The Huddle - Episode 9 - Tackling a Project; Problems and Solutions
This week Daniel and Jose discuss common problems that happen during a project and the most effect ways to manage and solve them.
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The HUDDLE is where the flooring industry can get together and talk about everything! Lead by Paul Stuart from Go Carerra who is joined by Daniel and Jose Gonzalez from Preferred Flooring.
hey guys
thanks for joining us again this week
i'm daniel gonzalez preferred flooring
we got
jose
and john this week with us
we're gonna be talking about uh
tackling projects you know every project
has its own issues and how to deal with
those
uh we've been on a few of them lately
that
were
ridiculous
so yeah the little
little less delightful projects always
make you appreciate the ones that run
smooth that's for sure
as you notice paul isn't here this week
he's uh
working
or something i don't know
so
so bear with us because that dude he's
really good at getting the right
questions and getting everything started
so it's gonna be our first time trying
to get everything rolling by ourselves
so
um please feel free to chime in again
you can see any messages or any
questions you guys have but
um the only thing that we have to go off
of are items that
that we've experienced and that we've
encountered and uh we've had it we've
had uh quite the roller coaster the last
couple months with
the amount of work that we've been
receiving and performing and
having to scatter the guys and you know
there's just been a lot of uh
a lot of issues from uh logistics to
scheduling to
the things that they can hear us on
false expectations uh uh set by uh
either the the salesman
uh for
the store that we're working with or
[Music]
what we're running into a lot lately is
uh
the youtube educated clients
we're not getting any um oh no the mic's
working it's just uh
these two are usually when paul is
talking but those aren't going to be
working today anyways
okay
so i guess go ahead daniel get started
on some of the
issues that we've seen
oh man we do
quite a bit of hospital work and lately
what we've been running into is uh
time constraints right so
you get into a hospital and especially
when you're doing hallways they they
give you a certain time frame and you
gotta start at this time you got to be
done at this time it has to be walkable
and uh
comes into a little bit of an issue
especially when the that hospital you
know once you're on site you're already
there starting and then they're like oh
by the way
instead of
having this walkable at 8am you only
have until 6am now and it's like
all right what can we do to to start
mitigating that and
one of the focuses that i want to talk
about today is
getting to know your your reps right so
this is
this is the brand that we use our rep is
amazing and
that's one of the the main reasons why
we use that brand is because if i call
them right now i know i'm gonna get
you know a text message or a phone call
back within a few minutes
because either he he's busy right now or
he's gonna answer and lead me through my
issues
so
getting to know your reps is really
really important um not only
do
do they have all the information
but you may think that you have to do
things a certain way and
it's totally different i mean that's
what we've realized
throughout the past few years is okay
maybe uh
maybe we don't know everything and
that's kind of how you gotta start
approaching things and even when we do
think or actually know that
the process that we have to do it's
really reassuring that you know he's
just a phone call away saying well
you already know what's going on you
don't really have to call me but
i just need to make sure that everything
is going to be done right
so it's the same thing too like um
when you have your crew on site
um and they call they call you or like
our crew calls us
um
it's uh
reassuring that you're
making sure that you're taking those
necessary steps because with the amount
that our products change it's
it's hard to feel or say that you you do
understand the process
when you know it might have been three
four six months since the last time you
might have looked at some of the uh
information on the the back of a bucket
of adhesive or looked at some of the
installation specs or some of the
requirements
um
that'll help in in those scenarios is
reassuring that you have someone to call
we have someone to call um you know we
we don't know everything and um
we try to know a lot about
everything but we do we it's hard to
keep up
so
we just gotta
to know that
i mean even if you wanted to call us and
just call someone to to get that
reassurance that the project
the issues that you're having on that
project
there are solutions you just need to
know which ones to make
so
uh
a lot of people don't know this guy
right here this guy's job
he he helps us john curtis helps us out
with our day to day
um and he he tackles a lot of those
those pictures for the managers
um a lot of the day-to-day issues that
we might not have
time to take care of but he's really
good with people he's really really good
with with time management and he's got a
great skill set with helping uh
helping the guys get kind of out of the
rut that they're in and that you can get
in when um
when you face some of these issues day
to day on a project as far as uh
scheduling or
unforeseen conditions and
it's pretty good at helping us organize
it you have anything you want to add to
