Bridge Over Troubled Waters

Unfortunately, it’s a fact of life that no matter how hard you try, sometimes things can go wrong. Time pressures, difficult working conditions on site and particularly challenging installations are just a few of the things that can stop the job running as smoothly as you’d like the finished flooring surface to be. At Altro, particularly in the technical services department, we’re often asked to arbitrate where there is a conflict of opinions between the flooring contractor and the architect, main contractor or end user.  A typical scenario is where the flooring contractor has done his level best to turn out a good job, often working in less than perfect conditions, or where during his efforts he has been trampled asunder by other trades.

Anyway, as usual it’s the bloke on his hands and knees who generally gets the worst of it. When the job is finished (on time and against all the odds) they suddenly put the lighting and heating on, remove the floor protection that was put down in semi-darkness the second the welding was finished, then immediately pull the job to pieces. That’s where we often come in to shed a bit of light, pun intended, and common sense on the situation.

As a market leader, we can bring the full weight of our technical heritage and expertise to bear when the going gets tough, offering support in a way that smaller players simply can’t match. Often all that’s needed is advice over the phone to help beleaguered contractors to see the wood from the trees again. Alternatively, a member of the team will visit site to help with ideas and suggest various solutions, particularly if a job has gone wrong.

Not that floorlayers are shrinking violets when it comes to standing their corner, but it’s a fact of life that assurances from a manufacturer that all is as well as can be expected under the circumstances carries a great deal of weight and is often all that’s needed to get payment released.

Frequently, we’ll carry out on site demonstrations for contractors who may be experiencing difficulty in fitting a mitre or dressing our products into a drainage channel for instance, and usually an hour or so spent talking over the problem is enough to get things moving in the right direction again.

Occasionally, we’ll attend site where a particularly difficult installation is underway and spend a full day working with the floor layers to get the job off to the best possible start. If appropriate, we’ll even call back once or twice to make sure everything is OK and all parties are happy.

Luckily, as industry standards continue to improve, it’s very rare these days that a job goes completely pear-shaped and the cowboy contractor can’t or won’t do anything to help the situation.

Of course, the best thing is to try to avoid such pitfalls altogether. With most problems it’s far better to treat the cause than the symptoms and regularly honing your skills can prepare you to face even the most challenging installation with solutions ready at your fingertips. With continuing technological advances, it certainly pays to keep up to speed with new techniques and materials.

It’s never too late to learn, and even the most experienced flooring professionals can reap the rewards of brushing up their skills. As well as the specialist courses offered at the Altro Contractor Training School, less formal, tailored training sessions at contractors’ or distributors’ premises are now increasingly in demand. Forming and welding mitres are popular topics; it's the fine detailing that has the greatest potential for going wrong and spoiling an otherwise good job.

Many of the problems still faced on site are the same as those when I started my career with Altro in 1971 - too cold, poor lighting, other trades jostling for the same workspace. The difference is that back then, at the age of 19, I was deemed fit to be let loose on a piece of flooring without the safety net of technical experts back at base.

I particularly value my continued contact with contractors through the training school and technical support as it keeps me in touch with the challenges you all face day to day. I hope it’s reassuring to know that if you ever need to call the Altro technical hotline, there are people there who have got the T shirt.

 

This article first appeared in the February 2010 edition of the CFJ.