The Huddle - Episode 98 - Troubleshooting Installation Challenges in Real-Time

In this episode of "Troubleshooting Installation Challenges in Real Time," we explore how cutting-edge software is revolutionizing the way installation and sales teams address job site issues. The computers everyone carry in their pockets enable real-time troubleshooting, allowing teams to swiftly identify problems and propose solutions. With the ability to create and agree on change orders instantly, both sides can align before any paperwork is finalized. Discover the use of up and coming technology not only speeds up resolution but also enhances communication and agreement between sales and installation, ultimately improving project outcomes and client satisfaction.

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 team welcome to the Huddle we're back with your weekly Playbook where we not only strategize on playing

the game but changing it from mastering the fundamentals of The Craft and distinguishing ourselves in the

marketplace we're here to give the installer a voice and ensure you're equipped with everything you need let's

band together and Forge a new Legacy in flooring this is where you belong welcome to the team what's up fellas

what's going on going on brother that that you're getting so good at that you're getting so good at that intro

just so you know well uh you know we had to switch

it up and it took it only took me a mere four months to get it down so

hey I add my last name since everyone else has their last

name got to get official got to get official baby man it's good to see you

guys how's a week gone it's Tuesday it's only Tuesday and

it's already been a week right it's been a week for uh since we got to see each other so let's just let's just say it's

been a little hectic and me like because I'm so last minute I was trying to hook up another camera so that way I didn't

have to look here I could have looked right there nah technology doesn't like me not

right this moment but I'll tell you what does love you these guys

at least that guy this guy well today welcome to the to the episode everybody

today we're going to be talking about um troubleshooting installation

challenges in real time kind of like when you have issues out in the

field um what do you do right like what's the what what's kind of the um

first thing you do so I'm going to kick it off with I think we've said this a

million times call your rep call the tech department um one or both of those

if you're having a problem with a product compatibility uh you know what do you

guys you guys call them all the time tell what's some you

know different instances because I think some people think oh this is a stupid question but to me I tell our crews like

there are no stupid questions when it comes to this because once you put this stuff down yeah you you bought it once

you install it right and I think one of the biggest things is um because we always read the installation

instructions that come with the product and then we're always constantly pulling it up online too so once once you have

conflicting information it's like hey which one am I supposed to follow is

this one outdated or is this one outdated and it's calling to make sure that you're following the the correct

one um it was probably five five six years ago we were

doing some stair treads and and that happened and I called and I'm like what is going on like it says this in the box

but it says this online and they're like oh yeah we forgot to change the stuff online so yeah the stuff in the Box was

actually the right stuff so well I have a counter to that one since we're telling War Stories or at least stories

um and could be conflicting information or just something that's not really you you're in a situation out in the field

that isn't really covered in the installation instructions you know um

mine is just the same as yours though we were doing a a bunch of lvt with a uh

sound barrier underlayment underneath it and it has two sides very clearly one

side has a a film on it the other side does not and

the uh instructions that we had sent with the work order stated film up and we got that off

of the website the instructions in

the um in the package itself said film down and so we called to make sure but

the web this particular company the website was and I I think in general

don't take this as an absolute but in general the web it's easier for them to change the

website uh installation instructions then re they're not going to recall you

know three million um three million rolls of product to change a piece of

paper you know so uh in general they most manufacturers try to keep their

websites up but had we not had we flipped that because we had a major claim on this job due to a big flood had

we uh not installed it the way the manufacturer said our liability would

have been there in fact the GC was trying to pin us on it and brought this to our first mediation on this

situation and um brought that piece of paper and says well this says film film

down and I was like oh yeah I got him I got oh hey however a GC that can

actually read and understand some instructions even though they might have been the wrong ones

impressive well it's funny how they can all of a sudden read when they're uh uh those those documents when they're uh

trying to pin something off on somebody else but their building envelope flooded and caused a problem and they uh

replaced what was wet and didn't didn't really want the rest of the areas

replaced in those areas is because of how moisture Works um failed as well and

um so they were trying to pin it on us and um anyway long story short it goes

back to the the the fact is is that had I just went off of one same scenario

Daniel just said I I would have been up up poop creep right and that's why you

know it's it sucks because everyone's like always read the instructions but

it's always important to read multiple sets of instructions and then reach out and and that that's why you have these

phone numbers you know that's why every every box will have a phone number on it so so you can get a hold of these people

and that's what they're there or Google question yeah you can always Google the Manu you know Shaw tech department or or

