The Huddle - Episode 126 - Blue Collar Cruise #5

It’s time for the fifth installment of Blue Collar Cruise! Join Paul, Daniel, and Jose tomorrow as they explore the latest news, trends, and innovations in the flooring and construction industries. From groundbreaking technologies to big projects making headlines, this episode is packed with valuable insights for blue-collar pros like you.

Hop aboard and stay informed about what’s shaping the industry—don’t miss this exciting journey!

The Huddle was created by Paul Stuart of Stuart & Associates and Go Carrera, alongside Jose and Daniel Gonzalez from Preferred Flooring. Aimed at helping you maintain forward progress in your flooring career, they cover topics from personal and business growth, to installation tips & tricks and everything in-between.

Want to be a guest on The Huddle? Email thehuddleforwardprogress@gmail.com today!

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what's up everybody welcome back to the Huddle your weekly Playbook to help you gain forward progress in your flooring

career to all our new viewers out there welcome to the team what's up my man

what's going on don't mind my sunglasses my future's

bright where's your brother Mr technical difficulty

he Mr technical difficulty well he will

um join us soon enough good to have you on again brother how's your week going

you ready for some Thanksgiving yeah but I don't eat turkey so I'm trying to figure out what else

I'm going to eat well you were eating birthday cake earlier just eat that eting birthday

K I ain't gonna it ain't gon to make it till Thanksgiving

no nah your birthday was yesterday right yeah well happy birthday and look the

man himself Mr technical difficulty always I turned 50

yesterday yeah you didn't I believe that about as far as I

can throw you all right what's up fellas everything good so far

good get the energy up all right what's up

Jorge all right well everybody out there this week is another episode of the blue

collar cruise I got my sunglasses on go cruising on a boat

maybe cruising around town you know they are polarized yeah I told your brother my

future's bright that's why I got some eye issues I'll leave it at

that moving on Okay so so um the blue

color cruise this week's pretty diverse so hopefully some people get on this is

a kind of a pretty cool one uh it deals with uh everything from labor shortage

in the news and and uh immigration

to uh recycled products as usual it's it's hard to uh you know peruse the

world of construction with without finding sustainability still is up there

you know that thing went it was like the most important thing for a while then it kind of Dove off it seems like it's like

coming right back well it has to because people realize how much it costs and then you start getting all this waste

and then people start complaining again and it's like hey let's uh they get used get used to the cost a little bit and

then back on to the uh bandwagon so to speak all right I'm going to go go over

a couple topics and then we'll jump in uh to some

of the um content about these topics but yeah so we got

some news and uh sustainability talking about taking rubber

flooring um you know like your rubber gem floors that you guys work out in

like you Jose all the time you you Daniel you guys be

pump what's that his microphone's not working Mr technical

difficulty of course anyway so we've got some sustainability from gy

flooring being repurposed so it's it's uh it's kind of a true you know kind of

cradle to grave I think they call it true Singularity uh with this manufacturer

we're going to go over the fact that a fifth of the construction workers a

fifth of construction workers lack permanent legal status and see if the

new administration's going to change that or what they plan on doing about that this is interesting one being uh

the founder of go Carrera and always the the whole purpose of the the uh scoring

system that's algorithmically driven and all the the beauty behind it is to make

sure that you know homeowners and business owners and cons and

contractors um get the right level of skill on their jobs and this says a 33%

of homeowners uh surveyed would hire a questionable contractor just to save

money we're going to dive into that one and then if we have some time

transforming uh construction uh the shift from compliance to compassion this is

someone's um this is kind of a opinion piece at a construction dive uh the last

thing that I really want to make sure we fit in is the fcef announces a PO a

pilot cohort of flooring installation technicians course so for all you out

there who want to be flooring technicians um and uh fcef has been

doing a lot of good stuff out there so uh oh he's gone is now his his uh video

is not working huh we're gonna keep trucking well we can hear you you can

hear me all right yep barely boom how about now we can hear you you can't see

you I turned the video off all right I'm going to get going on this uh so on the

sustainability makeover over um or the news and sustainability it says the

topic reads La playgrounds get a sustainable makeover with Encore upcycle

gym flooring so in this article from floor covering weekly it talks about

repurposing old gym floors into durable playgrounds I'm sure you guys have been on some of those have you actually I

should just ask have you guys been on some of those like rubber playgrounds yeah they're awesome

dude they have such high safety ratings it's crazy so this particular Pro uh

program is Encore or ecore uh sorry ecore true Singularity uh

program we sell a lot of eore rubber flooring but this program focuses on

reaiming and recycle rubber flooring surfaces so approximately 27,00 600

square foot of flooring has been uh recycled in this program so far and it's

transformed uh the surfaces of over 18 playgrounds in Southern

California so this is really to uh highlight how businesses can join forces

and Tackle environmental changes it's kind of you know it's a it's a pretty

cool thing now what is the number one thing we always talk about when we we get into this recycle is picking up the

