On this episode of What the Floor we took a dive into the mysterious world of installation supplies. Michael and Holiday both review their favorite supplies and highlight a couple newer items. We talked about who you can go to for information on installation supplies and the must-have “Quick Guide”. We also gave a branch shout-out and listed the dates for our next Branch BBQ Vendor Fairs.
Walk the Plank is back on this episode! Michael and Holiday rant about floor protection methods – what’s the worst and what’s the best.
Links
What the Floor is a T&A Supply Company Inc original production. You can find out more about us at tasupply.com or tasflooring.com. This show is produced by Jose Morales with help from Toni Collier and Jessica Riser. Tell us what you think of the show at wtfpodcast@tasupply.com or #whatthefloorpodcast on social media to let us know what you think.
On this episode of What the Floor we took a dive into the mysterious world of installation supplies. Michael and Holiday both review their favorite supplies and highlight a couple newer items. We talked about who you can go to for information on installation supplies and the must-have “Quick Guide”. We also gave a branch shout-out and listed the dates for our next Branch BBQ Vendor Fairs.
Walk the Plank is back on this episode! Michael and Holiday rant about floor protection methods – what’s the worst and what’s the best.
Links
What the Floor is a T&A Supply Company Inc original production. You can find out more about us at tasupply.com or tasflooring.com. This show is produced by Jose Morales with help from Toni Collier and Jessica Riser. Tell us what you think of the show at wtfpodcast@tasupply.com or #whatthefloorpodcast on social media to let us know what you think.
This is What the Floor from T&A Supply Company, a podcast for the flooring industry. I'm Holiday Van Erem
Michael Goria:and I'm Michael Goria. We're going to explore the hot topics of the flooring industry with a little humor and a new set of eyes
Holiday Van Erem:Hello, Michael
Michael Goria:Hello Holiday. How are you today?
Holiday Van Erem:I'm doing okay.
Michael Goria:Good.
Holiday Van Erem:Elementary school is about to be over. So there's been a lot of partying going on this week.
Michael Goria:That's good. My kids are anxious as well.
Holiday Van Erem:Summer is coming. Hopefully. Hopefully the weather comes along with it.
Michael Goria:That would be nice.
Holiday Van Erem:Today we are going to explore a topic that probably neither one of us usually talks a lot about, but it's super important to our business and the flooring industry in general.
Michael Goria:It is I've been so amazed since coming to T&A Supply. Sundries is a huge part of the business that gets so overlooked by so many. So I think it's good that we're shedding a little light on it and having a discussion even though it's it's not either of our areas of expertise, per se,
Holiday Van Erem:yes. And some distributors don't dabble in sundries at all. Just strictly finished materials. Some are all sundries and are diving into other things. I think that T&A Supply is one of the oddities when it comes to a distributor, we've got we'll call branches where we're selling sundries to walk it installers and dealers coming in to pick things up. And we're trying to sell sundries on large jobs and get them spec'd in along with other products. We're selling sundries to our dealers to sell themselves to their own installers and people coming in to do installation. So
Michael Goria:yeah, we're also selling sundries as solutions. You know, for so many of our you know, what I would call finished products when we want to sell those, but it's important that they're installed correctly and sundries so often are a part of how they're installed correctly. So I think it's an important important topic for the industry.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah, and you can't put the floor down without them. That's for sure. It's not going to happen. Neither one of us being the expert on Sundries. We're definitely not going to be talking today about anything super technical. But I think the point was, we've got some favorite items, some things that we think are really fun to new or interesting or get forgotten about. And we wanted to highlight them and also highlight just some other things going on that are related to installation.
Michael Goria:Yeah, yeah, I think that's perfect. So with that, I think we're going to have you jump right in
Holiday Van Erem:with some of my favorite sundries items.
Michael Goria:Give us your favorites,
Holiday Van Erem:the cleaners. All right. A couple of my favorites. So first off is Fresh Floors. We have been selling Fresh Floors for probably close to 10 years now. And I we walked into one of our dealer showrooms just to do an interview to ask her some questions about some displays. And we asked about Fresh Floors. She acted like she'd never seen it before and you found it over on her shelf.
Michael Goria:Yeah, it was sitting we were gonna bring her some free Fresh Floors just so she could try it out and it was already there.
