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You are here: Home1 / Blog2 / 20173 / May

How to Minimize Sanding Efforts + Maximize Profits

By Karl Lägler

A goal for every contractor’s business should be to minimize effort and time on-site while maximizing quality results and profits. Wood floor sanding is
hard work, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be smart work, too.

With a few smart changes to conventional wisdom, hard work can become easier and it can produce better results. The keys to success lie in the mix of sanding
machines, abrasives and grit sequences used on the job.

Conventional vs. New-School Sanding Methods

Maximum flatness should be the focus on every sanding job. The quality of machines a contractor uses matters, but sanding machines no more make a floor
than a camera makes a photograph or a race car wins a race. The person using the right machines for the job, and with the right knowledge, skill and
touch, is the real difference-maker.

Conventional sanding methods mean using a big machine and edger. A buffer sometimes is used for fine sanding. With this method, the big machine is used
for sanding 90 percent of a room’s field, and it is where 75 percent of the sanding time is spent. The edger does the rest of the heavy lifting.

The new-school sanding method adds a multidisc sander to take flatness to a new level. The multidisc can be used for fine sanding but, unlike a buffer,
packs enough bite to carry some of the big machine and edger’s workloads, too.

Using a multidisc sander shifts how much energy and time a sanding professional spends on each machine. It accounts for 40 percent of sanding time on a
typical job. It reduces time spent on a big machine by 33 percent, and time spent on an edger by 60 percent. That leads to less wear and tear on the
body of the professional.

A multidisc can be run in all directions. It reduces risk of common issues like chatter and dishout. It also handles multispecies floors much better than
the big machine.

The industry’s leading craftsmen are turning to the multidisc as a game-changer, a machine they can use to set their floors apart from their competition’s.

Quality Abrasives are Unsung Heroes

Quality abrasives are crucial role players on any sanding job. If the abrasives are not up to standard, the sanding results also will be less satisfying
than expected, no matter the quality of machines being used.

The materials used in making abrasives affect sanding rates and how many square feet of life a professional gets out of them. Inexpensively produced abrasives
have shorter service life and need more frequent changing. The minerals used in inexpensive abrasives do not perform as aggressively, leading to more
time spent in the sanding process.

Wood Floor Sanding Abrasive Composition | Lägler North America Blog

Synthetic bonds are primarily used in today’s abrasives. They offer higher temperature stability, higher abrasion resistance, and better adhesion to the
abrasive grit and underlayment than previous bindings.

Zirconia and ceramic abrasives offer advantages compared to silicon carbide and aluminum oxide (corundum) abrasives. Ceramic and zirconia have higher sanding
rates and longer service life that equals less frequent changing. Their longer service life requires less inventory be kept on hand, and less storage
space be used in the trailer, van or shop.

Zirconia abrasives are more expensive than silicon carbide and aluminum oxide, but due to its advantages, it offers a better cost-per-square-foot value.

Proper Grit Sequence Saves Time and Money

Start a sanding job with as coarse a grit as necessary, but as fine a grit as possible. It’s important to correctly choose the starting grit and to follow
the correct grit sequence, or lost time and money will add up while trying to correct sanding mistakes.

Coarse abrasives are more expensive than fine abrasives. For floors that require an exceptionally coarse start, such as 16 or 24 grit, save money by using
abrasives with less expensive minerals. Use silicon carbide sanding discs on the edger, multidisc and buffer, and aluminum oxide belts on the big machine.

Save higher-quality abrasives (zirconia) for intermediate sanding steps. That is from grits 36 to 80 on the big machine, and as high as 150 on the edger
and multidisc. Silicon carbide sanding screens work well on a multidisc sander and buffer, starting at 60 grit.

Proper Wood Floor Sanding Grit Sequence | Lägler North America Blog

No more than one grit should be skipped when using a big machine or edger. When fine sanding with a multidisc sander, do not skip any grit numbers. Fine
grits remove a low volume of wood material from the previous sanding step, and a skipped grit leaves marks too coarse to adequately be removed.

Correct selection of the grit sequence is even more important for oiled surfaces than for finished floors. That’s especially worth paying attention to
since, in recent years, natural oils have become more popular with homeowners. Homeowners also are showing increasing interest in interior design and
open-space floorplans that allow larger amounts of natural light.

That highlights the need for sanding professionals who can produce the flattest, most flawless floors. Being capable of producing top-tier results while
minimizing energy, time and costs of materials on the job is essential to a contractor’s success.

Note: A version of this post appears in the June/July 2017 issue of Hardwood Floors Magazine. 

 


Karleugen Lägler is director of Lägler GmbH. With 50 years in the floor sander manufacturing company, he is the world’s leading floor sanding expert. Lägler GmbH offers free downloads of its “Sanding of Wooden Floors” manual in six languages at laegler.com.


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Are You a ‘Hidden Champion’ of Wood Flooring?

Have you heard of “hidden champions”? We recently heard this tag, what it means, and who it’s talking about. And started thinking about all the amazing
champions in wood flooring. Pros who knock out beautiful wood floors every day, and stand tall and proud over their latest badassery before rolling
on to their next challenger. Like Muhammad Ali standing over Sonny Liston in ’65. Or like Conor McGregor standing over, well, anybody any time he gets
in the octagon.

It turns out there are a few specific “rules” a hidden champion in business has to meet to make that grade. But what are rules? That isn’t stopping us
from running with the hidden-champion idea and how it can apply to what you do in the wood flooring industry.

See what you can make of this.

What is a Hidden Champion?

