Articles by a Flooring Professional

The Importance of Brand Recognition In Your Email Address

You cannot promote your brand or improve business website traffic with a throw-away email address. Gmail, Yahoo!, HotMail and the rest are known as “throw-away” email addresses. They are great to increase your anonymity and sense of security, but they do not, and probably never will command very much credibility. They do, however, increase the chances your email will end up in the spam folder.

I also use these throw-away addresses when required to provide an email address for ordering something or joining a site I am not sure of. There are some good reasons to use throw-aways. But there is one very important reason for business and flooring professionals to use addresses that belong to your business’ website domain: Brand Recognition.

As professionals, we all want our businesses to be (Read more…)

Free Websites for the Flooring Professional

My friend, “DJ,” asked me some time back where he could get a free website. He was concerned about the economy and the lack of work he was getting. DJ thought a website would bring him new customers and new opportunities. For free.

Ever heard the term, “you get what you pay for“? I see flooring professionals tell customers this time after time. Yet so many of them look for free or real cheap – not just websites, but anything. And this is a classic case of “looks are deceiving” and you really do get what you pay for.

Although it may be true that beauty is in the eye of the beholder (Read more…)

This procedure will not correct the appearance of the seam if it is not constructed in an acceptable manner, but it will correct seam peaking or seam elevation. It is important to note that the installed cushion has an effect on the success of this procedure. The recommended cushion is to be manufactured with a scrim and must have a minimum density factor of six pounds. The room is to be (Read more…)

This item has been sold. Please visit The Floor Pro Community’s Tolls & Equipment For Sale Forum for anything you might be interested in. (Read more…)

Have you ever gone to a house to do an estimate for new flooring and detected an odor of insecticide? And maybe the carpet doesn’t look all that worn or old? The combination of the 2 might mean there were bed bugs in the carpet. Some home owners (or hotel/motel/rental managers) may be embarrassed to mention it, but don’t hesitate to bring the subject up.

The population of bed bugs was greatly reduced (Read more…)

I am an opinionated son-of-a-bitch. Why shouldn’t I blog? It’s just too difficult to share some of these volatile opinions on forums – it would either break the rules, or be met with equally volatile responses and then it would just be a war. Of course, as long as I allow comments to my blog, which I do, there could be battles to be fought here too. But blogs tend to get more readers than respondents. Now I can spout off, write a review, post a how-to article and share my 4 decades of flooring experience here in my very own blog.

So, what do I have (Read more…)

How many times have you damaged the walls trying to get the old baseboard off? Maybe you’ve seen the results of someone else’s efforts to pry the base off the wall. Or those craters on the face of the base when the nails have been pulled out? Who would have thought you’d ruin the board if you pulled a nail out the same way you put it in?

Now, far be it from me to think this article will be some great teaching instrument for the already accomplished flooring professional. It’s not aimed at pros because they already know this stuff. This is for the new helper, or maybe the home owner do-it-yourselfer and home improvement wannabe. It’s for anyone who has slapped their forehead when they realized it’s gonna take more than just a little bit of new base to cover them damages. (Read more…)