Holiday Van Erem:Exactly. So it's something we've had around for a long time people forget about it. So let's do a quick refresher. Fresh Floors, is a cleaner. We recommend it for every product that we sell. It can clean tile, it cleans hard surface hardwood, laminate luxury vinyls, it cleans carpet, it cleans upholstery. I've used it on my couches. I've used it on my rugs, I've used it on clothing. It works on pretty much everything. So the interesting thing about Fresh Floors is it's not just a chemical cleaner. This is like a bio enzymatic cleaner. So it is attacking the organisms in the stain in the whatever's on the floor and killing them. And doing it in a really fresh way. It has a really nice smell. I know that Toni who's sitting on her off to the side agrees it smells really nice, which is which helps when you're doing your daily cleaning around the house. I use it all the time. I have a house full of pets. And I have a child and husband who acts like a child. So there's a lot of messes going on. I'm using it all the time for cats who missed the litter box cleaning that I'm using it for I've unfortunately had a dog who had went through some cancer problems and passed away. So there was some blood stuff that was going on in carpet. And it completely takes it out. One of our installation managers here it talks about having it on site with crews who are installing for somebody who accidentally cuts themselves especially when they're doing a carpet install to clean it out of the carpet. Instead of just leaving it there trying to figure out how to like bleach out or something later. So it it's a multifunctional cleaning product, and I think that it gets forgotten about, but everybody can be using it, we give it to our employees, they can always come in and grab a bottle of fresh floors whenever they need it. I think it's a great thing for all of our dealers to have. We've talked about this a lot. I don't know that any dealers really do this. But giving it as a gift with purchase when they buy that floor, which was probably a fairly large chunk of change that they just gave out to you give it to them as a gift. I know when I bought my home, my real estate agent gave me a little gift basket of things to like clean the house with, give them a bottle of fresh floors, with a note on it. This is when this runs out, come back here and buy more. If they use it, and I'm sure that they will, they're going to love it and they're going to come back and get it from you because there's no place else for them to go get it. So that is one way that you can utilize it. But I think also just every installation crew should have a with them to clean up after themselves. Clean the floor up before they're done after they're finished with the project. It's got tons and tons of uses and can be pretty much used on everything. Yes, Toni, I see you raising your hand over in the background.
Toni Collier:I don't want to interrupt or anything. But like you said, with people moving into homes, not new homes, but new to them homes. I had a friend who moved in and the previous owner had dogs who would mark all along the baseboards and stuff and she's like, uh, gosh, I've tried all these different things and my house just still stinks. It's like, oh, hey, like I've got a bottle of this sitting under my kitchen sink right now like it, take it and see if it'll help because of the bio enzymatic properties of it. I think it'll help clear up that smell. And at least in the meantime, since you're spraying your whole house with it, it's gonna smell real nice. Yeah, Fresh Floors does have that really it's not a strong smell, but it is a really pleasant scent. And she said it was like miracle work. It cleared up that stinky smell around her baseboards that just permeated her entire home. Yeah, it's it is it's a really cool like miracle product.
Holiday Van Erem:And it's not a harsh chemical. That's one of the things that bothers me about cleaners is I've got to put gloves on when I'm using it or my hands just feel disgusting and gross afterwards. That doesn't happen with fresh floors. You don't need to be worried about it damaging the flooring. And we recommend it for all of our TAS products as the recommended cleaner. I recommend it to everybody for any kind of cleaning needs. Like I said it works on couches and upholstery. It works on all types of flooring. And it's really the just end all be all of cleaners. I'm a firm believer and I have been for at least 10 years now.
Michael Goria:Products like that are great that are multifaceted you know you can use them for all so many times when people buy hardwood specifically, they get concerned about what do I clean this with because you know hardwood is more of a natural product and to have a product like bath or Fresh Floors that you can use for any of our hard surfaces. Plus, you know carpet even and upholstery is fantastic.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah, it's one cleaner my inlaws live with us. They don't have to try to figure out what cleaner I need to use and he just you know, my father in law will go down to just grab the bottle of fresh floors. He can use it in the bathroom the kitchen the carpet in the living room doesn't matter. He doesn't need to be trying to figure out which one he's supposed to utilize this one and done. Super easy for everybody. So since I'm on my soapbox, please keep going Toni mentioned odors too. It has a companion product which is brand new actually. Kind of so the marketing is new. Um It used to be called Smell Zapper and it's no longer called that both of these products Fresh Floors and Odor Ghost are from Taylor and we've been a longtime supporter of Taylor started with the Fresh Floors then they came out with Smell Zapper which is a little different product and then they rebranded it to Odor Ghost I think actually Odor Ghost branding wise is much nicer just it gives you a whole different Smell Zapper just seems so
Michael Goria:abrasive
Jose Morales:plus to the marketing department for that Odor Ghost
Holiday Van Erem:oh yeah it's nice. Thank you Jose for mentioning that you gotta throw out to the marketing people out there.
Jose Morales:First timeI heard that name I was like, Man, that's dope.