protector rep you know tech department or whisper map tech department and or

tech services and it'll come up the key here is make the put the effort into

making the call I think that's one of the the lowline things here and and it

seems Elementary and maybe some people in the audience feel like well no crap

here but truth is we were just on a a call last week's huddle was with the

inspectors and they were talking about how often that just does not happen doesn't happen yeah and uh people just

go forward they don't make the call and they get stuck with the situation

and um so we're we're employing our audience to call the tech department in

those cases so that's one way you can really work through an issue when that

you fall into when you're out on site because a lot of these installation challenges they can happen before you

even start the installation right you go to site you visit the site and this guy

over there has been dealing with a project last week that's been a huge headache to where it's like they that's

why he was saying something about gc's where they don't want to follow follow manufacturers recommendations and and

stuff like that and it it didn't matter how much literature you sent sent them it's

and the thing that they kept on saying was no other flooring contractor across

the country has needed to do any prep dude dude God that's just so

insane we need to have we're gonna invite the bullet some sometime soon and

uh this year and have you know get some gc's on here and let's have some it's going to get Gnarly

so if you're in the audience right now when we launch that when you should be uh make sure you're on because it's

probably GNA get kind of kind of hairy we I mean it's not US versus gc's

because we love there are client we love them but at the end of the day these are the challenges

that are unnecessary to me like if if

that's what the manufacturer says why is it so

hard I don't know where the other phone is I think it's on the desk that's right next to him so it's all good we're we're

all we're all working guys so I don't think anybody cares too much no h says

that he has a GC that can join yeah we we'd like to get gc's from from everywhere that way it's not just you know centrally

located yeah I don't want my uh we we don't want our gc's I don't want my head being the only

one cut off I got a guy that I could probably get on that sold his company

and has since uh is now owner's rep and so he works with the owner and gc's and

he was always a real good one so um I have to think of one that really

causes uh some Havoc that would still be willing to join but I'd like to have

that conversation but anyway got off track there sorry guys and like be before the job site

like even when you're you're not the one that's like bidding the job and stuff

when you're working for a store and everything you can still have that communication and I think it it's just

important that um that everyone knows that there's always that

that line of communication there that that needs to be there even with the stores right that hey I just want to

know as much about this project as possible can you give me more information and I think that I mean go

carera does a great job of that I mean we have um people that use it with us

and you know that that line of communication is very important hey here's this information ask all these

questions and everything is tracked in there um do you want to watch that video right now about well let me add just one

thing that you know that we have you've got all these different scenarios so

there's tons of tools and I think we were talking beforehand like there's a lot of tools out there you can use um

that that can help because when you're troubleshooting things it may not be as

something like we just described where you're dealing with two different installation instructions or something

but you're dealing with a layout issue or you're dealing with a floor prep problem or you go to a job site and you

were told that you know the floors are in good shape like Jose maybe and then

you get there and it's like disastrous you know um in all those cases if you

work for a store you really have to get them involved because you you're not going to do it for free nor should you

so you got to get them involved in these uh scenarios whether it's a layout out issue um or whatever but yeah like one

of the key features so you can use text messages emails any means of

communication is better than nothing um WhatsApp those types of Technologies the

the thing that go Carrera does do uh to to plug here a little bit we have a few

instances where we took this really seriously and one of them is chat like

the reason that is in my opinion so superior to the other methods is your

work order that you have with that store that chat stays with that work order forever so you're not searching through

six months later um you know trying to see what was said about a given scenario

in a text message string with an you email or something that where did we

talk about this cuz you're talking on email you're talking on text message and you can't find you're searching and

trying to all you need to know with go Carrera is what was the job name go to that job find that work order and look

at the communication that you both had so um yeah let alone the pictures and

everything yeah show that video of uh

chat so this just video of how chat Works chat is a feature where you can

ask questions before you bid on a job so once you found a job click view details

review the work order offer look through it make sure that you

understand everything and maybe you have a question what you'll do is you'll go to the upper right hand corner and you'll

click on this chat bubble right here and simply type your question or your

concern with the uh work order offer as the company's responding you'll

see that they're responding and that's it guys get to chat back and forth what's really cool

about this feature is the work impressive this communication stays with

the work order forever quick thumbs

baby yeah the fact and to clarify you can use that feature before you um

accept a work order or you can use that feature after you have a work order that

you're performing the job and you want to ask questions or whatever but th those are just good ways to have the um

everybody on the same page um and like I said there's other means

and but they're they they're just hard to go back I I've lived the life of

trying to we've all lived the life and that's why it's we we've all been through it and that's why we know how

beneficial it is to have it all in one area yeah

look this is all coming look I didn't like the change right like I'm technolog

is against me so therefore I'm against technology but I I will let you know that it is a little bit of a learning curve to make sure that you're