any of what we're talking about john
um so far i'm just kind of taking it in
and
see where i can chime in
so
the hospital project that we've been
talking about um
the time constraints right so we've been
doing a lot more self-leveling lately
not only is it going to give us a better
overall
finished product
but we've noticed that it's really
underutilized in the industry and
that
not only is it going to save time no you
you can't skim it and start installing
that day
but
it is saving the time from having to do
multiple skim coats and skin weight skin
weight this way you're just going there
you're
you're doing the system underneath the
the self leveler and then you're you're
pouring and leave and come back uh
tomorrow and hit the ground running um
we've had multiple multiple projects
that have happened this way and
our reps have been amazing to to help us
out with it um
that's that's just one aspect of an
issue that can pop up on the job site
you know there's multiple issues these
guys have been dealing with scheduling
like crazy lately because commercial
projects like to
to move all over the place
yeah
that's the thing too is like uh i'm
gonna try to play like uh the um
the outsider looking in here but uh as
far as like uh managing
employees and skill sets
where are people on that
um
daniel what what are your views on that
john what are your views on that
um
do you guys
having it having to know when
when and where to put certain people yep
it's always a i think it's always a
struggle because
there's always going to be you know
those new guys that
that regardless of uh where you kind of
send them
there there are going to be times
throughout the day where they're going
to
essentially just be standing around
doing nothing right
but
that's when
you got a you got to kind of take them
under your wing and
kind of just explain to them what you're
doing while you're doing it
as far as being knowing where to send
them sometimes it's flip of the coin
yeah it's a it's a crapshoot
like i hope this works out for the best
in my mind i this is going to work out
and
it actually does in reality is
rapture
a lot of variables you know so so i
think
we've only ran at most uh 12 guys total
right
all right not including wow
before
right
um not including like a subset that
worked for us at the same time that we
have other projects going on but
um you know that's some people only run
two some people run 12 some people run
hundreds i mean
i'd like to pick everybody's brain i'd
like to know what you guys do on all
that
how do you guys uh
classify and organize those as a
subcontractor versus employee
um you know this is this is kind of an
open format any any information or any
questions you guys have would be great
to hear on that
um
because i'd like to learn to be honest
with you i'd like to learn a little bit
more
on how to handle that how to approach it
um
another thing that goes hand in hand
with that is the logistics right the
materials
the tools what equipment
are you set up to deliver your own
material you set up to deliver your own
heavy equipment when you need it for
uh removal or for installs um
there is a drop shipment of material
going to site um
are you guys uh receiving and then
bringing it to site handling it multiple
times
you know um
how does how does that go about
what
challenges do you guys face and what
what way do you guys solve some of those
logistic issues
and then just you know kind of moving on
we can all
we can talk about
you know something that no floor guy
ever really wants to talk about right is
asbestos
what do you
what what do you do when as best as you
find it right
first things first is you got to get it
tested because no one can just look at
something and know that it's asbestos
yeah
do you know where the closest testing
sites are
um is it something you have to mail in
something local must be turnaround time
you know do you know the requirements as
far as uh
how much material they need for testing
how much of the adhesive they might need
for testing
on top of that um
are they qualified are they certified
um how busy are they
what's your time frame
um there's just a lot of uh
there's a lot of variables when it comes
to that as an issue and i know that
everybody handles it a little bit
differently but um
we've just just seen a lot of guys on
the sites right and they they go in
there and they're they take a picture or
something and they're like hey do you
guys think
this is
this is asbestos and it's like go get it
tested well they don't want to get it
tested and it's like it's always the
runaround but
um i think the most recent one was
someone asking
about encapsulating it but
doing a direct glue right over it and
setting this guy up for failure setting
the next guy up for failure right but
i mean where does where does the
liability
fall within that and we've we've taken
the
you used to be i don't are you still
certified for the abatement
not anymore i haven't had a refresher
okay
but but when you go through you know
these types of awareness classes and
certification classes they they tell you
right like
that this is why you can't do it because
the next guy that goes to pull this up
now you just adhered something to it
they're gonna start pulling it up and
there's that chance of it coming up it's
flying up in there and then it's in the
air
already right
yeah it's not fair
it's not fair to them so
yeah i mean if the if the paper trail is
there
you could be liable for it and a lot of