H how do you get it over to right to do the stuff right remember that's always a

challenging one can you guys hear me okay now yeah just eat them want make

sure yeah you got to get

close yeah the last time we we had a whole uh podcast on this the the biggest

problem we actually had had somebody on who was with the manufacturer talking

about recycled uh materials and how to get it sent back to the

mill that's always been one of the biggest problems was getting it

back I think it still is Freight's not cheap right yeah Freight's not cheap

Labor's not cheap um you know the processes uh are are costly when you're

on site you got to find places to start while you're on site until a pickup

arrives I mean there's a lot of logistics involved as well yeah you got to have somebody who wants to do it then

you got to have the backside of it you know I can applaud the program and its

aims to you know keep rubber uh products out of the landfills I'm all for it um but we got

to have some easy ways to get the product back I mean it has to happen for any of

these programs to you know have an impactful business model you got to have

the the the the Recycled product have a a I don't know a systematic way to get

it back to the people that's my my opinion there's some um their model eor

model shows how um end of life materials can be reused because you know flooring

gets ugly or it gets rep it gets ugly colored whatever this this is

a good way to take that product at the end of its life cycle of flooring and

turn it into something that can last another 15 20 years not like the rubber's going bad usually ugli out more than a little

bit right but then that's when you just [ __ ] repurpose it grind it up make it

a make it a baby catcher out at the playground making some soup so that way

you could catch the kids yeah that's a yeah you know that stuff is um it is pretty sweet you you I do find

uh not anymore but rough housing on top of it it's like man they should install this everywhere on the inside of

buildings and outside anywhere where kids go and then uh you don't got to worry about those wood chips uh being

displaced and the swing sets getting the six foot hole underneath a swing that a toddler is supposed to be playing on

yeah yeah this this is a porable Surface they call it eor Spectra por uh Spectra

pore surfacing it's used in Bader

Park but beyond playgrounds the success of oh you've seen it there locally yeah

so some of the renovations that they've been doing to the parks over the past couple years that's what they've been

replacing um and even some of the baseball parks that we travel to um

they've been using it that's pretty sweet yeah this is it

seems like a pretty big initiative the success of the project highlights on uh eor plans to expand uh this whole

program Nationwide and um you know as seen in

models for the future sustainable for future sustainability efforts it demonstrates how collaborative efforts

in business sector can drive sustainability sustainable community and

environmentally beneficial ways you know sustain Paving ways for sustainable

future we do got to figure this stuff out I just uh I think that the more that the manufacturers kind of get involved

uh with helping retailers and dealers to be able to reclaim that product and get it out is is

huge hey Sue says uh Houston has two big recy recycling store for pad and they

have ton tons of stock they can't send

nowhere yeah well maybe they can figure out how to help how how to add carpet pad into this

program I know I've been on PL plenty of freaking uh playgrounds that could use

some of this stuff so that's pretty cool yeah all

right I don't know man it's just hard getting talking people into spending

more money sometimes I wonder what the cost of this is compared to you know

say you know some some other playground surfacing material I see rubber a lot I

just didn't know that it was all that it whether I guess I don't know whether it's recycled or not the ones that I've

seen yeah I guess I could say that I'm assuming that the colorful ones are probably less likely to be recycled than

all the the OD black playgrounds but I don't know what the the dying or or

coloring process is of the recycled material

yeah all right let's move on to the next this says uh this is under State of

Affairs a fifth of construction workers lack permanent legal

status it goes on to ask can the next president change that I would say the

next Administration whether or not that's true so so let's read through some of

this together says the US uh construction industry is grappling with a major labor shortage we've talked

about that plenty and talked about all the issues around that uh it's

exasperated by immigration issues particularly in the 20 uh as the 2024

election uh brings immigration policy to the Forefront I mean that was the you

know one of the biggest um I would say battling ideal

in the uh uh election an estimated 15 to 23% of construction workers lack

permanent legal status creating both in a um Open

Secret I would say that's an understatement and a complex dilemma for contractor so you know the funny thing

is you can't we can't hire illegal um

undocumented people you know any other jobs we do or most of the particularly

government work we have to provide a I9 and all this documentation that they are

of legal status now this isn't saying they're of illegal status it's saying they don't have permanent

documentation but either way um do you guys hire have you guys hired any any

people or tried to work with any people that they're uh undocumented

or lack permanent legal status I think that the the paperwork is going to be

way too confusing for us to even try to mess around with that so um Daniel

handles all of uh the employee documents so that that's a a better question for

him but it we're so small I can tell you that we don't we don't have the capability of doing so nor do we want to

try to yeah I know the answer the answer is no because you're not going to get in trouble for hiring UND doed people you

can't right on our application that's one of the questions is are you able to work in the United