Holiday Van Erem:Well so Odor Ghost, we're as Fresh Floors is in a smaller bottle and more for everyday kind of cleanups. Odor Ghost is in a much larger gallon size and it's more for crews you can use it as a homeowner but it's more of a project. But the it's kind of got the same properties so it's a bio as enzymatic cleaner but it is more focused on the odors versus the actual like cleaning of a stain. And how this works is that you're going to attach a kind of like a hose spray or garden hose type sprayer to the bottle and you're going to spray it wherever you need it. So Toni you'd mentioned they had stains and smells coming off of baseboards. You can spray this on over it, a different product that would be kind of similar would be Kills. I've heard that that can damage paint. That's been a complaint that we've had when we've talked to customers about Odor Ghosts, is Odor Ghost is not going to damage any kind of paint, it's not going to damage your upholstery, it's not going to damage anything. And it goes on clear. And there is an option for it to have a UV tracer added to it if you need to try to prove to someone where it's been sprayed at. And that says, you know, we don't stock it like that. But it's a special order that you can do if you really need to have that. You can spray this into h vac systems to try to clean out smoke that's in the air, you can spray this when you're pulling out carpet or old flooring all over the sub floor to clean out the old smells get rid of any kind of like mold and mildew we smells, pet smells, if you've got this is one of the interesting things that we've explained to people is that if you have a pet that marks in certain places, it's hard to try to change that behavior. If they can continue to smell that spot, it also becomes a behavioral thing. So you can clean that spot. And this is going to get rid of that odor. And it should hopefully keep that pet from going back to that spot. But if they do, because they just know that's their spot. This continues to clean it after the fact. So it stays and lays dormant until that same odor. And you know what is what the odor is coming from. So if it's pet urine, or blood or sweat or whatnot, if it re interacts chemically with the Odor Ghost, it will start to kill it again. So it's, again, it's an end all be all product, if you are worried about odors and needing to clean, you can use both of these products in tandem with each other. I think this is a great thing for you to upsell as a dealer if you are going out and doing tear outs, add this in as something that you provide is we're also going to we're not just going to tear this out and then put a new foreign, we're also going to clean it after it's tore out with the Odor Ghost, we're gonna get rid of all those problems and we're gonna spray it in your H Vac and get the whole house smelling good again. It's I just I love the fact that it kills pretty much everything goes on clear, you're not going to have any bad weird smells, it has a nice clean linen scent. And it can be used on pretty much everything and it's not going to make any damage, it's not going to cause problems. Taylor's done a fantastic job with these two products. And I think they're homeruns that get under utilized. And so hopefully just putting it out into the world more, more people will know about them. And you can get them all from T&A Supply.
Michael Goria:Yeah, well, you know, as we talk about solution based products, you know, I love your idea Holiday about if you're an installer or a store, you know, with installers, you know, using these on each one of the floors that you put in, you tear out the old products, you don't know if you've had issues under there, but hey, why not use Odor Ghost, and then leave a bottle of Fresh Floors behind and you leave a solution for the homeowner that the house is going to smell fresh? And how much more pleased will that homeowner be with the final installation?
Holiday Van Erem:Absolutely, it's a way for you to get that really great review from that customer to impress them to just go the extra mile with a very simple thing,
Michael Goria:small cost at the end of the day Yeah, I agree. You know, could easily sell it
Holiday Van Erem:small cost. And you're you're impressing them and setting yourself apart from somebody else that they as like you said an upsell where you may be competing against maybe would have gone with. And that customer is going to pass that along to their next you know their friend or family that another store. Hey, we do this every installation Yep, needs to have a job done as well. Hey, use these guys because they went the extra mile they gave me a cleaner. They did the whole like odor eliminating thing the whole process was fantastic. It sets you apart, gives you something that's added value as an installation crew. Or as a dealer that's got their absolutely a differentiator. Yeah, I love it. Some really great easy own installation crews. I mean, there's not any downside to it. things that you can do. And you're gonna encounter and get in front of your sales reps. We can add it to your orders. And then you you do that to add it to your orders have them in stock in your store so people can come in and stop by and pick up another bottle of it. I brought a bottle of Odor Ghost home for my own house. We're going to do a little summer clean out at the h vac all cleaned out and eliminate some odors in the house.