using um the right channels and it may seem like a hassle to have to to get

used to something but when you have all Communications there and you can reference everything on a specific

project oh dude like that makes life so easier you don't have to go through 100 messages or scroll down or oh it got

deleted that thread got deleted it's there yeah yeah so what's important

um when you're when you are troubleshooting those things you know

also pick up the phone if you have to but the reason the chat is or even I

would say in certain uh circumstances something in writing is better is because you're going to get some

directive and a phone call is better than nothing but it's probably um needs to be

either before or after that phone call a written

communication yeah and sent because I've had too many times where you have that

phone call and it's he said she said B it's it's always I don't remember that I

don't recall right now to remember that so I'm

gonna pretend I forgot it so another uh key

is that I think is important is having having you know colleagues in the

industry uh that's one of the reasons we kind of talk to you guys about um talk

to the entire audience all the time about making it to some of the conventions or shows or uh you know some

of the the trade shows and stuff is because that's where you meet people and if I have a question that I don't know

about and it's got to do with sheet vinyl I know who I'm calling I'm calling a few people if it's a real technical

install question Daniel's on my list you know so is Jose like you guys are on my

list who I would call uh because I know where Daniel's

at uh and you know or watching YouTube

videos like Crystal's got some well they're I think those are Tik toks but of really cool little features little

little tricks to the trade on outside and inside Corners with sheet vinyl and such particularly if you got crappy

sheetrock but so that's just side note um but the truth is is knowing people

will help you troubleshoot your problem as well because the manufacturer there

are plenty of instances where you need a trick to get you through the problem

like up use crystals uh out you know using

sheet metal for an outside corner when the sheetrock you know was that far I believe from the ground if I

remember the video right it probably you know this far from the ground would you can't weld you know it makes it hard as

CRA hard yeah you can't get your Co stick

there I mean like there's all these deals right and um you know

understanding who those little tricks if you call tech department they're going to say well tell the GC to fix sheetrock right GC is

not on site and you got to have this room done by tomorrow so you're always GNA have these different so that's kind

of talked to manufacturers about that before and that's where they get into the whole well you you should have been

there two months ahead of time and then found these things out so they could have fixed it when in reality that's

just not possible in most cases yeah they just got sheetrock up last week bud

welcome to construction right yeah they they sit in the Ivory Tower a lot of times and they know their

stuff uh but at the end of the day what they don't know is your job site and so

a lot of times you need those tricks and that's when you need a friend you need somebody that you can call that you

trust that's done that is a specialist at what you do or the situation you're

in and be able to talk to them you know um Ballin knows best has that for a lot

of type thing and and if the a if AI doesn't have the answer they have the

mentors on there that boom things get shot out and then they come back with a

human being that hey this didn't shoot out what you needed yeah here I go shout

out to Kim Ballin even though I haven't seen him on here recently get your butt on the podcast

Ken uh the I think he's trying to grow some hair back or something like that I don't know trying to get a stop and look I wore

puit shirt today he needs to get on here too oh man yeah we gotta crack open the

bottles for puit get him on few Bud Lights entice him we have to

bribe him like you got to bribe the forklift driver on a job

site I got a wig for him Jorge probably does have a wig for him actually

he cut off I know I seen the ponytail uh picture Jorge you're a genius on social

bro great job it's funny um like but

yeah one of the biggest secrets like even looking back on everything

um taking pictures and videos of documenting everything because like

technology your phone will timestamp everything like the metadata in there

you can't fake this is true yeah

the so taking pictures there's there's several ways um again we're going to be

plugging go career here in a second because we got an awesome feature that deals with this but whether it's WhatsApp or a FaceTime kind of gives you

some you know visibility on site um but at least taking pictures and

building a report afterwards like this is this area this is the problem with

this and like documenting that you can do that in chat but we have a product on

if you're in go careera there's product called Link and Link will be is an

interactive video feature where you send your if you're an installer you'll

receive a text message from whoever you're doing the work for uh most likely a shop or somebody who's using go

