Slippery Rock Gazette

Tom McNall

Floor Restoration Consultant

Anyone who has ever worked with stone knows that stone dust is harder to remove from microscopic fibers and grooves of wood, concrete and grout than it is to get a Bill passed in Congress.

For this reason, you always need to have a protection plan in place to protect your customers surrounding assets. And if you think you can cut corners and save money by not protecting adjacent work areas, you will find your luck running out quick.

One of the problems of working in a finished home or business is that restoring stone requires water. Now, wood and water do not mix. This is why beavers are always repairing and rebuilding their dams and Hoover Dam in Boulder, Nevada has stood for almost 80 years. When wood gets wet, it swells. Now, this is useful for whiskey barrels but not so much in an $80,000 French Oak floor in a $10 Million mansion.

For that reason, you have to protect these areas from splatter, vacuum failure (blown fuse, overfill, blown motor… the list goes on) and from machines traveling over the area or even accidentally hitting them from operator error. Even machines with splash guards are not immune from splashing if they hit lippage or something goes wrong.

A quote that you and your employees will do well to remember is one my guys know from repetition, “Tarps are cheap! Replacing (or fixing) customer’s property is not!” A $10,000 restoration job in someone’s home sweet home can quickly turn into a loss instead of a profit if you (or your insurance company) need to replace $50,000 in damages.

Tarps are one way to prevent splatter and traffic areas over floors not being worked on. And none of my crew members will put anything on a countertop unless it is placed on a towel to protect against spilling and/or scratching – regardless of the surface.

When it comes to hand machines, the slowest machines run anywhere from 600 – 1,100 RPM.  This can fling stone slurry and compound anywhere from 15 to 30 feet unless blocked by walls and/or furniture (which can cause another “un-natural disaster” if not protected). You need to set up screens and tarps to prevent added costs to clean these items.

Tarps alone are not enough protection. Our crews are instructed on a detailed protection plan that takes a day of training when they begin and includes a handbook as a reminder.  They are taught about the 7 essential tapes used for protection and why certain brands will or will not work and why, as well as when and how to use each one effectively.  

We also detail how to protect wood, floor vents, carpet and any other medium that they will encounter. This was not something we set up in one day. We learned it from experience and planning over the years. It is also why we have only had one insurance claim in over 20 years of business and our rates have been kept low as a result (also, we were found to be not at fault, even though insurance covered it, because we had taken steps to prevent it and the protection material failed). This detail when it comes to protection is why we are awarded many high-profile jobs and clients.

A concise protection program costs a little more money and should be built into your costs so as to be paid for by your clients. When customers ask us why we are more expensive than competitive bids, we educate them on the care we put into the job and how protection can add up to 50% of a job’s cost (on smaller jobs especially. Lower percentages on bigger jobs) but can save money on damage and heartache from trying to save a few shekels.  

Customers who don’t ask us and go with competitive bids usually end up with horror stories (we hear them through the grapevine) of severe damage to heirlooms, and floor and wall coverings or even water damage to subfloors and lower levels.

A good way to ensure that your employees are conscientious about taking all the necessary steps in protecting neighboring areas is to charge them with the responsibility of clean up whether they are a Master Stone Refinisher or a Restoration Assistant. The goal is to prevent them from short changing the protection plan and not providing enough coverage.  

Incentives can come in the form of bonuses, or even making them clean up after themselves if they did not provide enough coverage. An afternoon on hands and knees scrubbing out dried on slurry splatter from hardwood floors will make them think twice next time when they don’t want to grab that extra tarp from the job truck or trailer.

An old adage is worth remembering when it comes to preparing your job sites: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!”  Until next time, keep your stick on the ice.

Tom McNall is founder and owner of Great Northern Stone, an Ontario-based stone cleaning and restoration company servicing Ontario and Chicago, Illinois. Tom also offers corporate and private consultations as well as speaking at conventions. He can be reached at stone_rx@earthlink.net.