States right and like legally and to be honest with you like they they answer

truthfully and some people are like no I'm not but that's where our industry is

you know um that that 1099 culture that's where that's where our law slipped

through I think it's also where where where it pushes a lot of people that

direction yeah because I I've seen it you know and it's not even just a legals that want to keep it that way or the

people that can't you know work here legally it's people that don't want to

pay child support and are trying to hide from something it's always someone that's trying to hide from something

yeah that whole 1099 thing I don't know quite how to deal how how to deal with

that I mean it has to stop at some point but it doesn't at

right now you can 1099 your Hardway you know well I believe um based

off of what I've been told there's gonna there may be they're talking about doing some revisions um to like employee

classifications because of uh some of the policies that are going to be

implemented here after the turn of the year um so they're going to be looking at the 1099 to see if they can

revise uh and recategorize uh employee versus 1099

um but I will add to that you know I did have an instance where a gentleman who was going to school here as a full-time

student was using a travel visa um but it wasn't a work visa it was a student

visa so there was some some weird red tape there that it was just very

confusing and we didn't want to get in trouble or we can't get in trouble um but he was like no I can still work and

but the documents in the college set otherwise yeah well the the article

calls it a complex dilemma I I couldn't agree with that

statement more and it's certainly complex and the

Dilemma is where short workers in a lot of a lot of areas across United States

and it's gonna you know if if the economy kind of revs back up

and gets going crazy again uh it's going to be a real problem this n next

business cycle I could see all this stuff we've talked about being short Workforce really coming to

roost um but it goes on to say that many in the industry are calling for reform

that would allow undocumented workers to participate lawfully in the workforce what do you guys think about

that like if there was a way to uh let allow them to participate

lawfully in the workforce um I would say if they don't fill out a census report then that would exclude

them I mean at least fill out the census so that way documentation can start being correct there um I don't know what

else to add to that besides that if there was a lawful way that that means that they're still entered into the

system in some way shape or form which excludes should exclude employers from

any risk and I think that that's well they're talking about it

because they want to reduce they're saying that the purpose of figuring out

how to uh allow undocumented workers to participate lawfully in the workforce is

aimed at reduction of uh reducing the exploitation and creating a more fair

bid envirment says as the workforce uh demand grows contractors are advocating

for Clear immigration Pathways to bridge the labor Gap that's out a construction

dive I personally think that you know

training is important as well and I know we harp on this every single week but

putting a bunch of uh workers into the market place all with a unknown skill

level and unknown you know education level from

like a technical education level uh how do you figure that out like it's hard

enough for us here in America to talk about this right uh the hammer rating

the our scoring system a go Carrera e that that solves the problem

if it gets adopted or as it is adopted here in the US the problem is what what

about trainings elsewhere we have no idea how good or any of the

background um there's a lot of people who are spot setting uh tile stuff like

that you know and it it's from like India and and you know the Middle East

and different areas where they spot set tile and stuff yeah they that's how they were trained yeah and that that's just

how they do it over there yeah it's not that it's bad it's just it's not the way that the ntca or our our

um you know the ceramic tile Education Foundation any of the uh uh tcna

standards that America runs off of for uh proper uh tile installation it's just

not you know not done so business knowhow would help eliminate

workers being taken advantage of or zaken advantage of I think that's being

really taken advantage of you made a good point there though so like if if

they go back and and say this thing does get imped and people do get allowed to participate right in some way shape or

form what they're going to have to do is they're going to have to put some kind of process in place in order to give them that that rating that scale so they

know their placement in the workforce which in turn is going to require more on our end as well because we're already

involved um and and we should all be subject to the same guidelines um and if

they are creating additional guidelines especially for the flooring industry that could definitely help us

uh in the long run but it is going to flood the market with with uh individuals who are capable and who have

at education but it's going to help us in the long run because it's actually implementing the kind of structure that

we've been lacking I personally think that you know the yeah it'll help in the

the you know the rating system uh we are going to be uh renaming the hammer

rating but uh more to come on that in the future but um

that it's going to flood the market with plenty of lower skilled workers that means you uh guys who are on here

watching this podcast or partake of it on YouTube later or whatever uh you

better understand that you're going to have to be able to prove that you know the difference between you and somebody

else and that is the entire purpose of the the rating system and um so I would

encourage everybody to get your Hammer rating uh will be uh again it'll be

rebranded in the future but at the uh end of the day it's the same exact rating um this here says the industry