Carrera and you click uh you know type in your name and you join the call and then they have

control of the camera portion of your phone to be able to zoom in and you guys can you can hold the phone and just show

them the problem and you guys can actually draw on the screen

and figure out the problem together that's why it's interactive video and

then at the end of that you get a link you get a report and it automatically it

saves you all the time of like emailing pictures and then downloading them and

then putting them on a word dock or a PDF and then typing in what the this takes all the metadata that Daniel was

just talking about location if your locations turn on your phone it'll even

take your location so that everyone knows you're on the job site like when

this report gets sent to whoever uh it's needed to be I'll tell a quick story on

link and I think I've probably told this one for but it was such a great experience that I had a installer out in

the field and we had different Siz tiles both listed as 4x12 from the same

manufacturer but they were two different styles and so the sizing was different so one of the groud joints

either had to get bigger or one of them had to get smaller and one was a flat tile one was a wavy tile and uh there

was that was an issue and they stacked on top of each other half the wall was flat and the top half was wavy the other

issue was at the top they wanted aquadec metal on this wavy tile and so we were trying to explain over the phone to the

designer that it's going to look so bad like it's better just to cut into the

ceiling Grid it's going to look horrific to put a piece quatic metal across the top of there because either the high

side's going to be too high or the low side's going to be too low I mean which side do you match anyway long story

short we were able to get on on a single link called The GC uh the superintendent

the project manager the PM was in uh Witchita I was in Witchita the designer

was in New York and the architect and then the uh superintendent was actually

on vacation and we all had to collaborate on this single thing so on

one link call you can have up to eight people on it and we were able to draw it

all out figure out which ones make make uh text notes on the on the picture

itself and then provide that report to the GC and uh architect and say this is

the uh synopsis of our phone conversation or our link call and all

the details that were taken and they were blown away because not only did we

were we able to um solve the problem without having to wait a week for the architect or designer to come into town

we were also able to um you know provide them with a report that kind of gave an overview of what what we were talking

about so that was pretty cool which is great because the last time I was dealing with that whole different tile

siiz situation I had to go to the project site with the architect and show

them and stack them on each other to say listen they just don't add up I don't

care if it says on the box that this is 4 in and this is 12 in it's just

they don't add up it's nomal right isn't it amazing that like just to try to get

the concept across to a designer's all I kept hearing was it's

the same manufacturer and they say it's the same size and I'm like this is a 40

foot wall well it's really like there's hundreds of feet of it but this one wall

walking into the two bathrooms and they go you know the AL Cove into a bathroom a set of bathrooms

that one wall like it's going to be visible from the hallways I mean it had to be right and if you're

just the on a 4X 12 if you're off just a sco just a little bit and you use same

gr joints you're going to run off you know and it so anyway you can um you can

save a bunch of time by using technology and even a even a WhatsApp call where

they're on the other side you may not be able to make the cool mark ups and have the report done for you but pictures or

something with a written documentation showing what you did um Let me let me

let me add that problem let me add to that about the markups so like if

there's a little slight difference in terminology that's where the video feature and the markups will come in handy you like wait wait this is what

I'm talking about right here look stop and then freeze zoom in circle note like this is what I'm talking about what is

that why is that there um that that's where the the markups and the video will

come in handy for anyone who who don't really understand the limitations of that yeah picture speaks a thousand

words as they say and video you know real time markup real time markup that's that's pretty

dope it is yeah we we'll we'll start uh you already gave them kind of the the

rundown of you know you get a text message and then uh for the link and

then you you pull it up oh yeah show them that video and then uh we'll start

with the text message how about that that'll work check this out

guys link call and it'll come across your text message and there's the text

message you click on the text message click on the

link type in your

name click [Music]

continue hey Umberto how are you hey Ben so got a question on the height of the

wall tile the drawings show the uh wall tile

coming to about right here on the drawing at 4T above finish floor that's

going to fall right in the middle of this outlet

and um I can do it higher and so the

outlet is in the tile but I didn't know which way to go with

that you see those pointers below or above let me go ahead uh so those

pointers like allow you to explain exactly and and this is just a

demonstration but when you're in the real [ __ ] of a project trying to figure things out those pointers come in real

Handy right and you can change your colors and everything so that way you can differentiate between the

pointers show choices are that we might and the tile so this is about where the

drawing shows and this is at 4 foot okay right to

there if I go well I can go 4ot 3 to

here yeah and that's going to be a full tile

correct four four full rows with a three 3in bullnose to

there I think that makes the most sense to me and then uh uh everything will be protected with the tile

uh I guess the other option would be to to bring it down

here at this level yeah like right oh I think it

would be something like right there and that would be 3ot

like 10 in or so not I I don't know for uh perfect but I think this would be 3

10 in this and then you guys get the point like everything is tracked in that job

like this video is saved right all I kept wanting to do was ask

is there going to be enough material if we go that high well fair point but the the cool

thing like uh Daniel just said is that then you get you just download the report afterwards and you have that and

you can send it to whoever it is and say that you can record the video and send that as well so it's really cool if

you're trying to work through those details on job sites and if you're a company it could save you a trip out to

the job site uh particularly if it's um you know not right down the street I

mean even if it's on the other side of Grand Rapids it be a half hour you know or witw that's the project that that

