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.

https://www.preferredflooringmi.com

https://www.stuartandassociates.com

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