faces a dauny need for nearly 44,000 additional workers in 20 uh 25

alone the uh Associated builders and contractors chief economic

Economist sorry uh argues that programs allowing

undocumented workers to obtain work feces will help fill this short this shortage additionally construction

organizations like the ABC and the AGC are pushing for the expansion of the H2

h2b Visa program which provides temporary work visas the current uh gap

of 66,000 annual visas is uh seen as insufficient especially since the US

construction activity is projected to increase and I believe at the previous blue uh color cruise when we were

talking about the increases it was like a 7% increase so that would exasperate

this problem um personally I think that we we need to

uh bring them in get them trained and let's go that's that's my stance at the

end of the day there's there's uh there's a lot of work there's a lot of

uh citizens that are in uh even here in the US that just don't have any

technical skills they couldn't turn a wrench if you made them and uh people

who are willing to learn a trade are often uh your immigrant uh population

and I say let's get them in here and get them trained and I don't think they're going to drive I think I seen a note said some somebody said it's drive drive

labor pay down not a good thing I don't know they still have to do good work if we train them and we

incorporate them into um into our you

know qual standards of quality I guess is the best way to put it like people

you know although we are getting ready to talk about 33% of homeowners who will

hire questionable contractors to save money so maybe maybe he's right

and I'm completely wrong on that but well if it follows some kind of structure then it could be beneficial

right but if it's just free willy-nilly they can do whatever ever they want and they don't have to follow the same

guidelines that everybody else does then it's going to be a problem and and it gets well that's a problem I do see with

the way that the AGC and the the this H uh the h2b program is literally just

like get them in here and get them put to work and let the compan figure out how to use them there's there's no

um is is there a path of progression for it you must start at Point a and then

point B and then point C and then at Point D we let you free you that's what I gonna say because even locally we've

had meetings and not just like this issue but just the labor in general and

there's too many of our competitors around here right are

they don't care they're just like just give me a body on the floor I don't care about their training yeah that's that's where the

problem is people have to care more about the deal and you know these this

this article will be going through here shortly

uh kind of highlights the entire problem as I see it um and I'm not the expert

here I'm one of but I would say I've studied this stuff pretty deeply uh so

I'm not the sole sole voice but I do believe I got a pretty good thumb on it um you know even

here in this article it says many of the immigrants arriving in the US uh lack

specialized skills needed needed in today's modern tech uh modern

construction industry this highlights the need for a more robust or for more

robust training programs the AGC partnered with uh Congressional members on a bar bipartisan proposal to double

the f funing for vocational programs and Career Technical education now that part

of it coming in could really help um you know especially if you're thinking about

high schoolers because it's not like all these imig all the immigrants coming in are just adults you know what I mean

right and so having uh more funding doubling the funding for vocational

programs and Career Technical education it's kind of funny when you think about we I went to shop class in Middle school

and uh it was called Junior High back then and uh the the absolute de

demolishing of all that and now they're talking about doubling the money for those types of programs we we just swing

the pendulum so far one way when we do stuff it's like to get rid of shop and I

mean like you couldn't find a saw in class anywhere now they want to double it well and just like college you have

to go to college and I was like you don't have to go to college at all yeah you must go to college to

well absolutely college is a waste of time Public public uh stats and and um

public information uh prove that you don't have to to go to be successful um

as long as you're still putting in the work um and and no college no University

no matter how many meetings I've been to will ever give you the metrics on success rate versus

failure rate of their graduates and they'll never give that to you no matter how you ask so that's they're keeping

some Secrets there for that one Walter is the floring scientist and he he's he

uh does floring inspections kind of on a a a really scientific based uh approach

but he says the poor quality of contractors working in commercial and Industrial flooring is keeping him busy

well you're going to get busier if uh if if we do this without proper training

the question I have is It's seems to be hard enough and do you guys think that

it'll be easier to convince incoming uh citizens to take H the

career seriously and get trained versus you know I just I still talk to guys all

the time they're like I don't they're I don't see any reason to get trained

nobody hires based on this and nobody cares and I'm like yeah you're right I

mean I I've been sounding the the alarm and and tooting the horn for going on

five years now to the industry how important this stuff is and they'll talk about it at the conventions and I'll

probably ruffle some feathers here but you know all of them are full of crap like everybody at the conventions love

you guys uh close comrades with a lot of the train entities and the the

manufacturers but you guys are all full of crap nobody does anything about it when there is a solution out there they

turn their nose up at it or they want to evaluate it for 15,000 hours it's like nothing gets done

so if this happens and people go to vocational schools and they go to vocational programs and they go through

the the old way of doing things through our education system and maybe we can get some you

know technical colleges back up and running with you know shop class and flooring uh flooring techniques in those