we've been dealing with is about what 20 minutes away something like that so Jose

says that most of the gc's he's encountered seem to be poorly educated on how flooring specs go

and um and it's in all their contract documents about which specs to follow

which standards to follow follow the manufacturers recommendations and all

this and they'll still tell you to uh no that's not what we're going to do but so

so I'll add something to that too right it's it's maybe they're acting like they don't know and the reason I say that is

because the whole scenario that's unfolded lately with all the black and white in front of them

they still look at it like this and it was like so yeah it's like selective reading

my mom used to tell me I had selective hearing that's part of that's part of troubleshooting too right problem

solving on the Fly making sure you know where to find the correct information uh to help educate that that's that's a a

great aspect to uh or a great uh thing to add to to this episode on there just

know where you're looking know why you're looking yeah well if you know the specs and you

I think they you know we kind of went through this last week uh during the episode with the inspectors is like

knowing your stuff makes you it will help if you are kind of

willy-nilly about how it should be done and you don't know the specs yourself and you're having a conversation with a

I don't care if it's a homeowner or a GC or a builder or who um you know we do

some uh residential not very much couple two three houses a year but we've been

in the situation where the homeowner's like well I don't understand why you can't have this done in time I'm like

ma'am you're doing hardwood we can't do it until your windows are done and your

hvac's on and we have your your floor ried out and moisture tested and like we

can't do that entire process in time in the time frame you're asking so

so either way it's about knowing your stuff so that you can be more of an

authority when you present or when you have a a conversation with your customer

whoever that is so what's um what what's your guys uh

thoughts around you know when you're you're troubleshooting a problem uh what what is the like if we

were to say hey go step by step what would your first thing be if you uh

whatever scenario you want to pull up but kind of almost any scenario what was

your first what's your first go to I guess it depends on what kind of

kind of issue we're talking about are we talking uh just a a a material issue communication issue like let's call it a

a project stoppage issue it doesn't matter why why ever this right here what

what has said and engineered wood without windows in yeah that's a project

stop start buckling after three months does not Sur I would definitely look at the work

order and see what I have going in there when I'm walking on the job site doing your homework and reading the work order

and the information prior to walking into a project um is huge right so I

mean it's about preventing it but if I walk in there and I know what's going on I'm looking around like hey hold

on we got to stop right here let's figure this out this is what we're installing in this area this is what we're installing over here there's

window why are the windows in okay if the windows aren in is the HVAC in hvac's not up and running we are running

on temp power or temp uh heat propane throwing moisture everywhere let's find

out when that's GNA happen when that's going in um you know is if that's not on

is the water even running how can I operate and prep and get ready for my stuff the water isn't running it's long

list of things go through my head really fast well any of those you're going to call the customer first right and let

them know there's a problem maybe they are one of the one of those customers

that are you know like common sense or

or listen to The Experts and you're like hey I need X Y and Z to continue going

forward um after let's say uh it's a it's a

problem with the product that is going to stop the job and we're always under schedule issues

so yeah um first call you

know is well sales person yeah it's like I'm gonna look at some documents online

see if I can figure it out real quick if I cannot I'm G to call my sales rep let him know that I'm getting ready to call

the tech rep because that's who I really want to talk to and I talk to the

technical department that's kind of my like almost every time it it kind of goes in that order um and I get the tech

rep on for a couple of reasons I want to build my case with them and have them on my side oh yes

able to be on the phone when I go talk to the GC again if I have a problem or

the homeowner or whoever it is so then I got the tech rep over here saying yeah

sir sorry um we highly do not recommend you install your your engineered wood

without windows highly recommend not doing that and so

you get you got little bit of backup so that's that's another benefit of calling your Tech uh Department pretty

quickly yeah and and I think it's too is knowing the technical aspect and trying

to get that message across is really great but also being able to communicate with um you know the the gender or the

homeowner or um whoever whoever is the owner of that project period um finding

common ground and and a line of communication is always great you don't some people don't take too kindly to the

direct approach some people um don't take too kindly to the fluff approach so you got to find your happy

medium I don't have a happy medium yeah you do that's what Daniel

calls me talk their ear off until they they

they start listening well one

of one of the things that I think is really important is like a lot of people

will um a lot of people know this stuff I think you got to have the confidence

to make the call it's clear to me that not not enough installers make phone calls to

the tech department they call their shop they'll call talk to the GC and try to

let them fix it but if you get direction from a shop and you don't know that you're do they're

telling you to do it wrong you're kind of at disadvantage if something was to fail so called the and we've been to

hundreds of conferences and talk to the technical departments at every time and what do they say we want you guys to