We most often think of champions as having to do with sports. Besides Ali and McGregor, we all know of LeBron James, Jimmy Johnson, Ronda Rousey, Peyton
Manning, the Chicago Cubs, and Always Dreaming, the latest thoroughbred to win the Kentucky Derby. All definitely are champions, and definitely are
not hidden.

So, what is a hidden champion? It’s a phrase used to tag small- to mid-sized businesses that meet a few specific guidelines of success, shining light on
them as quiet examples of awesome.

Hidden champions are companies that kill it in their little-known slice of the money-making world. They often are family-owned businesses with expertise
in a narrow line of work and are known as leaders in what they do.

Officially, hidden champions have to meet these three specific bullet points:

  • The company must be among the top three in the world in its industry, or number one on the company’s continent
  • The company’s annual revenue must be below $5 billion
  • The company and its products must be little known to the general public

The idea applies to all types of businesses all over the world. But it especially is attached to German companies. There are two reasons for that. The
man behind the research is Hermann Simon, a well-known German expert who started digging into these shadows more than 20 years ago. And he figured
out:

“Only about 1.1 percent of the world population is German, but 48 percent of the mid-sized world market leaders come from Germany.” Most recently, Simon
counted more than 2,700 hidden champion companies in the world, and more than 1,300 of those are in Germany.

Read + Watch "HUMMEL. Icon Builders.

How to Become a Wood Flooring Hidden Champion

We’re making a leap and assuming you draw less than $5 billion dollars in annual revenue. Check the box. That’s one hidden-champion requirement down.

We also know the public generally isn’t all that educated about the specialized skills and knowledge you have. They hire you to turn their wood floor installation,
sanding and finishing dreams into a lasting reality. Check that hidden-champion box. Two down.

Now, the third requirement: rank among top three in the world, or number one on your continent. The rule doesn’t work? Bend it. We’re rolling rogue on
this one, and turning this into the hidden-hidden champion playbook.

6 Factors of Hidden Champion Success

Most hidden champions specialize. In the bigger world, they make inconspicuous products – toothpaste tubes, car seat heaters, hammer-tone
green floor sanding machines – but in the market for these products they are ranked at the top. They focus on the key products they can produce better
than others and end up being more successful than average.

Apple is a great example of reaching explosive success because they cut the bull and stopped trying to sell a hundred products none of us needed or remember
now. Steve Jobs made the company refocus on a handful of world-changing products – iPod, iPhone, iPad – and now Apple is the richest company on the
planet.

Leaders and employees are driven by an “inner fire.” That fire to become, and to remain, number one in their industry lights ’em up like
nothing else. Hidden champions see the market as divided between “good” and “bad” market shares, or customers. They focus on avoiding the bad, like
trying to compete against overly aggressive pricing and discounts that devalue their products or services. They are driven to achieve good by building
a solid, reliable foundation and earning continued success through quality performance that lasts.

Hidden champions are close to their customers’ needs. What customers need and want are at the heart of what hidden champions produce.
They are the motivation for the quality, for improving how the work gets done, for learning more to be able to give their customers something more,
and for their innovations.
Customers add fuel to hidden champions’ inner fire to always do more and to produce the best quality they can.

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Set the standard and keep on truckin’. A lot of hidden champions earn their stripes with a main product or service, and are able to have
a special position in the market. There tend to be few true competitors who can compete well with what they offer.

Hidden champions don’t gain competitive advantages by reducing price. They usually get their edge because of quality products and high performance, and
by being accessible to the customer.

Companies also get a bump from figuring out processes to do things in ways competitors can’t or don’t know to do. For example, Lägler designs and builds
custom tools to produce custom parts on-site in its factory in Germany as part of its custom processes that its competitors can’t replicate.

The values of hidden champions tend to be hard work, intolerant of under-performance, low sickness rates, and high employee loyalty. The
leaders of these hidden champions also strongly identify with the work of their companies. They also stay much longer with their companies and are
more invested in them than other leaders.

Training on the job. There’s been talk for years about where the skilled hands-on jobs in America have gone. And German companies have
been highlighted as an example of a country using a system that keeps cranking out those middle-class manufacturing jobs. A huge reason for that is
the training. Apprentices learn for years how to be the best at their specialized skill. (Read “The Secrets of Lägler’s Success“)

But there’s great news for wood flooring contractors, especially those in the U.S. and Canada. This is the hub of training and education for installing,
sanding and finishing wood floors. Several companies and one National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA) serve up the hands-on opportunities flooring pros need to make the run at becoming hidden champions.

The Bottom Line

Even the smallest or largest companies can learn from what makes hidden champions successful. So much business happens at the local level, even for global
companies. And that applies to local wood flooring businesses.

How do you stand out in your market? Do you stand still and bang out the exact same work day after day or do you keep adding to your flooring
know-how through training?

Lägler supports education through the NWFA and through Lägler Premium Sanding Technology (PST®) certification.
Other companies offer specialty training in sanding and finishing, too. Training and certification builds the flooring industry as a whole, and even
helps to raise the standards that builders and homeowners expect – and will pay more to get.

If the idea of being a hidden champion fuels your fire, aim for being the best wood flooring pro in your city or area. Then don’t let up.

Of course, to make the official hidden-champion list, you’ve got to keep your revenue under $5 billion a year, too. Good luck.

#LearnMoreEarnMore: Subscribe to the Lägler North America monthly email newsletter and join us on Instagram and Facebook.

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Lägler North America, a division of Palo Duro Hardwoods, is the North American distributor of machines and parts manufactured by Eugen Lägler GmbH in Germany. We are North America’s machine repair center, and offer Lägler’s one-day Premium Sanding Technology (PST®) certification course.

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