people just
other installers don't realize the risk
that they're putting themselves at when
they do things like this and the only
thing that i can do is kind of chime in
and say hey this is what we talked about
when we were
you know going through these classes and
this is
what was said and they come back
with some ridiculous stuff like uh
what did he say
one of these these one hour or these 10
talks uh
while you're loading up carpet or
something and that they just don't
realize that they're
there there are classes out there that
you can take to
broaden your knowledge on certain
aspects of things and
you kind of gotta
be able to roll with that and know that
you don't know everything
you just
educate yourself that there's you know
you don't have to take a class but do
some reading educate yourself on it
um try to prevent having
some of those issues you don't want to
be held responsible for
for making any vests up airborne to work
it affects someone and maybe the future
health of their child or themselves
so not only the air you can carry it on
your clothes take it home with the
others not only that each
15 years ago when i did take the
certification class i think each
pebble size that you don't have
documented to the epa that you're
updating that they find
dime sized pieces of 5 000
each one so if you got a bag or that's
in your
in your shoes or trash can or yeah
anywhere
so
that was that was a while ago so i'm
sure
the fines are a lot higher right
these guys a lot of these guys are boss
tells them to go rip this up and they
have no idea what they're even hey that
was going to be that i was one of them
i remember when i first started doing
flooring we had races to see who can pop
the rose first
why do you think i sound like this
no that's not that's not that's not the
reason
i could probably sell that one for a
buck
but you know the solution to that to
that problem is uh
get it tested start there that's
worry about the abatement later let's
see if it's hot first don't ever let
anybody talk you into doing something
that you're not comfortable
we um
that was the beginning of the end of a
relationship um
actually for us is
we were asked to do an install
at a school and it was over uh nine by
nine which they told us tested positive
you know it was hot
and we got there and everything was
hollow um it was platforms it was in the
choir room um or if it was a player
right yeah
and
i remember tapping on the floor and i
was like man like
i don't think we can stick to this and i
think we're putting down candace
and
so i i told david said you know i'm
gonna make a phone call i don't know if
they know about this so i called and
they said yeah we knew about that um
just install over
and i was like well
you know we gotta
stick it and then we gotta double cut it
and then i gotta pull
the the bottom piece out and it could
pull the tile up and that like i don't
think you understand that that's what
can happen and then
i'm responsible not you no that's they
know that's the way we got to go and
daniel and i had like it wasn't even
that long of a talk i think we
we sat back for about five minutes
talked about it and decided to walk away
from that job
um i think we left with our guys with
nothing to do for the rest of the week
because of that
i'm pretty sure we made it up to them
but
i couldn't oh in high school no i don't
remember what it was it was out in
greenville i do know that
um but
sometimes you get to make decisions that
uh
might not seem like the right one for
you
um but you know it's not just you have
to worry about when it comes to that
type of
material that should be removed by a
professional
um
what about um
and we're kind of scattered guys just
just just to be clear i know that
there's so many issues that can happen
on a job site
and most of our issues are going to be
geared more towards commercial
so if there is anybody out there who is
primarily residential and you have
uh
some issues that you've come across
please chime in text
i don't know how to read what's going on
on the screen right now um but
please feel free to ask any questions um
what about uh like
change order issues and uh you know when
they make changes on the fly
does everybody or or
i know that have something to a way to
track everything that's going on yeah
because like
we just we're handling that right now
this is getting really
really hard to deal with um and
you know
we have our we sell our own and we do
our own installs and then we also still
install for
for other uh
flooring stores um
but
some of the older
gentlemen i would say you know you get a
little bit old school
but don't necessarily
have all the documents in place uh that
make it easier so we gotta kind of like
track everything from
uh we have to ask our guys to track and
so if they missed something and then we
go back to the other company and see if
they have the information
so and there's change orders and ads in
between all of that and
um
things are going to get lost it's to get
lost but
on whose end you know you're going to
lose on yours
they can lose on theirs
you know
how do you guys take care
of tracking projects uh whether they're
yours or they're not
do you guys uh have your employees track
it um change orders
how does everybody work that out how do
you implement that
there's no one to answer you right now
but
it's just a general question to shoot
you though yeah that somebody can answer
that at some point and plus it's going
to other social media sites so i know