Michael Goria:Absolutely good time for it. So we have two new underlayments we're going to talk about the first is Reverb. Reverb is a 1.5 millimeter rubber with recycled tire crumb in it. And one of the things that I like about it most is you can put Reverb under any product that has an attached pad. So it's the only product that we really suggest, if you have a product that has an attached pad on it, so a lot of our, you know, LV click products or WPCs and our SPCs all come with a pad attached, a lot of our laminates come with a pad attached. If you want better sound control, maybe a little softer underfoot, this is a great product to add to your home. So some of the other great advantages for Reverb is similar to what we were talking about with Fresh Floors is you can use it under many many different products. So you can you can use hardwood over it. Obviously I already mentioned WPC, SPC, laminate, carpet tile can go over it. Really the only rule for LV is it has to be two millimeters or thicker to go over it. So you can't go less than that. We've had several customers that have been looking for sound solutions, and they have a pad attached already. So this has been a great product at a much more aggressive price point than other products that we've had in the past that we've been able to achieve that. For instance, there's a Delta of 25 with this product that's very good for for two millimeter or 1.5 millimeter acoustical pad. So another advantage to Reverb is it's what's called CRI certified. So it's a low emitting materials. A lot of our customers, we've talked about this in the past podcasts, you know, are worried about emissions and off gassing. So this has a certification that's that's a low emitting product. And it also qualifies for lead points. So we have a lot of projects where people are looking to add lead points, and this product actually qualifies for that as well. So
Holiday Van Erem:yeah, that's great. So you can add, you can safely add it, if you already have a pad attached, and you're trying to get some more lead points are trying to just increase that sound deadening, just a hair, I like that it's really simple. It's I believe that the kind of the rule is, if you're nailing the product down, you've got to nail down the pad, if it's floating, you got to float it, if it's gluing it down, you gotta glue it down, just super simple and easy and can go pretty much with anything.
Michael Goria:Yeah, it really can. So we have two different versions, we've got one that that has a film. So it actually has, it's up to 98% relative humidity or moisture admitting so it's not a moisture barrier, per se, but it's very, very close. So if you do have any moisture issues that you're trying to combat, this is a great product to use, we also have one without a film that's a little bit cheaper, if you don't have those issues in your home, so really hits on a lot of key points, I think, again, the main ones are, you can use click products with pad attached over it, there is no deflection, it has a shore hardness. And that's what allows you to do that. That won't cause deflection. And that's the big issue with pad attached products, is you get deflection when you want to add a secondary pad it, it breaks the joints or you'll have joint separation. So Reverb has been an excellent product. It's a part of our Power Hold product line. And so that is a line that we've brought on a couple years ago. And so it's just a great product that we're really excited about. So definitely seek that out. If you don't have samples, we'd love to get your samples.
Holiday Van Erem:It's definitely a solution. I'm surprised at how many times people ask, can I put another pad under something that already has a pad? How's it Why do you need another one? For whatever reason they do. And now we have something that we feel confident that we can recommend to them
Michael Goria:really. And where we get that request is condos, condos, associations have and townhomes have usually standards that have to be met for sound emissions. And so that's when you need that double pad application is to reach the sound numbers that they're trying to hit. Yeah, so. So the second product, again, is an underlayment and this is often used in commercial settings, but certainly can be used in residential is called Genie Mat. We just brought Genie Mat on recently, but it's been fantastic. It's a product that we're already getting specs on that's often spec'd in a lot of our commercial applications. And so now we have it, it comes in a two millimeter, a three millimeter, a five millimeter, a 10 millimeter and actually a 12, which is holy cow 12 millimeter is a half inch thick. I actually pulled some samples recently and I was like to have a half inch pad, a crumb rubber pad is pretty beefy.
Holiday Van Erem:Why would you need that? I mean, what is the are you trying to just like lift up and match heights of other things
Michael Goria:you are. So a lot of the time that's, you know, one, your Delta does go up or your sound ratings do increase, however you're trying to match up a height variation. And that's why they have so many different options. So, you know, a lot of the times you just need a thin, you know, application in a residential setting. But for a lot of commercial applications, you do need that thicker product and so that's why they have you know, several to choose from
Holiday Van Erem:Oh wow. All right. had no idea X options. Yeah.
Michael Goria:So you know, like I said Genie Mat is a is a recycled crumb rubber. It's 94% recycled rubber content. So oftentimes it's tires, but a great product. What's cool about that is it also has lead point applications. It's green GREENGUARD gold certified, it's floorscore certified. So it's got some great certifications, which we're always looking for, and a lot of these larger projects. And so to have that available, you can put, you know, you can actually do tile over a Genie Mat, it has to go into thin set, but that's a that's a great application. And then hardwood, laminate LVT, WPC, any of these products are great for going over Genie Mat. So one of the things I wanted to talk about a little bit with both of these is sound ratings, I don't want to get in the weeds on it. But so many of the sound ratings really depend on the build of your project. And so we do publish a lot of those. And Genie Mat does a great job of giving you several different applications. And we can provide that brochure to you. But every, every buildings done a little bit different. And so those sound ratings are based on each individual one, whether it's an eight inch slab, or you know, with a drop ceiling, or a six inch slab, those will give you different ratings. So just make sure that you're getting all the technical data you need. And a lot of the times we can provide that to you. So you get the score that you need to attain,
Holiday Van Erem:yeah, sound ratings are so subjective. And they're so especially going back to your saying, you know, a lot of condo organizations are the ones who are asking for certain sound ratings. And I mean, they're leaving it to the floor to be the one that's going to like save this project and keep the sound out. And it just seems so unrealistic.