classes um then maybe that would uh you know help save the US uh flooring

installation industry yeah and just um just to add to what you started saying about do you

think that they would come in and find success or be more Su successful or want

to learn um an interesting stat that was brought brought up and I can't say for sure what it is but the the percentages

of immigrants or people working here on a Visa uh entrepreneurs percentage of

them is substantially higher than entrepreneurs in our own country so they

they come here with that mindset of being an entrepreneur versus waiting for

someone to to guide them to their uh uh to their destination they come here trying to make it um and it's a

different mindset and I think that if they're given a path they're going to find success a lot more than someone who

is uh been living in in our system a lot longer where everything's kind lot less

uh lot less spoiled yes that's for sure spoiled that's for sure they're going to take that opportunity this this article

ends with as construction demand Rises industry leaders stress that pragma a

pragmatic immigration reform uh or that pragmatic IM

immigration reform Work Force training and lawful work

status options will be a crit will be critical to meeting the nation's future

building and infrastructure needs so you know I'm I'm all good with uh that last

statement a good you know a pragmatic approach and with Workforce training uh

could you imagine if they had to go you know they kind of pick their deal as they're coming in and they go through 8

10 12 14 weeks I would think the fcef should um you know one of the uh in my

in my mind one of the shining stars out there trying to do as much as they can possibly do in the workforce training

world uh if they hear this uh I certainly hope they reach out to the

seniors at the AGC and the ABC and see how they can get involved with maybe putting a imigration Workforce training

program together for for flooring because if we've gotten 20 million new

uh immigrants into the United States and who knows how the current admin or the new incoming Administration is going to

deal with all that we've all heard the uh sound bites but you know reality is

often a little bit different than uh what people say on camera or on

TV uh but man if we could get get guys who are like on fire to get trained and

and earn a living in this business it would be Fant fantastic yes it

would so I I set this up particularly in this manner because the very next thing

the very next article folks 33% of homeowners would likely

hire a questionable contractor just to save money report

fins I'll leave it there I'll leave it there that's like so

it says a recent report reveals that about onethird of homeowners surveyed are willing to hire contractors with

questionable reputations to save money on home renovations and repairs that

means people 33 one out of every third per three people are willing with a

questionable contractor to let this person in their home that blows my mind it blows my mind

so so it definitely blows my mind because of you know the industry that that we're in right I think homeowners

should know exactly who's in their home how good they are and that they're going to do a good project good product form

if if I were to tell you that I didn't look at teu and entertain purchasing some of the items I've seen off of there because of the cost I'd be lying uh have

I purchased anything no but are you talking about manufactured goods versus letting somebody into your home in

comparison brother in comparison I'm Jud judgment calls I'm not talking about you

know apples apples well this goes on to say that uh and and questionable

contractor so let's define that as somebody who may not be honest about

pricing overstates their skills that's number two on this list delivers poor

quality of work number three or fails to show up for jobs number four like these

are all the things that we have been aiming to uh to rid this industry

of like I don't know what honesty uh you know being honest about pricing maybe

that is uh given a low price and then coming back with a bunch of change orders or something like that is what

I'm assuming um that is probably not the best

business practice for sure however I would say that that is derived from guys

that is um uh it's made worse by people who good

guys having to compete about against crappy guys or crappy C crappy

contractors so the good contractor has to beat this guy's price and then the

only way he can beat that guy's price is to Bare Bones it and then change order

anything that is unforeseen they can't use you know if you're watching this and

you're a homeowner or you're a a Commercial contractor you must understand that people cannot use their

expertise in their industry to put your bid together if they're having to bid

against somebody who has no industry expertise or standards they might have

all the knowledge but not the standards or the required uh requirement by their

employer well the point you get my point like if you don't know how to do it you're G to bid it crappy if I'm bidding

against you and I do know how to do it I can't use that knowledge if I do I'm I might as well just sit at home and pet

my dog because I'm never going to win any work so I can't use my expertise

against a contractor that has none because I will blow my I I will I might

as well not bid the job if I start thinking like okay this a second floor bathroom all second floor bathroom

should have waterproofing under ceramic tile for example

uh well the specs don't call for it you know what I mean I waterproof my

my I just put lvt in there you get my point though like it's

all exasperated by by the the the problem Builds on itself well then I

mean commercially and residentially too everyone thinks that we are all bid in the same exact thing when it's that's

not the case nope I can assure it very often is

exactly not the case actually you know it's very often that guys like you go in and you're thinking ahead of things and

you you want to you know a lot of our bids we we line it them out voluntary

alternates of stuff that we know has to happen that's not in the drawings just to try to say hey here's our base bid

based on the drawings and specs uh and but if you want our expert opinion

or recommendation you need to do these additional things to do your project right that's a great and we usually

