Don't Let Your Wood Floor Business be a Model of Bad Behavior

Kim Wahlgren Headshot
Hf 1203 29

Hf 1203 29

 The stories seem unbelievable, but wood flooring contractors swear they're true. There's the employee who was installing floors in a beautiful lake home and took an extra long lunch every day to fish off the pier. Or the one who took a refreshing dip in the customer's pool after getting too sweaty working on the floors. Then there's the worker who forgot his lunch and helped himself to the snacks in the customer's fridge after taking a spin in the customer's Ferrari. And inevitably, there's the deviant who was discovered going through the lady of the house's lingerie—by the lady of the house.

From ridiculous to creepy, these stories are any customer's nightmare. Working in someone's house requires some invasion of privacy, and customers are naturally nervous about letting perfect strangers into their homes. They're putting the safety of their homes, possessions, and sometimes pets and children in strangers' hands.

Then, there's the messy disruption in the routine. Unfortunately, customers often dread wood flooring contractors working in their homes. You can overhear their conversations anywhere: "I'm trying to get ready for the holidays, and the wood flooring guys are there." The usual conversation ensues: the noise, the dust, the mess, etc.

With a little more consideration on the part of wood flooring contractors, it wouldn't have to be this way. From the obvious, such as the stories in the first paragraph, to the more subtle, there are steps you can take to coexist peacefully with your customers so your name doesn't inspire dread.

Expectations

If the customer knows what to expect, the whole experience can be less intrusive. You should discuss all aspects of the job, as well as provide details to the customer in writing. Topics run the gamut from notifying the customer that you'll need 220 electrical hookup to discussing the finishes used and their environmental impact. 

To begin, talk about access to the house. How will you get in, and which entrance should you use? What is the security code? Can you park in the driveway, or do you need to be on the street? (If your truck or van leaks oil or other fluids, park on the street.) Find out exactly who will be in the house and when. When does the homeowner go to work? Oftentimes, it may be best to match your work hours to when the customer is gone, causing the least amount of disturbance and noise. Will there be children or pets in the house? If so, the customer needs to understand that both must be kept safely out of the work area at all times. Note that all wood floor finish manufacturers recommend that all people on the job site during finishing (except when using wax) wear a respirator, so that means residents should be off the premises. This is especially true—for everyone from children to parakeets—when using moisture-cured or conversion varnish products.

Also, discuss exactly which areas of the home need to be accessible to your workers. Find out up front where your electrical supply will be and even which bathroom your workers can use during the project. The customer will feel more comfortable knowing where to expect you in the house. Also, choose one spot in the house where you can leave messages for the homeowner.

Once you've covered access, go over what you'll be doing during the job, how long each step should take and what the homeowner needs to do to prepare for each stage of the job. Work out the details: are you moving the furniture, or is the homeowner handling that? A checklist of such items can be useful to make sure you go over every detail.

Finally, give your customer a projected time of when you expect to finish the floor and how long that area must be avoided before the residents can walk on it. Also, discuss who will clean the house when the project is done.

Workers

You need workers you and your customers can trust. In the course of their work, wood flooring contractors find all sorts of lost objects, from Matchbox cars to diamonds. Designate one place where you will set any found objects, whether they're something valuable or just loose change.

Make it clear to your workers what you expect of them and their behavior on the job site. To start with, they should have a professional appearance—the customer should feel comfortable having your workers in her home. The customer should also feel comfortable with the way your employees talk. If your workers use R-rated language (or worse), they'll have to make a Herculean effort to bring it down to a G rating on the job site. They also shouldn't yell across the entire house or the front lawn to each other—the residents and their neighbors don't need to know you "need that (#*%&@*) nailer right now!" The neighbors and the residents also probably don't share the same musical tastes, so if they're in earshot, keep radios at a low volume, or don't use them at all.

Although it may seem obvious, make sure your workers understand that they can't treat the job site like their own house. The phone, fridge, pier, sportscar, pool—they're all taboo. And even though they may seem convenient in a pinch, so are the homeowner's tools in the garage. Let all workers on the job site know which areas of the house are off-limits, where the electrical is and which bathroom to use (and not to use the bushes behind the house, an unfortunately common occurrence).

Err on the side of caution with new employees. Make sure you know them well before you allow them to be on a job site alone, even for a few minutes. After all, it's more than a job site, it's somebody's home.

Tools

Make sure your electrical hookup is safe, with no exposed wires. When necessary or required, hire an electrician to hook up the power.

When it's convenient, you may be able to set up your chop saws or table saws outside, but if the noise will bother nearby neighbors, take the saws inside. You should have one area designated where you set all your tools; that way the homeowner doesn't have to walk into the kitchen and have a heart attack after seeing your mallet sitting on the imported Italian marble countertop or the broom leaning against the antique French wallpaper.

Instead of filling the job with clutter during the whole project, only bring in the tools you need that day. At the end of the day, set the tools that will be left on site in the designated area. For safety's sake, unplug everything so little Johnny doesn't accidentally operate the circular saw after you've left. Make sure the blades are down on table saws and lock their guards down. Roll up all extension cords, too.

Once you've picked up your tools and extension cords, clean the job site, even sweeping the sidewalk and the stoop where you enter the house. You know that the homeowner will be poking around the job as soon as you've left, so leave a good impression everyday. A clean job site also helps demonstrate the progress on the job.

Make sure you know what to do with wood dust. In some areas, you can leave dust by the side of the road to be picked up with the trash. In other cases, you'll need to haul it away (make sure you don't leave it sitting on the job site, in your van or at your shop since it's a spontaneous combustion hazard). Also, make sure you safely dispose of stain rags (most likely, the homeowner doesn't want them decorating the laundry line behind the house).

Controlling dust

Dust is almost certainly the No. 1 complaint homeowners have about wood flooring contractors. If you don't take the right steps, the dust will spread throughout the house, infiltrating places you never would have imagined.

It's common sense that to be the least obtrusive in the home, you need to leave the least amount of dust possible. Dust containment is becoming a hotter topic in the industry every day, and now there is equipment available that claims to eliminate almost all dust from the home. The most complete systems involve a truck or trailer-mounted unit that is parked outside and sucks the dust out of the house. If you can't afford the expense of such a unit at this time, at least use sanding equipment with dust containment systems. For older equipment, kits are available for retrofitting dust containment.

At the very least, make sure you use plastic film to tape off all doorways and HVAC vents (there also are filters available to cover those vents). Use non-marking tape, and test it in an inconspicuous area. Don't ever apply tape to wallpaper or fresh paint. If they aren't removed, window coverings should be protected, as should chandeliers, other light fixtures, wall hangings and other decorative items.

Once the sanding process is done, as mentioned before, the customer should understand what is involved in finishing as far as access to the rooms, pet restraint, dry times, etc. For extra security, put signs around the finished area that have the date when the floors will be ready for foot traffic.

If you follow these guidelines, your company's name should never come up in the neighborhood gossip about contractor horror stories. On the contrary, before you know it, you'll probably end up doing the wood floors in most of the houses on the street, or even the entire subdivision. All it takes is a little education, consideration and respect.

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