Michael Goria:It is the mean, the floor is really the smallest part of the whole sound system, yet, it's the one that's required to give the number. And that's why we really brought on both of these products is in used in conjunction with our flooring, and really a lot of our different flooring types, we can reach that we can help you reach those numbers that you need or get you that information that you need. So we could spend a whole day talking about sound ratings and really get into the nuts and bolts on that we should probably bring in a professional because I am not qualified. To give you all those details.
Holiday Van Erem:It's complicated, lots of different testing lots of different types of ratings. And, unfortunately, companies have done a lot of marketing, messing around with modified tests and marketing numbers that aren't realistic. And it's a whole rabbit hole, that, unfortunately, we go down quite often because projects need certain numbers, and they're trying to meet certain specifications.
Michael Goria:Yeah, I think our industry does have a little bit of a problem with that. And it's something that probably needs to be discussed. But I think that happens in a lot of different industries. You know, everybody goes to the number that needs to be shown and really to hit that is on unlikely that you would use that particular build. But here we are. Yeah, there's companies that you can hire that you know can certainly get you those numbers are there. There's companies that focus just on sound radians.
Holiday Van Erem:So yeah, well future episode for sure for no doubt.
Michael Goria:So Holiday, I think you have one more product that we want to talk about
Holiday Van Erem:I do I'm not an expert on it. But I want to do a quick shout out to our Kent Will Call counter, because the ladies and gentlemen that work down there are fantastic. And they took the time to chat with us for me to few minutes and tell us what was new and interesting down at the will call counter and what they see people coming in. So quick shout out down at the Kent Branch to Devin, Rebecca, Joe and Mike for helping us out and not kicking us out.
Michael Goria:Yes, thank you. Thank you all we appreciated the help.
Holiday Van Erem:And one of the things that Joe in particular had mentioned was the Uzin HS 100, which is a title waterproofing membrane. So we kind of asked him, what's new? What's exciting? What are people talking about? What do you try to tell people about that they don't know about. And this was one of the things that he mentioned. So first and foremost, he said this product is cheaper than Red Guard and Hydro Ban. So if you're using those products, Uzin HS 100 has a cheaper option for you. Me not being a tile setter, you know, I'm not a professional on this, but some of these features and benefits sounded pretty awesome. First of all, it's just it's ready to use. There's no like mixing. It's one component package that it comes in. There's no like mix these things together to get your product so it's ready to go right out of that out of the container. There's no mesh required when installing it cures fast. It's fast and seamless. was on with a roller or a trowel or brush. Very low odor. We've mentioned this a couple times with the cleaners and with some of the pads floorscore certifications and stuff, this product also has a very low odor to it. And so it's a great if you're doing tile for residential or like commercial, this is a great option, if you haven't heard of is Uzin HS 100. Definitely come into the branch, ask the counter guys about it. And they can tell you all about it, show you the features and benefits and give you a little demo on it and give you the whole rundown.
Michael Goria:Absolutely. So I mean, really, we hit on five products, five simple products. But we have so many more so many more sundry products to help you.
Holiday Van Erem:Yes. And you could go down to the branch and talk their ear off for hours about all sorts of different things, which is a great idea. And I highly recommend, our branch employees are fantastic. They know so much about our installation products, all of the sundries items that they've got in the branch. There are a wealth of knowledge,
Michael Goria:they really are. I mean, it's impressive how much these folks know, they do such a good job we have. You know, we really are fortunate to have so many people that really invest in learning these products.
Holiday Van Erem:And one of the things that we try to do internally and then share in a condensed format is how do you know what is the most important sundries items in each of the categories? Like as a human sit and talk to these guys at the branch forever. But once you leave the branch, unless you took really good notes, you're gonna remember all of it. You need the branch guide. You need the Quick Guide.
Michael Goria:It's huge. I mean, this thing is a labor of love. I think we're on edition 18
Toni Collier:Yeah, coming soon. Yeah, it is just about to come out. Okay.
Holiday Van Erem:It is time consuming. The man who created them, Mr. Szalay little shout out to you. He tells a story about how he used to like cut pictures of the products out and tape them on the piece of paper and write all the notes in and type it on a typewriter or whatever to do and do photocopies of it to build this catalog. And, and he is trying to he's using InDesign now. And he's you know, he's got it going on. And he is a labor of love. Yeah, because what he likes to say is as soon as it's published, it's outdated, because there's constantly changes with sundries and installation supplies. But coming to the branch and ask for your quick guide. If you don't have your quick guide, make sure you have it. It has so much information in it. But it's the key items, it's just the stuff that you need to know about the stuff that is the most important in each of the categories
Toni Collier:and is in stock. Yeah, it's what we stock at T&A Supply. So you're not going to have to wait a week a month to get that in from the manufacturer.