call me please call us they're kind of attention starved on top of that so they

love it when you give them a call so you know that that but enough

enough people aren't aren't calling so it's got to be either what confidence they don't know which

hopefully by now if you're um if you followed this podcast for any length of

time we've encouraged you uh to do so and we're telling you now call the tech rep um but why else don't they call I

mean what what are the reasons not not not why is that not happening more often

I think it's the same reason why people don't want to go get certified they don't want to have someone tell them

that they've been doing something wrong their entire careers that could be part of it well

and you know this might be too they just don't know they're doing something wrong right you don't know what you don't know

um and and to add to that is you know the the the installers end up becoming

the middle the middleman in a conversation that they may not want to be a part of right and that's where like

had said uh look up the specs call the tech rep call you know you don't if you're an installer you don't always

have to call the sales rep first right call the tech rep find out you know let me try to solve this little bit of a

problem and then you have information to talk to both the general the homeowner or the the the sales rep whether you're

working for a store um and their sales person or the sales rep themselves um

information is information is worth this waiting gold in in a conversation like that when

you know something is outside of the norm yeah for sure and I

mean if you don't know just like I said earlier and what you just alluded alluded to is if you don't

know um you can get LED astray too you know like if if so getting that Tech rep

on the phone you may be mistaken I learn from them uh I'm not ashamed to to kind

of be the dumb in the room and and learn something new I know it just sucks when you ask

them questions and they're just like you know how to do this no bro I called you because I need to need you to tell me I

think that's a unique Daniel problem because they all know you and you call and they're like oh come on man you I

know you know this and you're like nope not this one buddy calling you for Aon you know that's the thing too is is

if if if you call someone and they know you know what you're doing but if you

call them and say yeah I know what I'm doing right and they and it's proven that you know what you're doing they they may not be willing to divulge

information or maybe another trick of the trade or a secret that could help you become a better version of you um

and you can't call someone as if you know it all you got to call them with an open mind and and and try to absorb any

any tidbit of information they might have that is that is outside of what you already

know amen yeah listen and learn if you you know the Huddle's about I

mean our biggest like Ploy is to is education I think if we had one like

major thing that we push oh it's every week is get educated you know get

educated know what you're doing um it's it's a bit mindboggling to me that that

so and we know this because go Carrera we you know have thousands of installers on there the

average Hammer rating is is pretty low and the average Hammer rating is low

because we're a flooring a generation of flooring installers that that skipped

training and there's I'm I'm hoping the Resurgence is here and we can continue

to more more uh embrace the the new trainings there's new tricks you'll

learn there stuff you know that you just think you know uh we I've told this

story before too we've we've sent a couple of really good installers to CFI

certification and um when they got through that class they were like man I

did I've been doing this part wrong for a lot of years and Derek's on on he's a

very good installer but he learned tricks and easier ways of doing things

you would be surprised that you're going to I guarantee you go to some of this stuff you're going to learn some stuff

that'll save you time and it'll be worth it it'll it's like any investment which

that's what a training is it's an investment in yourself um it takes a

little bit of time to pay back but it will pay you back you guys are believers in that

right absolutely oh yeah I don't think we'd be here talking to you if we weren't

is rhetorical and then uh I one of the other softwares that we use to um to to

communicate real time is Microsoft teams and I just wanted to do a little

this is a post by baby sister that she did so they can kind of see keeping

everything in the job so that way everything is tracked all right we're

done with this area and this is the same thing that we use when issues come up we're like take

pictures there's stuff in the way take a picture put it in there that way everything is

timestamp but keep track of another piece if your job if you're on a a

commercial job and you got procore uh and you're working through a lot of times that Subs can upload their

pictures for different issues uh a lot of times they don't turn that feature on until it's punch list time yep punch

list that's that's going to say take a picture of your punch list and make sure it's done yep um we like using that the

chat feature um or you know whether you're using chat or or teams or

whatever the key is you know tracking everything like we we have um you know

technology can be a real pain in the rear I know that but at the same time

man it saves so much time there's no way company our size could do the amount of

work we get done with the number of people back in the 70s like we'd have to

have you know an additional 30% 40% staff members

just just think about like the drawings and scaling

everything by hand and using the rulers and coloring everything up a ruler and

then you get an addendum and it's like oh man they just changed all this stuff

the white out dude pull out the I used to love I

used to love getting the big the big drawing and doing a seam layout right uh you know and and getting out the color

pencils I used to love that now you know what the drafting tables are just a

thing of the past man um they look cool in the corner though yeah I got rid of

my uh custom desk about four or five years ago cuz it's it's it was had a

desk here and a drafting table in the back behind it and you know uh I I did

that for many years and then you start to get on screen stuff and then different ways of communicating that's

