples of every single batch a manufacturer makes. These samples are retained in a storage area, usually on premises at the manufacturer’s facility. Cataloged by material SKU and batch number, production retains are stored for years - often times well beyond a product’s actual shelf-life.
Should you as the installer ever run into a product issue that you cannot explain, your manufacturing partner can quickly retrieve and test the retain from the batch you purchased to help determine if a product-related issue exists. This provides you and your clients with piece of mind over the long-term. It is also a key reason why you should know about your supplier’s quality control and batch retain processes.
Most importantly, you must have a full understanding of the actual chemicals you are dealing with on a daily basis. All manufacturers are required to provide you with comprehensive GHIS compliant safety data sheet that lists the material physical properties, necessary safety precautions, storage and shipping requirements. It is required under law that this information be unencumbered and completely transparent to you and your staff.
Training & Support: No matter your level of experience, ongoing training and technical support will be play a role in the long-term health of your business. Manufacturers will typically have technical support representatives available to assist you both over the phone and on site. Ample technical support should include the ability to quickly get answers to your questions while also providing proper guidance as it relates to system design, specification and safety.
Training should be both comprehensive and ongoing. Whether it be training on new products or flooring systems, it is a good idea to make regular training a part of your long-term operations.
Installer-Friendly Products
Working with materials that are difficult to install, prone to roller marks and other issues can be a real morale killer for your team. Flooring installers work incredibly hard to properly prepare a concrete substrate, repair cracks and apply coating materials. A suboptimal finish after a long project can be incredibly frustrating and demoralizing for your team. Identifying the appropriate products and applications for your business is important to your success.
Work with Products that You Can Be Successful With
Do your research and find materials that will give your team the best chance for a successfu outcome given your environment and application time frame. High quality materials sourced from reputable suppliers are often much easier to work with and yield more consistent results.
Similar to cooking, the better the ingredients, the better the finished product!
Stop Waiting for Your Coating to Dry
Time is Money. Waiting for materials to cure increases labor expense while also presenting an inconvenience to your clients. Finding the right materials that you can install properly, yet limit associated downtime can help your business become significantly more productive. Recent advancements in fast-cure epoxies and polyaspartics have opened up a range of new possibilities for materials that not only dry quickly but also are relatively easy for seasoned coating professionals to install. Limiting downtime can help keep your crews moving while supporting that sense of accomplishment of a job well done. Faster-cure coatings can also turn 2-3 day systems into 1-2 day systems, saving significant time and mobilization expense.
Green is Good
The resinous flooring category has seen significant raw material advancements over the last several years with new alternatives to help lower harmful VOCs and eliminate hazards. Ensure that the materials you work with are appropriate for the regulations within your region and that you are taking advantage of the very latest green-friendly products so that you can maintain a safe environment for your team and your customer’s property.
Proper PPE
Personal Protective Equipment for your team is an important and effective way to help enhance the working environment for your team. All applicators should always follow the manufacturer’s recommendation for PPE when working with high-performance coatings. Eye Protection: Chemical goggles with side shields to protect against splashes, or goggles with an 8-inch (203.2 mm) minimum full-face shield should be worn.
Gloves: Options for hand protection include ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH) laminate, butyl rubber, nitrile rubber, or neoprene. Cotton and latex gloves are not sufficient to protect installers from epoxies. Applicators should wash and dry their hands before and after each use of gloves by using clean running water, a mild soap (PH neutral or slightly acidic), and clean towels.
Clothing: Long pants and protective sleeves should be worn with gloves to protect arms and legs from contact with any coatings materials. Heavy-duty boots should be worn at all times to with pants to eliminate any potential contact with skin. Respirator: Respirators should be used in consultation with the manufacturer’s use limitations. All respiratory protection must be used in accordance with the OSHA Respirator Standard, 29 CFR 1910.134.
Looking for more quick tips like these? Learn how to:
- Manage climate concerns
- Minimize waste and expense
- Optimize your work environment
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