Costly Flooring Installation and Maintenance Problems, Claims and Issues…Introducing Your Solution!
My name is Reggie Hill, owner and founder of Floor Covering Services & Consultants, Inc. serving the hard surface flooring industry since 1995 as the industry’s premier expert in resilient flooring installation and the endless challenges of post installation including floor protection, care and maintenance. First, I wanted to provide some insight as to why I believe “I have earned the right” to comprise a blog and ongoing informational newsletter dedicated to everyone in the chain of hard surface flooring from the flooring Sales Person to the end user who feels they are plagued with overwhelming problems from seam split to incorrect floor protectors.
I grew up in a family owned retail floor covering business in Northeast Texas. As a child I accompanied my father as a helper, had learned to install a floor at the young age of 10 and was faced with the daunting task of firing an installer on a large job before the ripe old age of 15. As a young adult I became a business partner with my parents. By that time I had navigated the full gamut of small business challenges from retail sales to flooring installation, project management, managing staff and the hardest part of small business, handling collections.
I soon learned that being in a 3-way partnership with my parents left me in the minority when I wanted to try something new or change the way we ran our business so when an opportunity arose for me to work as an installation specialist for a flooring manufacturer, I jumped at it.
Mannington Mills, Inc. hired me in 1989 as an Installation Specialist. Later, as the Manager of Installation Systems, my time was spent training installers nationwide on the correct techniques for installing Mannington’s Residential and Commercial flooring products and building a North American regional network of Installation Specialists to meet the demand of Mannington’s growing business. Also included in my responsibilities was working with Mannington’s R&D department on product development, marketing and trade shows displays.
In August 1995, I left Mannington and founded Floor Covering Services & Consultants, Inc. From my unique experiences as a retailer then as part of a flooring manufacturing company, I had identified a neglected niche in the flooring industry, the need for a third party to provide troubleshooting expertise during flooring installations that had gone south and post installation to provide floor care & maintenance expertise, service and products.
During my 35+ year career in the floor covering industry I have, personally, installed the full spectrum of hard surface floor coverings, including both asbestos-containing and non asbestos-containing products; trained installers globally from Australia to Japan and throughout the USA; been the contributing editor to several industry publications including Mannington Straight Talk, National Floor Trends and Floor Covering Installer targeting both the retail salesperson and floor covering installer; been a Certified Instructor for the Resilient Floor Covering Institute’s “Teach the Teacher “ and “Asbestos Awareness” programs; appeared as the a Vinyl Floor Covering expert in The Learning Channel’s “Home Pro” kitchen remodeling show, Program No. 40.
My more recent work has given me a wealth of topics about which to write. To give you an idea of the situations I find myself working with, here are a few projects that stand out.
Mercy Hospital Floor Seam Heat Weld Repair
A new hospital wing at Mercy Health in Baltimore, MD called me in to troubleshoot a heat weld failure on flooring seams of a brand new, 700,000 sq ft, hospital wing that was facing a delayed grand opening due to this flooring issue. As you can imagine, it was a tense situation that I was walking into. After evaluating the situation and talking with all of the parties involved, I put together an action plan and proceeded to oversee corrections to the heat welding methods being used. The feedback I got after working with the project flooring installation team, property manager, general contractor and architect came from Mike Baldwin, Vice President of Construction & Property Management for Mercy Health, “The expertise provided was impressive to say the least…timely and informative…detailed and hands-on…provided the pathway for us to open our new facility with a reassurance that the repairs would last and…patient disturbance post-move was avoided.”
Tim Davis, former Technical Services Manager for CBC (AMERICA) Flooring, included this in a letter expressing appreciation for my 14 years of consulting services to CBC Flooring, “I am writing this letter to express tremendous appreciation for your astounding level of support and expertise in helping us to accurately and professionally mitigate claims and manage technical matters here at CBC Flooring. Having myself almost 20 years of experience in various technical positions within the flooring industry, I am proficient in many diverse and unusual circumstances. Your ability to evaluate small pieces of information, ask pertinent questions, draw out the truth and present a compelling finding is truly unique and unrivaled in our industry.”
St. Luke’s Hospital Floor BEFORE
St. Luke’s Hospital Floor AFTER
Saint Lukes Health System in St. Louis, MO sought my services when their state of the art, Mid American Heart Institute Tower, had widespread failure of a specialized finish on the new flooring material and the Facilities and Construction Management Project Manager, Stephanie Campbell, was told that the finish could not be removed without damaging the floor. After carefully evaluating the situation and testing finish removers and finishes, I was able to provide and oversee a detailed action plan to solve the problem and refinish the floor with a more compatible finish. Stephanie said, ”You provided an action plan with comprehensive details for preparation and application and you were on-site to train the technicians to remove the failing finish without damaging the new floors. I can’t thank you enough.” The floors still look great 2 years later and this project manager continues to use the finish I recommended in other areas of the medical facility.
As you begin to receive my newsletter and read my blog entries (this is the first!) you will learn that I am forthright, honest and eager to help. I have built a business comprised of services, products and companies that focus only on solving problems related to floors and my hope is that you’ll see the information I provide as your personal arsenal for solving flooring-related problems that should save TIME and MONEY! It is your choice- you may become REGI-mented (by reading my newsletter) or just continue to tread water in the sea of hard surface flooring problems.
Feel free to share these newsletters and, if you’ve got a flooring situation that seem insurmountable and perplexing, reach out to me…so long as you don’t mind me writing about it in my blog. Remember, like Red Adair, when the fire is too hot to handle, we can squelch the blaze quickly saving you valuable time and money! YOUR CALL!