“When considering technological advancements specific to the wood flooring industry, what would you consider to be the most impactful to your business operations?”
Lenny Hall – Endurance Floor Co.
Lenny Hall – Endurance Floor Co.Dust extraction technology has been the most impactful for us. On the sanding side of our work being cleaner from the beginning to the end down to 5 microns from HEPA filtration makes for a better final product. Plus, there are personal health benefits in breathing air with far less particulates floating about.
Tom Ourada – Ourada Designs
Tom Ourada – Ourada DesignsI learned from a guy who had settled on a belt sander and a buffer and we had so much dish-out and other sanding issues that I couldn’t stand it. When the planetary machines came along, it was a lot easier. It lessened the stress because I’m a perfectionist and I see everything, so it’s hard to be satisfied with the job when you see a whole bunch of dish-out or anything that’s not flat and pretty. The planetary machines have been huge and save a lot of time teaching too. Now, the next technology should be a planetary edger that can get really tight into square corners.
Mark Whatley – Amber Flooring
Mark Whatley – Amber FlooringOn-site electronic monitoring devices that can literally time stamp relative humidity and temperature hour by hour has probably saved our company and the industry millions of dollars. Now, whenever there is a floor that has failed, we can wake these boxes up that are inside the house and they can tell us that three months ago, moisture spiked at this time and it was at this level. From an inspector standpoint, I can walk into a house and see that a floor is cupped. My first question is “Was the floor acclimated?” Usually that is a go-to and a lot of our installers say when an inspector comes in, they already know it’s going to be installation error. With these new technological advancements that are available to all of the installers (and I encourage all of them to use it because it’s very cheap insurance), it will tell a little bit more of a story on why that floor moved whatever direction it moved, whether it shrunk or grew.