Some days the worst days in this business will make you want to quit and go do something else. I had a situation like this over a very frustrating floor. We only refinished the floor (did not install it) and we followed proper procedures for dry time, etc… Months later it has started to become a gremlin for me, and nobody fed it after midnight.
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Some days the worst days in this business will make you want to quit and go do something else. I had a situation like this over a very frustrating floor. We only refinished the floor (did not install it) and we followed proper procedures for dry time, etc… Months later it has started to become a gremlin for me, and nobody fed it after midnight.
The phone call last night (Saturday at 8:30 p.m.) was frustrating because normally I sleep very well at night, and that phone call interrupted my peace of mind. When you get the emergency call and it's not good, your first thought is to get pissed off or frustrated. I had a second talk with the client this morning, and we both agreed something isn't right and it isn't my fault. Let me tell you how I eased my conscience though last night…
Through the years I've spent a lot of time with some brilliant people in this business. We've eaten dinner together, swept sawdust off the floor when a tech school is done, and even had a few beers. That's what provides friendship equity as I like to call it, or a strong network if you want to get technical. After my upsetting phone call, I called a good inspector friend who answered my call at 9 p.m. while on a hunting trip and we talked through things. After that, I posted on two different forums the nature of the problem. When I woke up, it was great because I had received a response on both forums from Johannes Boonstra and a private message from Roy Reichow. The answers they presented were great information and stuff I never thought about and have yet to see in my days of refinishing.
I'm meeting the client with a distributor representative tomorrow, and I also now will have intelligent answers for the source of the problem, as well as an additional pair of eyes. I'm impressed that these friends came to my side so quickly and offered such great information. I'm taking a stab at things here, but I can imagine that might not have happened if I had not known these guys personally for so long. I'm sure they would have replied, but it may have been days later, a point at which the homeowner situation could have escalated out of control.
I realize that a lot of the readers of this blog may already be members and this stuff about a network seems old, but it's our lifeline. Going to a technical school is just the beginning of learning, but everyone knows that mastery comes from several people working together to advance the field. What genius may be out there in your neck of the woods and have no idea we all want to meet them? We don't want the ones who think they are geniuses and say it all the time though, just the humble ones. Do me a favor, get some of these cool guys who love to talk shop and let's go to Dallas and have some beer and talk floors. Personal connections make us all better and give us a lifeline through a crisis.