so much faster and uh the key here that that we're trying to drive home is

document your stuff have a way to when you're when you

have kind of a methodology in your head like don't think you know it all call the tech rep call your shop if you're

working for a shop or call your uh customer whoever that is and have a conversation but then back your

knowledge up with the tech rep uh and the sales rep a lot of those guys know uh guys and gals know uh what they're

talking about but I like talking to The Tech Guys because most of them are old installer

so they love what they do yeah and shout out to like um I'm getting ready to do a

a a new product with ardx and those guys have been fantastic ardx doesn't sponsor

the show or anything but their tech department has been really fantastic

they flew a guy out I don't have I didn't even have the job yet but we're doing a exterior P project about 4,000

foot um on a thick bed their

A14 like you can go as deep deep as you want with that the pebble Aggregate and

um the A14 it's an exterior mortar uh like mud bed basically uh that's per

permeable and lets the water go through it to the uh substrate Drainage Systems

so a lot of places will put the dra system amazing yeah I'm gonna video the

whole thing I'm gonna go live on it too you guys don't see me live on Facebook very often but I'm gonna go live on that

baby but artx is been excellent I'm just telling you even I've got a lot of

experience with M they they've done just given some shout outs to the good Tech departments out there it's because you

you call them man and they they send people out it's like hey you guys got a big job coming up when are you starting

it I want to be there I want to make sure go right they flew a guy out just

to talk to the owner and kind of go through the process and and put their eyes on it before I've even won the job

I just told them I this is going to happen I would really appreciate if you guys would come out and sometimes even have to be the

actual manufacturer right it's the distributor it's hey they got this product going in it's not the right product let me talk to them I'll get

something else specified right yeah yep yeah so it's a really good

um you know outlet for you to to you should be leveraging the tech department

of the manufacturers that's the bottom line leverage them use them for their knowledge have them come out to your job

sites I mean we've had where jobs were stopped and I'm like all I can do is get

the tech guy to come out and they can be out here and and it's amazing how quick they can get those guys deployed too but

uh you know they can come out and walk look at it and they'll tell you themselves whether or not I'm being too

picky or if you're right Mr owner or or GC or whoever it is you know what else

is another software that really helps with installation challenges in real

time floor Cloud floor Cloud no this is true in real time if

you can prevent it if you can prevent it and go and know your job's ready uh what

what a benefit so installers out there I look I know you guys aren't using

necessarily floor Cloud but you should talk to your your um if you're working

for a shop or a dealer you should talk to them about it especially on larger projects and I'm not talking just

commercial like even larger Custom Homes I've got a home that I'm working on right now it's basically built like a

commercial project it's super big um you know once they get things closed in and

stuff floor Cloud's going out there I'm not you know I'm not GNA be waiting for

the week before to get the information so you know you'll see you'll save a lot

of money as an installer not going to a job site just to find out it's not ready right time is money so is fuel these

days God ridiculous so

um you know we've pretty much beat up this whole scenario we've talked

about technology talked about calling your Tech rep talked about having buddies like Jorge and Daniel and Jose

or you know calling calling um somebody

at CFI and being able to talk to them uh so get involved in the industry that's

another one of our big ploes education and involvement and you're going to get

people on your side like and and there there's again give uh Ken ballan a bit

of a shout out there's still working on this thing but it works uh you know to to an extent and they got mentors that

that if it's not got the answer but they AI machine that that uh you know you ask

a question and you you can get an answer back and and people keep on testing it right and they're like you're not giving

me the right answer but they don't understand that it's technology these are the beginning stages it's only going to get better from here so yeah and you

can help it get better by asking the questions we fought that a lot through the years of go Carrera it it takes

usage to get better and feedback to get better so um yeah shout out to everybody

out there trying to work on these problems and make make life a little bit easier for the guys out in the field uh

the more the more you're putting your hands on the product and putting it down the more money you're making solving

these problems the more efficient you can be the more the less time you take

the less time you are uh you know not installing and let's be honest that's how we make money you right we make

money putting the product down if there's ever a topic that you guys want us to cover definitely uh reach out the

email address is going across the screen um if you're listening in it's the Huddle forward progress gmail.com or

reach out to one of us personally um just you can also go on Facebook uh we've been putting the the events in

there if there's one that like jumps out to you definitely reach out and just say hey I would really like to be on this

one that's why we're not putting any guests on that way if you know more people wna want to join in that that's