usually you'll lose the job anyway because of it but just because of that number yeah they're like oh these guys

are trying to do it way too right we're one of these 33 percenters here you know

and it and it sucks too when it comes down to a difference of like 800 bucks um you know something so minor like

that yeah well the guy that wrote this say that the uh he goes on to say that

the decision can pose significant risks for homeowners especially given the high

cost associated with repairs and Renovations I will add to that resulting damage uh somebody not knowing what

they're doing uh causing additional damage to your home that would not have been done

otherwise the survey found that the reputation that reputation uh go career has a reputation

score by the way let me just uh Shameless plug that in there is the top

Factor homeowners consider when hiring contractors with it with 25%

prioritizing it so look at all these like figures 33% of people will hire a

questionable contractor to save money but then they in that same survey uh

reputation is you know one out of four people prioritize it then followed by

experience then cost personal recommendations availability and and

then estimated timeline so all these metrics are are

should be tracked on a on a contractor in my opinion on how well they're doing

and somebody ought to be able to go to a public uh you know uh centralized place

to see how someone's uh performing in those areas but um yeah it's kind of

contradictory if you say uh that 25% of homeowners prioritize reputation but

then uh you're a questionable contractor yeah so maybe his reputation that gets

the company in the door and not knowing what cont well I think it's the Yen and I think it's the Yen and yang of the uh

of the um of the argument well that like John

says he says his client got three bids from electrical companies the big

company with you know 20 plus employees was around two grand a small man in a van guy was 800 bucks and

I mean overhead is real guys like it's a thing and that that's kind of what you

get though you're getting that reputation and you know that this company isn't going to go anywhere and

if anything goes wrong you can still go back to him and be like hey this isn't right that guy that's charging 800 bucks

could he do it right absolutely but if anything happens to go wrong is he GNA stand behind his work or is he already

you know that that tail light warranty type of person you you never know

does he have the same phone number I was talking to somebody earlier uh going through some uh some list on go carera

and noticing guys that had changed their phone numbers like just different phone numbers I'm like you know in my

experience the guys that the better guys have their number since 19 you know 95 or so like they keep the

same phone number guys who when he had a next toe

yeah if you a different phone number all the time uh any of my uh fellow flooring

contractors out there listening uh if you're s if you got a sub that's always changing his number he's probably

changing it for a reason well this this is a you know this

topic runs deep I think I think there's a lot of stuff that can be derived from it but Angie Hicks who's the co-founder

of Angie you know the old Angie's List this is this kind of cracks me up says

she suggests that homeowners would be better off hiring a new contractor than one with the dubious

reputation yeah yeah I mean no no doubt

no I mean there's a lot of common sense in that sentence right [Laughter]

there just gonna throw that out there yeah

well I get it you want the best deal but really that's what uh you know you're

trying to get most people want to want the best deal to get the best deal you

got to know that you got the same thing what's he say burner I got two one for work and one for play hey bro you know

where I came from burner mean something

else as communities grapple with recovery and efforts from all these storms so we all know about all the

Hurricanes and stuff homeowners are advised to be particularly cautious when hiring

contractors the importance of selecting a reputable Local Company especially for critical repairs like

ruffine uh that must withstand the test of time

it is crucial for homeowners to conduct thorough due diligence ensuring the contractors that they consider are

certified and have solid reputation in the industry I'm telling you what let's go

this is all preach preach the word their article

we've been saying this for how long on the Huddle by taking these precautions homeowners can reduce their uh risk of

fing falling victim to contractor F fraud secure reliable uh services for

their renovation and their repair needs you know yeah yeah that ties into

a couple years ago in our area there was a lot of fraud going on where contract were taking down payments and then

running and you know they were being hired off of the list place and then uh

both Craigs and Angie um and then I I think I see things now on like Facebook

Marketplace but there was a there was a lot of that going on and they were doing like the Fox 17 problem solvers over

here and they would go to knock on these people's hous like hey you took money from so- and so how come you haven't done the work are you gonna money back

why come you haven't been there and it was like that was crazy to me like I can't believe that that was being done it

happens all the time I know I know and homeowners the the uh fact is is that

the construction industry used to be able to tell when somebody was good really we were a a

country of builders in the first place like if you you know people grew up on farms had to build their own stuff and

like that's just not where we're at anymore not everybody can pick up a hammer and and uh build something and

