Brickman Consulting

Wood Flooring Solutions.

Do You Need An Alibi?

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Cross posted from Howard Brickman's column in Hardwood Floors Magazine: Inspector Blog.

Only a guilty man needs to have an alibi prepared. Well, you are all guilty of being wood floor guys, so let’s get those alibis ready for prime time. And maybe the process of getting those alibis prepped will also provide a framework for preventing the need for an alibi.

Tool/Equipment List:

  • smartphone with camera
  • pin-type moisture meter
  • black Sharpie Marker
  • hammer
  • 6d and 8d finish nails
  • thermohygrometer
  • flashlight
  • spiral notebook
  • pencils and pens
  • string (fluorescent red, blue, green, or yellow)

Stuff To Do (or Not Do):

BEFORE WOOD FLOORING DELIVERY:

  • Do not sign a confession, err, I mean contract provided by the general contractor without carefully reviewing the provisions regarding warranties and terms of payment.
  • Check moisture content (MC) of the subfloor and inspect the crawl space. Use the Sharpie to write the MC readings directly on the subfloor with the date and your initials. Check MC near windows, plumbing, and doors, and by obvious signs of water staining or moisture intrusions. More readings are better. Record the readings in your notebook.
  • Make a label that lists the date, job address, and your name in large block letters for identifying pictures.
  • Take pictures of the high-MC readings with your smartphone. It will automatically time, date, and location-stamp the individual photos.
  • Take pictures of other non-compliant issues (e.g., missing windows or doors, tile saws on subfloor, unvented torpedo gas/kerosene heaters, etc.)
  • Check MC of joists and subfloor in basement and crawl space. Look for water, mold, and mildew, and take pictures.
  • Politely request that the GC or building owner correct any problems noted in a brief and concise e-mail (or using another method that documents the content and delivery of the request).

AFTER WOOD FLOORING DELIVERY:

  • Check subfloor MC again and verify the any problems observed during previous visits were corrected. If not, document them again.
  • Check wood flooring MC on at least 40 boards. Use the Sharpie to write MC and date on the back of boards. Record the readings in your notebook. Reject the flooring if it is outside the range from 6% to 9% MC.

BEFORE INSTALLING THE FLOORING:

  • Verify that you document everything that could negatively impact the wood floor. Use the list from the NWFA Installation Guidelines (the PDF is available free online for all NWFA members).
  • Communicate one last time to the GC if there are any issues. This is the point at which you need to present your disclaimer or waiver document for the GC to sign or at least acknowledge. This can be a delicate time in the job. You may want to tread lightly, because there is a fine line between being a concerned wood floor professional and being a pain in the neck who aggravates everyone else on the job, especially the GC. You know the deal. There are 10 flooring guys waiting on the sidewalk to come in and do the work without even “noticing” the all of the potential problems.
  • If you are called to help out a GC at the “last minute,” take a deep breath and try to figure out why the other floor guy that has been doing his work for the past three years is not available. Is there a money issue? Or what?
  • If you are installing a nail-down solid floor, there are some critical steps that help to inoculate you from problems during an inspection: 1) fasteners every 6”; 2) #15 asphalt-saturated felt; 3) Expansion space around the perimeter of the floor.

The typical inspector will check MC, expansion space, nailing, and will want to see your documentation. If you have done due diligence with your prep work, the chances of a job going South are greatly reduced. If it goes South, you should be certain that a really qualified person performs the inspection. The same qualities that make you a competent craftsman apply to the inspection craft: experience in the wood floor craft, experience in performing inspections, referrals from really knowledgeable people in the industry, and the proper temperament to stand up to the pressure from all of the associated parties. In addition to doing everything right, you have to be able to prove that you did everything right. Here’s to hoping that you never need that alibi. Good fortune favors the well prepared.

Is Believing the Same as Knowing?

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Cross posted from Howard Brickman's article on Hardwood Floors Magazine: Inspector Blog.