Holiday Van Erem:Yes, that is a fantastic point. We stock a lot of stuff. And this is your like go to guide for what you need, which knives, what blades, what adhesives, what sealers it's all in there. It's a lengthy book, it's got pictures, it's got all the information that you need. And if you're not going to get the hardcopy, or you're missing the hardcopy, you can get it on our website, too. We've got it loaded on there. So if you go to tasupply.com, go to the installation tab, which is in the navigation along the top. And then there is a yellow button in the middle of the next page that says branch quick guide. You click on that you can flip through the whole thing. Toni over here in our marketing department, make sure it's all loaded up and looking good. So you've got it online if you need it. And you've got the hard copies always grab one of those hard copies when they come out.
Michael Goria:Yeah, no, it's it's super worth it. I mean, you go into our locations and you see, you know the amount of products that we have just on display, whether it's kneepads, towels, tools, tile, setting, materials, adhesive, you know, floor protection, we provide so many different things for you that you can just come get at one place while you're getting your hard surface material from us.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah, while you're picking stuff up, come in the branch and get the rest of the things that you need or just learn about stuff. They're always willing to show you a new new products and do a little demo something, give you a little sample product. And speaking of our branches and coming in and seeing us we've got it's technically the summertime so we've got our branch barbecues or vendor cookouts going on, and I have a list of some of the upcoming ones. So by the time we published this podcast and you're listening to it, it's probably going to be close to August. So we've got them coming up all over the place. Eugene, Oregon, Wednesday, August 3, we've got our Portland branch hosting a barbecue vendor fair on August 4. Everett, Washington September 13, Bellevue September 14, here in Kent, where we're at September 15, and then down in Tacoma on September 16. They all
started about 7:30 in the morning, they go to about two in the afternoon. Vendors are there all day long show and do demos interacting, it's a great opportunity to see our branch folks, but also get one on one with the vendors of the products that we're stocking and that we are tied to the ones that we feel are the most important. Like I said, they're doing demos, they will walk you through the products, they'll show you had a gym, they'll give you kind of the hands on experience, ask whatever questions that you have, feel free to try to stump them. I mean, that's what they're there for. They're there to give you all the information and make sure you get some food.
Michael Goria:Yeah, absolutely. Free food is always good food. So you know, get down there ask ask tough questions. I mean, likely, those are the times where you learn the you know, some maybe some tips or tricks with a certain product as a product you're using, and you feel very comfortable with it. There might be a secondary product that can be used along with that to make your life easier. Those are things we want you to learn and see while you're here.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah, network make connections. I mean, that's one of the things that we're trying to accomplish with this podcast is getting the information out and help kind of virtually network with people. So it's a great opportunity to come out in network with the branch folks meet them and talk to them a little bit more meet our vendors. Some of our office staff likes to come by to some of those our sales reps in the area. So there's plenty of T&A folks and vendors to come out and chat with and and increase your community.
Michael Goria:Yeah, so if they want those dates again, or want to know, where would they find that information? Is it available online?
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah, we've got flyers on the websites and social media, we've got a post about them. If you're in those areas, we're sending out emails, if we have your customer emails, we're sending those out ahead of time. So if you want that information, you can reach out to our WTF podcast, WTF podcast at tasupply.com. And we'll send you the link to where you can find the information. Perfect. Yeah. So I think that kind of wraps up our Sundries, our sundries schpeel
Michael Goria:that for sure. It's a good way to put it. Yeah, I think so. And, you know, again, this wasn't supposed to be a deep dive this was just to make you aware of of several products that that Holiday and I are excited about and have learned about over the last several months or years. But we've got so many more. So
Holiday Van Erem:that's just the tip of the iceberg realy is. Now it's time for Walk the Plank. The segment where we debate some ridiculous pet peeve that only flooring nerds would understand and can't decide on today's topic.
Michael Goria:floor protection
Holiday Van Erem:floor protection. It sounds so ominous does.
Michael Goria:But I like this because I think it parlays into what we were talking about earlier with the sundry top
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah, runs right into sundries. And it's not when we talk about sundries, I think also is one of those forgotten about because it's not. It's not used for the installation. You're not doing it to install something. It's just there to make sure that the floor doesn't get damaged.
Michael Goria:Absolutely. It's an interesting topic. I was researching it. And again, new to me, I have never been in the really the sundry industry or push those products in particular. But the main question is, you know, what are you doing? What's your project? Why do you need, you know, flooring protection? Are you painting? Are you doing some minor construction? Are you moving a large item into your home? It's so important to address. What are you doing? What is your project consistent?