I'm going back to Facebook Marketplace because just like some of these it's like in the garage sale

groups right around the area and someone goes on there and it's like and people tag me in it it's like hey does anyone

know anyone that does any flooring I'm looking for this and then there will be like 150 comments and there'll be two

flooring floor actual flooring people like exploring installers or contractors and then everyone else is a

handyman yeah that was um if you go back to co that was the rise of the

DIY and kept a lot of inspectors busy and then they went back we had some fun with the DIY episode if you guys are

watching next next one you should get you should get on and watch it that was fun I

could all right so I am gonna this next when we're running short on time is

transforming construction safety the shift from compliance to compassion I'm going to skip that one we'll bring that

up in a future episode because I want to get to a another flooring specific a

little more flooring specific one and this is about the FC an fcef announces

first pilot cohort of floring installation technicians course so the

Floor Covering Education Foundation has announced the successful completion of its inaugural pilot cohort for the

flooring installation technician course developed in collaboration with the Alabama Community College

system Innovation Center I didn't even finish it and I it was a mouthful uh

Drake State Community College and the industry task force the significant

Milestone marks the culmination of 2-year effort to create a training program that raises awareness and

preparation and prepares the Next Generation for uh careers in flooring

installation they had their graduation ceremony at Drake State uh on October

11th the achievements of five students who completed the skills for Success floran installation technician course

the program combines online inst in education with Hands-On uh training and

a lab environment so like in modules providing participants with particular skills recognized credentials that equip

them for in demand jobs there's no doubt the jobs are in demand and hopefully you guys get on um

you know get on the uh the jump start and hire some of these people as they

come in John like that need to have the shenanigans

declare everyone needs to get them and beat them down with r sticks all right John is getting down and then he follows

up with the hell yes I helped with this well it was the that the other the first one was on the other topic that we were

on yeah yeah it's not the same topic any any of these uh kids down with

broomsticks yeah no but like I said earlier on it's pretty cool for the FCF to continue to

push and try I mean he just got to keep pushing pushing keep trying new things

uh I think Rand is 100% uh correct here you need to help them to uh get more

funding uh we also need to help get the students placed because that's the throughput on the on the promise once

you start doing that and you get people trained and then they get a job in the industry now we're talking about a way

that uh uh you know people can see a future and uh funding is always going to

be a a a a topic of discussion it's one of those things that is really difficult

to solve um you know the the the industry is about a 20 26 to 28 billion

dollar industry from a wholesale flooring perspective so around I guess

uh that's arguable uh as well but essentially there's about 20 mid2 to to

high to high uh you know or mid 20s to

high 20s uh in the billions of dollars of material sold in the US every year so there's no doubt that we're the

bulk of the and when you consider this is predominantly with say five or 10

manufacturers not like it's spread out across hundreds or thousands this is

your these big entities and I've worked with some of them and they're really hard to work with I mean it's hard to

get anything done um and for them to take a step forward in um improving the

industry everybody talks a big talk uh very few people walk a big walk I mean

it's always talking and oh I got you get you with this person or get you with the it's all it's just you go down a rabbit

hole for a year with with people and um you know uh our industry just really I

feel like lacks um accountability and leadership in those in those areas but

um that just I thought what the FCF you know announced uh was that two years ago

now right when it was people some of these manufacturers given a penny a

square foot and that stuff adds up I mean if if every manufacturer did

that yeah a penny a square foot I think would that there's a manufactur

that is doing that and that I think could could change the industry if

everybody would just do a penny a foot they have no problem charging his extra fuel SE

charges no kid you know right we all know what that was like or is like but I mean you know Rin

is referring to uh you know people hiring everyone says that they need installers but then don't hire them and

uh like even even with us we see that too and they will call us hey man I'm in a

pinch can you do this and then they lay out some pricing and it's like I can do it for this and they're like okay never

mind we'll find someone else I think the big problem about the hiring part is there's just no

the I've said it a thousand times if I've said it once like you got to know that you're getting a superior product

like you buy a Mercedes-Benz you're expecting to spend more than if you buy a

Hyundai period yeah you just are expecting to pay more and it's because

you know the reputation the cloud all the stuff that goes along with it uh with having it the

the the superior quality of having that vehicle the same thing has to be done in

most Industries and most Industries have you know in the construction World a lot

of the ones we all talk about in respect have licensing or certifications or

schooling or J you have to have certain statuses for you to be able to do that

job and bottom line is there's not much uh there's not a um barrier of entry

into flooring and so there has to be some scale of measurement um but of

course people have to adopt the scale people have to uh and uh if not one

that's out there make one do do something like if you don't want if if

the one that's been and not only that we need to start stop pushing the whole uh 1099 on

everyone and realize that there's a a place for this the actual W2 employee

that it's that's the only employee that is legit right there is no such thing as a 1099 employee and then not statement

to you know being their own boss if they want to but it's developing those skills

from an indust or from a something like the FCF going through that working with

someone and then you know after a few years maybe it's like hey I want to try my hand at this and it's like I mean no

one's ever gonna I I don't know if knowing but we wouldn't we wouldn't be like hey no you got to you got to stay