that's what i'm just saying yeah but i
was going to say you know you always
have to have
something right to keep track of it
because if you look at um
the
verbiage and the contracts that you get
it's always
change orders have to be approved before
you can start the work because if you
start the work and start doing that and
then that change order isn't improved
then you're just
doing something for free and no one
wants to work for free right or putting
yourself in a situation where you're
going to be short
at the end of the project on material
because the changes in the middle of the
project and they want you to add
a conference room
of the same material that you're running
down a corridor
just one of those scenarios
and then also if you do a lot of work
for stores um
it's inevitable you're gonna end up
running short on a project right it
happens
probably more times than sales people
like to admit
um
one thing is
do don't
go to the customer right away contact
the salesman to see
what's going on
because uh as we've learned some of
these salesmen just keep stuff in the
warehouse
has like a security measure or something
and
five boxes magically pop up out of thin
air
so
definitely have a relationship with your
salesman to to where you can
communicate like that and not throw them
under the bus
and salesman man
let them know that you have something
extra let them know that it's a stock
material that that you sold the client
um in case they are running short or
running tight so they don't
have to hit their head against the wall
making sure that they're using every
square inch of every piece
we tend to do that
as much as we possibly can anyway but
not everybody is as thoughtful um
there's a lot of a lot of waste involved
and then the the old school guys right
because everything
um
that we've been doing in that that we've
seen done in a lot of the places that we
do work for
is done electronically so they're
measuring electronically they're doing
takeoffs and stuff and
it's hard for
some people to to
trust that
we've been in that situation where it's
all right
well
there's
if i'm short it's the computer's fault
but things you know things change on job
sites we were on one where they took out
radiators that were
you know sitting
on the floor next to a wall and then
it's like all right well that radiator
was out one foot and that
that whole space is you know a couple
hundred feet so you have one foot by
you know 200 feet that adds up to a lot
of square footage and you end up you
know
falling a few pieces short and it's like
it wasn't supposed to be like that but
it's uh gotta roll with the punches and
and get things done still
are your um
are the employees uh able to solve
problems uh on their own without
calling back to the office or our
leadership
uh whether it's your number one number
two number three
um how are those relationships um
if some if a client changes something on
the fly and they gotta work an
additional
hour or two hours are your guys
relationships well enough to trust that
they're going to make the right decision
to to save
the time for the next day or the rest of
the week or or to salvage our
relationship
um same thing with the subs i mean it's
just a little bit give and take right so
um
i would say that
if you are going to have any issues on
any job site i would say try to make
sure that your employees and the subs
are are definitely on the same page as
you and your your end goal is the same
um
because regardless if you are
on the project or not
you are trusting the employees there
with you or by themselves
to help you
come up with a solution and make the
right decisions
i guess uh what it really boils down to
is
open lines of communication all the time
with everyone um when there's issues on
the job site because
as an installer when you're on the job
site you don't wanna
it sucks that you gotta report these
kinds of things but you have to right
because
someone's got to pay for
all these issues that are coming up
and we just have to know and document
everything so that way
when it comes down to final billing
everyone's on the same page with
everything um
so as long as everyone's on the same
page everyone should be all good and
and the customer
should be happy at the end because
they've been involved with
everything
so communicate make sure uh
you get all
you have your your reps information so
that way you guys can communicate with
the clients
and that'll streamline everything
i think that's that's really all we have
for today today was going to be a super
quick one we just wanted to get on here
and make sure that we didn't miss miss a
week
since paul couldn't be here missy paul
you're you're really the one that uh the
brainchild
not that we didn't have enough time to
prepare but
um we can never be as prepared as that
guy sometimes this is what he likes to
do and and we definitely appreciate what
he does
so
there's i don't see anything coming
through so i we're just gonna
you know call it a week there and we'll
see you guys next week paul should be
back and
we'll hit the ground running again
i don't
i didn't even look what the
topic was for next week but
let me see if i have it here
might not have been uh
not only that is uh
the person on the other end of the the
screen is sick so i know she she should
be sleeping right now but instead she's
on here
hanging out with us
so we hope you feel better
all right guys
everyone have a good week
we'll see you next week