Holiday Van Erem:Yes, I'm so glad you said that. Because I think the most important thing isn't what you're doing to protect the floor. But the fact that you're protecting the floor when you're doing a project. There are so many times that I myself have been guilty of doing a project at home and not putting anything down to protect my floor and then I'm mad at myself afterwards. So some things that I was thinking of painting is one first and foremost, yeah. Especially when a new construction or you're moving into a home and you're doing a lot of renovating before you get moved in. It's a great opportunity to put your new floor in. And we always say that we want to be the last industry in the home do the floor last but realistically, that does not happen. A lot of times the painting gets done while the flooring is being installed. Right after some being installed and paint in now you got to get the paint back off the floor because you're going to spill some on the floor. No matter what.
Michael Goria:I've got a great story about this. So it was in my past life. And my old company but we were we were called out to a job because the homeowner was just panicking about this look on the floor. It was on Lake Washington's is a very high end home. They had put in a really nice product and it had a wire brush texture to it. Well while we were there. They were installing a 20 foot fireplace that was made out of river rock. It was absolutely gorgeous. But they were cutting the river rock in House. And so there was dust going everywhere. Well, they had put floor protection down, which was great, except they didn't do it within 12 inches of the wall. So around the wall, when they would pull up the floor protection, dust had settled into all the wire wire brushing. And it was a totally different it made the flooring a totally different color than what it was because there was this fine rubber rock dust
Holiday Van Erem:inside all of the little scrapes the little wire brush through Oh my.
Michael Goria:So they had to reinstall essentially the entire floor because you can't just replace the way the floor was running. It was on edges of boards. And so it was this massive claim and issue. But again, what's your project? You know, should you have done the fireplace before you put in flooring probably finished that up high.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah, so dust is another huge while you're doing big projects like that. Tools. Anytime you get tools out, I have dropped so many things. electric screwdriver, the ladder, you drop stuff, and that stuff can be sharp. So you're just doing like a simple little home project, you got to put some kind of floor protection down and especially carpet is you want that kind of project that's not that big of a deal. But on a hard surface, you're going to dent scratch, if you've got ladders out, we have certain ladders, we only use inside or the garage because they're scratching up the floor. But if somebody grabbed the wrong ladder, you can scratch the whole floor up if you don't put something down underneath it. Rocks and work boots, you have somebody come in the house to do to clean the AC to do some maintenance on something even like a plumber or someone come in and they're all wearing big heavy work boots. And they're tracking rocks. So easy, even if you're not really thinking about the fact that they're really just messing with the sink or doing something, put some for production down. First of all, they're tracking dirt and mud in your house, they might as well like give them a path, I'm taping the paper down, you work in this area. glues, if you've got glue out, if you're doing cloaking or any kind of thing like that, make sure you put some protection down. Because the last thing that you want is to have to be like scraping that stuff off of your floor. And then if you're using any kind of harsh chemicals, if you're out doing some like heavy cleaning, with bleach and stuff, make sure you're putting something down to it just like just the basic, basic things protect the floor please.
Michael Goria:Yeah, so when doing this, obviously, we learned there's a lot of different types of flooring protection.
Holiday Van Erem:And what you're saying you got to figure out what your project is, what you're having done, and then what kind of flooring you have, because certain things are meant to stick to the floor. Certain things are meant to be taped down to the floor and aren't going to attach. And you know, certain things are going to work better on a hard surface versus a soft surface. Right. So you got to have the right tool for the right job.
Michael Goria:Yeah, yeah, you really got to think about what you're you know what you're doing and then what you're you're trying to protect or why you're trying to protect it.
Holiday Van Erem:So the main types of flooring projection, there's a few different so there's like a rosin paper. Yep, that was a big one. There is like a film that's got like an adhesive backing on it that you can peel off and stick down that works really well on like a carpet. Yes holds in place. And it's kind of like a plastic film. Almost like shrink wrap. Oh, yeah, like shrink wrap. Yep. A thick like Mason night board. And that was also a suggestion, but also kind of needed to be paired with another item. It wasn't some things you just you can't use on its own. It has to be in use with some other other types of flooring.
Michael Goria:Yeah, they often suggested rosin paper, if you're going to use you know, like a mason night board. There could be little pebbles, you know, attached to that masonite board, sort of, you know, put something down before.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah. So personally, I kind of like I am what I'm doing some kind of floor projection. I am the kind of person that needs it to stick down and stay in place. Drives me crazy. it down and then it's moved. Now where it was supposed to be. I get a little OCD about it, and now it's tearing this place that I wanted it. Yes. So to me, it's, it's gonna be the rosin paper, I need to tape it down. But I've also learned that there are different types of what you'd call like blue tape painters tape FrogTape some of those are not meant to go on floors and will change the color of the floor. It will react with the word layer and mess with your floor. So
Michael Goria:it's got to be adhesive. The adhesive on the tape is reacting.
Holiday Van Erem:Yes, the finish. We've had some claims that have come in because they've used a type of frog tape or painters tape that is not meant to go on the floor. And they say that they have a stain that won't come out what happens to be where they had it taped down well Are they had some floor protection tape down?