Putman unless they really needed to like we'll be honest with you we've helped we've helped uh hourly guys go uh

subcontractor um the the bottom line is they need to be prepared there should be a stair stepping of this deal um if

you're going to be a flooring uh installer you should work for somebody for quite a while and uh learn the skill

um there's a again a very effective uh

way of of gauging skill level out there uh everybody knows about go career's

hammer rating uh it's just not widely adopted by manufacturers but the bottom

line is at some level of that skill and I've I've personally invited

manufacturers to State like let's come up with what level if it's a a two

rating or a three rating says I'm a journeyman or I'm an apprentice at that

point I'm a full Apprentice I'm past helper I'm an apprentice at this level I'm an journeyman at this level I'm a

master at this level and you you could easily do that and solve the first part

at then you you what's that and then you could if you wanted to go be a

subcontractor we lost uh uh one of our cohorts here Daniel um but if you wanted

to be a subcontractor after that then you go through some type of business uh

training and uh or go to school go to you know one of the things college is pretty good at is treat teaching some

business courses uh you can take a business administration business Administration

you know some level that you have to prove that you are that to uh get a

business license or something then that would solve it but we don't want to put these parameters in um as an industry uh

it's clear to me there's a a bunch of talk about it but not a lot of doing so that's my rant John's comment right here

it just kicked me off and made me sign in again for some reason so I don't like you what's he say he says with

subcontract model there is no motivation to train new installers and I I think what what you

look at in an industry is that it's the way it is because of most of these installers want to work by themselves or

no one wants to work with them yes yeah the the subcontract model

is there because of multiple reasons one is risk uh on the company you can diver

you can um you can uh not eliminate but you can share risk on multiple insurance

policies so that's one reason subcontractor uh model Works uh the

second reason is you you know it's it's more I wouldn't even say coste effective

if you have a good in employee installer they're going to make you more money than a sub ever will but the fact is you

already kind of know you can project your costs better that's why those models work that's why and then in

downtimes when a retailer for example that sells to you know s sells retail

flooring when they hit a low point in the season they don't have that they don't have to lay off and they have this

big Workforce that they're trying to keep busy and and so it can be

beneficial it's just the the individual installer should be skill tested period

and then they should be hired based off of those skills it's real simple like and I understand where John's coming

from from too because I don't go run a car then go buy new tires for the car I don't I don't do that but at the same

hand on the other hand it's uh you're borrowing a car and you know that those tires aren't going to last the three

days you need it you have no choice you gotta make sure you get to point A and B

that's probably the worst analogy ever but couldn't think of anything

else well that is gonna do it for the blue collar cruise this week uh there

were some really cool topics hit us up on spot SP ify YouTube and apple podcast

or anywhere you get your podcast if you catch us please give us a like subscribe give us a thumbs up we're the highest R

rated flooring podcast in the industry uh went through the metrics

earlier and I'm proud to say that with the guys here we're here every single

week and uh putting in the work trying to to help you guys stay educated as

best as we can open up the conversation more so than anything and have have uh

you know meaningful talks so to me that's uh that's what we've been successful at and and really proud of

here at the at the Huddle and I would say that these gentlemen are a stone

when it comes to this podcast and I can't say how much I appreciate you and Jorge for always coming through on the

Hispanic uh well I should say Spanish speak uh Spanish version of the Huddle

he is a stud make sure to grab his uh you know episodes when he's up on on the

Spanish speaking podcast uh for the Huddle uh in fact warge just says

sometimes you need uh you need for things to fall in order for the

manufacturers to be pressed with uh the problem if retailers can't hire more

guys to push they will close down and no carpet comes out of the mill

uh the I think at the end of the day what he's trying to say is that you know

it it's tough to keep everybody busy all the time uh retailers we we have to put in good

quality product for people to still want to buy the product I forget who said it

but you know floran has no value until we touch it and when I say we I mean the

installer till we put it in it has zero value it doesn't do no good in the rack

it does no good out in the driveway it only becomes valuable when it's in your

bedroom or your house and uh or in your facility of some sort so we are the

value creators and we need to start acting like it as an industry of installers we need to start acting like

it and uh hold each other accountable that way so I appreciate everybody

coming on and and all of the uh interactions and live viewers we had a

lot of live viewers today so uh again if you catch us on any platform make comment let us know we're

doing great let us know share everyone you know share share it to everybody you know even if they are a flooring

guy especially if they're fling thumbs down guys I got a bum shoulder thumbs

down thumbs up all right guys well thanks again love you guys it was a

pleasure hanging out and uh for the audience we will catch you guys next

week right oh wait a second Happy Thanksgiving everybody oh yeah aiv

everybody have a great Thanksgiving see you guys