what we want we want more people to join in so hey reach out let us know um and

we'll we'll definitely try and fit you in where we can yeah we're we're certainly um open for topics topics are

the thing that like it doesn't uh always have to surround flooring uh we've done

several podcasts on business and the reason we feel like we're um you know

uniquely positioned to be able to give some of the business uh guidance is we

all started as installers uh I installed for 20 years or so uh you know these guys have

installed dang the old

man yeah no doubt getting there but I'll tell you we went through a lot of the

stuff you're going to go through and I've mentored a few guys on Facebook that you know just reached out in my

messenger and said hey man I want I'm going to buy this this store uh they

really struggled with X Y and Z what's your you got any advice and I've I've

helped people out um I know you guys have as well and this podcast is kind of

there for for that as well so if you have a business topic if we don't know it we will go find an expert and we've

also reached out to you too so appreciate that and next week we are going to have a baby sister on because

you know she's still in the thick of it installing and uh it's going to be the psychological impact of installer

burnout and strategies for self-care over the past few years she's really you know honed in

on her self-care and I think it it's important for for people to to

understand that you know self-care is is really important you got to realize that

sometimes hey maybe taking off an hour early today and then putting in that

extra hour tomorrow is what needs to happen I mean job still got to get done but but hey sometimes you know hey man

it's tough out there it's a give and take situation sometimes right well we all know the economy is kind of rough

from a cost perspective we're spending more on everything that that's not I don't care where you lie in in politics

and we don't get into that here but bottom line [ __ ] costs a heck of a

lot more it used to and um you know so there's stress outside of work and then

you add the stress of a pro you know of a project um and and we've had we had a

um you know a counselor on here probably two or three maybe four episodes ago and

uh a lot of talk about that so I'm looking forward to that that um episode

again I I think we you know believe in keeping that on the Forefront of our minds cu our brothers and sisters out

there in floring you know we know it's tough we know it can be a hard Road and

and hopefully we you can consider us here for you here at the Huddle so if you do like you know the podcast you

want to support us the best way you can support us is giving us you know some some comments a like a subscribe give us

um some topics throw topics in the comments um any of that stuff helps with

the uh you know all the algorithms out there in the world that that uh put us on feeds and and get us more um uh

viewers and what we want to do is get the message out to every installer in the nation uh about what we're our our

main purpose here and that's helping you guys be more successful like that's our main goal if we can bring topics up that

we have some knowledge in or we can bring an expert in and um help you be

more successful live a higher quality life overall yeah there that's my goal

that's our goal that's what we're here for so I want to thank everybody thank you too as always the Staples it's

always fun getting with you guys and and chatting it through and um it was a great topic I think it's it's super

important um and I look forward to next week's topic as well so guys gotting

closing closing gotting closing arguments yeah no no arguments no arguments I do

have uh um I think uh with all the technology and the information that is

at our fingertips no one really has an excuse anymore to to not know um you

want to explore all those Avenues so that way at the end of the job you can tell somebody with confidence that you

got 99 problems and the floor ain't one so work I love it yeah leave it to Jose

keep track of everything man sorry dude keep track of everything and then communicate as things are happening um

I've been on too many projects where in the beginning we weren't

keeping track so we we learned the hard way to give you guys this information and then once we started keeping track

of everything you know we got on those jobs where it's like we we I got told in meetings I

can't believe you guys have this much information and it's like yeah man that's what that's what happens when you get burned you learn yeah that's Le

learn from our mistakes and you know keep track of everything get kicked in the old junk a time or two and you

you'll do it the you'll start documenting more and and feel free to reach out I mean we got a call when was

it last week from Texas and I mean you posted on flooring and STS of America I

think reaching out to see if anyone in Texas is um you know proficient in vinyl

and heat welding because there's a gentleman down there that's that was watching our videos and was you know he

was he's trying to learn and he's like I've watched your videos I still just

cannot get it and it's like yep I can't do it yeah try to get him connected yeah

and that's what we're here for connecting the community so if you're in Texas and you're listening to this right

now or you're listening to it on the podcast when it comes out next week reach out to us so we can connect you to

the gentleman down there Y and he he's in facility maintenance he's not an installer guys so he is reaching out for

help that could potentially lead to more work yeah help him out probably doing

some patches probably just keeping the facility you know moving forward that

kind of thing something this big can turn into an entire floor in a hospital you never know right it often does

especially in hospital so well super um I look forward to seeing you guys again

next week and to the audience again give us a like subscribe give us some love out there and keep on sharing us man we

appreciate everything you guys do for us yeah we do appr definitely give us a

thumbs down we like that too can't grow if we don't know that's right all right

fellas we'll catch you guys next week all right we'll see you