Michael Goria:Yeah, the other thing you need to really be aware of is how long are you going to have that tape down? Yeah, I've seen it where tapes been left down for months on end, because they're trying to protect the floor, nobody's in the home, it's maybe a new construction home. And they leave it for months and months and months seasons change, it's a hot season, it gets to a cold season. And when you take that up, not only is it could change the color, or it just peels the finish right off. So you got to be very, very careful about that as well. And there's different tapes that can last longer, that actually have a date, you know, or a life versus some of the just standard off the shelf Blue tapes.
Holiday Van Erem:So do you care at all, whether things get stuck down, or you're just put paper down and let it let it free flow?
Michael Goria:I guess it depends on the application, how long I'm going to be in there on the project or, or what I'm doing, I think I agree with you, I'd like that to be in place. Certainly, if I'm putting down a new floor, you know, I want to protect that floor as best I can from the rest of the trades that are coming in and out of the house. While they're doing that.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah, I think the big difference is going to be are you having somebody else coming in, but you aren't going to be there the whole time to like watch and make sure that the the things aren't getting moved or take more than like, torn, the papers getting torn, and they need you know, they're not paying attention or fixing it. And that's where I'd be okay, we got to stick this down, we're going to take this down, we're going to fortify the situation here making sure we prepare and protect my floor. But I also was thinking really realistically, for some like the home projects that you're doing on yourself, even just grab like an old bedsheet or a towel and just use some fabric and just toss something down underneath you and make sure that you've got something you don't necessarily need to go out and buy anything fancy,
Michael Goria:right? I mean, there's a lot of different things you can use. And there's there's some of these floor protectors you can use over again. Ramboard for instance, you can roll back up and use on the next project, so long as it hasn't been spilled on soil, you know, oils and things haven't collected on it. But that's one thing I liked about that. Yeah, but certainly rosin paper, as I researched, this is the most inexpensive, and oftentimes the most used in a lot of cases because of it's not very expensive. But it's also if you have if you drop tools, it will still dent or damage the floor underneath because there's no thickness to it.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah, so if you're using rosin paper, you really, if you've got a lot of heavy work going on, you probably also need to be used in like a mason night bar on top of it.
Michael Goria:I would I would suggest,
Holiday Van Erem:yeah. And then making sure that you have the right kind of tape if you're taping it down. That is key for soft surface carpets, rugs and stuff. It seemed like the best option was some kind of sticky film. Yeah, I mean, that's really gonna like hold down, right? I mean, you could use the rosin paper and tape it down, but it's probably more likely that you're going to just by walking on it, tearing it, puncturing it.
Michael Goria:Yeah, I fell in the same thing. I think film is much better for soft surface. Whereas, you know, maybe papers RAM board made tonight is better for hard surface.
Holiday Van Erem:Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think the key takeaway is you got to do something you do. If you're not doing anything, we've got serious problems.
Michael Goria:Absolutely. You're just asking for issues.
Holiday Van Erem:You made a really great investment. And even if it's the floor that you bought the house, yeah, you haven't bought a new floor, you want it to last as long as possible. It should have a pretty good shelf life, a lot of residential floors or lifetime warranty. You need to though, make sure that you're not doing anything that's going to damage that and set yourself back. So just simple things to make sure that you're maintaining the floor. You're cleaning and whatnot, floor protection, when you're doing the kind of job is just has to be done. It does. It's a it's an easy, it's an easy insurance policy to protect the investment that you made, I think is probably the easiest way to put it. And we sell a lot of these products. We sure do. So certainly you can get them from the DNA supply company. We stock them at a lot of our locations. So they should be readily available to you. Yeah, if you've got installation crews, if you're running one, have these things with you. So if you're coming in and replacing a plank, if you're doing little maintenance, if you're doing a different area of the home, that you even are coming in with your own supplies, and not expecting the homeowner to be doing that for you.
Michael Goria:Yeah, and then maybe spray some Fresh Floors down and leave the house smelling great.
Holiday Van Erem:Exactly. After you peel the tape off. You spray it down with Fresh Floors get it all buffed up. Great. Hey, gotta use all of these products together. Whole package.
Michael Goria:I agree.
Holiday Van Erem:All right, well, floor protection check must have need to do it. How you do it. It's really going to be up to you. Just make sure you're using something.
Michael Goria:Yes.
Holiday Van Erem:Always protecting
Michael Goria:always
Holiday Van Erem:always use protection. In many areas of life, it's a good policy. What the Floor is a T&A Supply Company Inc original production. You can find out more about us at tasupply.com or TASFlooring.com.
Michael Goria:This show is produced by Jose Morales with help from Toni Collier and Jessica Riser hosted by Holiday Van Erem and Michael Goria. Tell us what you think of the show by emailing us at WTF podcast at ta supply.com or on social media at hashtag what the floor podcast. WTF!