Mikey P
Administrator
As a Professional Flooring Service Provider you need to know the differences between solid wood, engineered wood, laminates, parquet, cork, bamboo Pergo/MDF, vinyl plank, and porcelain lookalikes. Spend time in flooring stores studying the ever-growing variety of options. Take some time in each of your customer’s homes to study what they have as well. The goal is to be able to tell the client what they own, whether they picked it out or inherited it with the home purchase. You should be able to discuss their floors with confidence and provide care advice.
This paragraph is taken from Bryan Thomson and my “Advanced Multi-Surface Care and repair manual”.
The same principle applies to all flooring, countertop, shower stalls, rugs and any other surface that you maintain or restore in your PROFESSIONAL cleaning business. During our 4 day course we discuss identification techniques ad nauseam, with samples and theory but ultimately the only way you can learn these skills is to make “ID” into your hobby for the next six months or so. From this day forward you should turn every building, customer or neighbor’s home, store, restaurant, and most importantly flooring stores such as Floors and Decor (they have counters and showers too!) into your classroom. Study each and every surface, fluffy or hard and learn its idiosyncrasies, touch them all and learn how they feel compared to others, especially stone and its porcelain look-a-likes. Take photos of the side profiles of tiles and planks, study the construction and materials used, and store the labeled photos on your phone for future reference. Take home the free samples from Home Depot and Lowes and test, test, test. Carry a pointy pocketknife and don’t be afraid to perform scratch tests in inconspicuous areas.
If you can’t figure out a floor in a customer’s home, try asking as if you are interested in installing something similar in your own home and ask if they are happy with it, how easy is it to keep clean? have they managed to scratch it? and why did they choose it over all the other options? Ask to lift a heat register to see it’s side profile or if the have any spare planks, tiles or sections stored in the garage that you can look at. But whatever you do, don’t ever say to a customer “Mrs Piftelton I would like to give you an estimate on cleaning this floor, but what is it?
It's immensely satisfying when you can walk through a home and tell your client what they have and how best to maintain their furniture, rugs, carpet, counters, shower and bath stalls, walls, baseboards and just for the heck of it, their pets too.
Be a Pro and be in the know.
www.mikeysfest.com for more information about our upcoming class in North Carolina.
This paragraph is taken from Bryan Thomson and my “Advanced Multi-Surface Care and repair manual”.
The same principle applies to all flooring, countertop, shower stalls, rugs and any other surface that you maintain or restore in your PROFESSIONAL cleaning business. During our 4 day course we discuss identification techniques ad nauseam, with samples and theory but ultimately the only way you can learn these skills is to make “ID” into your hobby for the next six months or so. From this day forward you should turn every building, customer or neighbor’s home, store, restaurant, and most importantly flooring stores such as Floors and Decor (they have counters and showers too!) into your classroom. Study each and every surface, fluffy or hard and learn its idiosyncrasies, touch them all and learn how they feel compared to others, especially stone and its porcelain look-a-likes. Take photos of the side profiles of tiles and planks, study the construction and materials used, and store the labeled photos on your phone for future reference. Take home the free samples from Home Depot and Lowes and test, test, test. Carry a pointy pocketknife and don’t be afraid to perform scratch tests in inconspicuous areas.
If you can’t figure out a floor in a customer’s home, try asking as if you are interested in installing something similar in your own home and ask if they are happy with it, how easy is it to keep clean? have they managed to scratch it? and why did they choose it over all the other options? Ask to lift a heat register to see it’s side profile or if the have any spare planks, tiles or sections stored in the garage that you can look at. But whatever you do, don’t ever say to a customer “Mrs Piftelton I would like to give you an estimate on cleaning this floor, but what is it?
It's immensely satisfying when you can walk through a home and tell your client what they have and how best to maintain their furniture, rugs, carpet, counters, shower and bath stalls, walls, baseboards and just for the heck of it, their pets too.
Be a Pro and be in the know.
www.mikeysfest.com for more information about our upcoming class in North Carolina.
