Like so many people in this industry, I never planned on getting into wood flooring. When I was 25, I was working for a local carpet cleaning company, and the pay was decent enough to put gas in my jet ski and pay my bills—that was about all I needed at that point in my life. But I started noticing what customers were being charged compared to what I was making, and it made me think: “I could do this myself.”
So a few years later, after my wife and I had our first son, I started my own carpet cleaning business with my dad. We did low-moisture carpet cleaning, upholstery cleaning and things like that. My dad had always been entrepreneurial, and he was big on paying attention to trends. One day he told me, “Carpet is going out. Everybody’s putting in LVP. We need to learn how to clean hard-surface floors.”
I started searching YouTube and found Courtney Lee’s videos. I’d watch his videos, pause them and zoom in on the background trying to figure out what equipment he was using. I’d take screenshots and study them, and eventually I thought I knew enough to try a screen-and-recoat. I traded a guitar for a Square Buff sander.
One of my first jobs was for an old classmate. Looking back, it should have been sanded. Instead, I tried to screen and recoat it. I had seen Courtney tint finish with stain, so I decided to do that. I applied it with a T-bar, which I had absolutely no business touching at that point in my life. It looked terrible.
Then she posted pictures on Facebook talking about how great it looked, and people were commenting about how beautiful it was. I was sitting there thinking, “Please delete that post.”
That’s when I decided it was time to get serious. I thought it was worth $2,000 if I never screwed up a floor like that again, so I joined Courtney’s private training group. Once I was in it, I saw guys in the group doing full refinishes, and I was like, “Why not me?” I posted asking for help, and that’s when I met Alex Franklin. He called me and spent hours walking me through my first full sand-and-refinish project.
Around the same time, I realized I had to make a choice. My dad and I needed to part ways in the cleaning business, and I had invested thousands of dollars in duct-cleaning equipment to start my own business. I had a big compressor installed in my van and all the tools I needed. Then I did a couple duct-cleaning jobs, and I just hated it. The money was good, but I wasn’t passionate about it, so I decided to sell the duct cleaning equipment.
A guy drove here from Kansas and bought the duct-cleaning equipment right away, so suddenly I had some cash to throw at buying flooring equipment. The first machine I bought was a Clarke American 8 drum sander—I still have it today. Then I bought an old Super 7 edger that bounced around like a jackhammer the first time I turned it on. I was like, “This doesn’t look like it does in the videos! Am I that bad at this?!”
I decided to go to a Loba class. Then they were having another one a few weeks later, so I got my parents to watch the kids, and my wife, Briana, and I went together. That’s where I met T.J. Haas. I knew who he was from the Dust Life Facebook group, but I had never met him.
I asked T.J.: “If you were me and you had $10,000 to spend, what would you buy?” I thought he was going to tell me which piece of equipment to buy. But he said, “Keep doing what you’re doing. Go to classes and learn.” 
That’s what I did. I kept going to classes and meeting people like Wayne Lee. I also built practice platforms in my parents’ basement, since we didn’t have a shop yet, and I installed prefinished flooring on them so I could practice running the equipment.
That was all in the fall of 2024. I was able to get a handful of jobs from people who knew me or my family. That winter, during the usual slower time, I did a ton of research on SEO, and my brother helped me build a website. It takes a while for that stuff to kick in, but I started to appear in Google searches. I’m also blessed to be in an area that’s not saturated with people doing refinishing, so I’ve never had to run ads. The crazy thing is that now the work seems to come in at the rate that I can work on it.
I’m definitely still making mistakes—and I love the mistakes. Being challenged and making mistakes is great, because the next time you’re in that situation, you’ll know what to do (or not do). I recently had a job where I was applying some waterborne finish and didn’t really think about temperature because I was comfortable. I came back a few hours later expecting it to be dry, but instead, I stepped onto the floor and heard the sound of my shoes sticking in the finish. I looked at the thermostat and realized the house was too cold. On another job, I forgot to deadbolt a storm door after the homeowners warned me it didn’t latch properly. That night a massive windstorm came through and not only ripped the door right off the house but also destroyed the custom-sized door jamb, which of course I had to replace.
You know what they say: You don’t get war stories unless you go to war. I always heard about all of the stuff other wood floor guys have gone through, and now here I am going through it myself, so I feel like it’s kind of a cool ride through the industry.
I also got into the industry at an interesting time, because the equipment keeps evolving. We’re living through what I call the “planetary wars,” where manufacturers are constantly trying to build the next great machine. Some guys complain about new equipment and say they can do everything with an edger, a big machine and a buffer. They’re probably right, but if a tool makes my life easier, saves my body or improves my results, I’m buying it.
Briana has been a huge part of the journey. She attended training classes with me, learned how to run equipment and worked on jobs with me. (These days she’s helping in a different way—she’s pregnant with our third child.)
Looking ahead, I’d like to grow the business. I’d like to hire people, train them and eventually step back from doing every single thing myself, but of course the challenge is finding the right person. This isn’t a job you can treat like flipping burgers. You have to care about it. You have to enjoy learning. You have to want to get better.
Ideally, I’d love to bring my nephews into the business someday, and maybe my sons, too, if they’re interested. When I was growing up, I always heard friends talk about working for their uncles and learning a trade. I never had that opportunity, but maybe I can create it for the next generation.
I’m only a few years into this journey, but I’ve learned that this industry is full of people willing to help if you’re willing to ask. I’ve learned that mistakes happen for a reason. I’ve learned that education is worth paying for. I’m excited to see where all my learning takes Focal Point Floors next.