Is believing that something is true or correct the same as knowing that a fact is true or correct because of rigorous objective examination? Said another way, “Don’t believe everything you think.” (Bill O’Hanlon.) Does this mean that we should stop thinking? Of course not. But it means that we should develop the ability to think critically and carefully evaluate the information that is presented to us. We all know individuals who can never really make a decision as they agonize over every minute detail of a proposition, so-called “analysis paralysis.” On the other hand, we also know people who will believe anything that they read or hear. This is called being gullible. There is a sweet spot somewhere east of gullible and west of analysis paralysis that thoughtful people search for.

Consensus is an extremely important tool for facilitating agreement. How do we decide which house to buy? Or what to have for dinner? Or how do we manage our private and public institutions? But this whole consensus decision-making process is not the most effective tool for determining actual facts or scientific truth. That’s right! Just because almost everyone “agrees” on something does not necessarily make it correct. We are bombarded continuously with polling data and statistical “studies” that are surrogates for consensus. This constant repetition can be very convincing even when it is not accurate or factual. How do we sift through this avalanche of information and figure out what is true?

Be skeptical! “If you can’t make something happen, you don’t know what caused it.” (Howard Brickman.) The greatest opponents of a good experiment are unknown, uncontrolled or irrelevant variables. It is analogous with trying to pick out the important remark whispered by an individual who is part of a very noisy gathering. If you are not looking directly at them you won’t even see their lips moving. And if you are not within several inches you might not be able to distinguish the words being spoken. Even if you do hear the remark you may not realize how important it is. Scientists often refer to all of this extraneous data as “noise” that drowns out the really important stuff. Once the correct data is recognized and introduced into the collective consciousness, we forget how much effort it took to figure it out.

Don’t believe everything you hear or read on the Internet! As individuals we greatly enhance our ability to recognize good information by developing our fundamental understanding of the physical world around us. But in our wood floor business, we have the added necessity of learning about wood and psychrometrics. Develop the habit of reading and rereading “quality” source materials. That way when someone takes cow manure, forms it to the shape of an apple and paints it red, we will have enough sense to figure out what it really is before we try to make an apple pie with a bag full of bull $#!+.

Dispatch from NWFA Prefinished School in the Big Apple

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Cross posted from Howard Brickman's article on Hardwood Floors Magazine: Inspector Blog.

I just attended a three-day NWFA class on the installation of prefinished flooring in New York City. These classes can be a lot of fun and a great learning experience. Most of us work in a vacuum. By that I mean we work within our own little groups of personal and professional associations. There is a tendency to decide that there is one way to do the work, and those habits become deeply ingrained. These classes are a wonderful opportunity to meet new people, learn some new things, experiment with new techniques, and try some different equipment and tools away from our normal cast of characters. We can also make mistakes without any bad financial outcome. The major limitation is the short time horizon.

This particular class is the first NWFA hands-on training event that I have attended in the last 10+ years, and it was a great deal of fun, with many learning opportunities. Daniel Boone (a real wood flooring contractor from Jacksonville, Fla.) was the lead instructor. If you have never been to one of Daniel’s schools, you owe it to yourself to do it at least once. The corny jokes and skills that Daniel uses don’t get old. As charismatic and skilled as Daniel is, the real star of this event was the host, The New York District Council of Carpenters, Labor Technical College’s floor covering instructor, Ron Zimmerman.

This is the Carpenters’ Union training school in New York City, which is a permanent facility that is similar in size to the typical urban community college. But the similarity ends at the front door. Ron Zimmerman runs the Floor Covering Department, which has jurisdiction over wood floors. There are classrooms, demonstration and work areas dedicated to the installation of wood floors. For union carpenters who want to learn the skills required to work for wood flooring contractors, training is available that is structured to teach the skills and tools of the trade for wood flooring. Knowledge and hands-on is a powerful combination. But we all know that you don’t have a relationship with an organization. It is the people who answer the phone, do the work, and make things happen that we have to deal with.

Ron provides a great deal of support to run these classes in NYC in a manner that is comparable with the training provided in St. Louis at NWFA headquarters, although on a slightly smaller scale. This training partnership between NWFA and The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America is delivering a high-quality learning environment for anyone willing to take advantage of the opportunity. There is another class scheduled for August 3-5, with a few spaces still available, so be there or be square.