Besides getting awesome Instagram shots on the job, of course, getting the floor flat is the most important part of sanding wood floors.
But that’s harder to get just right if you don’t take a few minutes to figure out the flatness situation before you get started. You’ve got to know what’s
out of whack with the floor so you can game plan how to make it the level of flat you – and the homeowner — want.
We know you know the feel of unevenness when you’re sanding, and sometimes it’s easy enough to see. But taking some minutes to mark out the uneven spots
will make the job easier.
Here’s a simple flatness test you can do with your big machine, before you start sanding.
Check Floor Flatness Using Your Drum Lever
Use these quick and easy steps to help you mark out high and low spots of uneven wood flooring. It will make those areas easier to see when you’re sanding.
1. Put a fine-grit, used abrasive belt on your drum.
2. Make sure your machine is turned off.
3. Lower the drum to the floor.
4. Roll the big machine at an angle across the boards, paying attention to the drum lever’s movement. If the lever moves up, the floor is rising. If it
moves down, the floor is sloping downward.
5. When the drum lever moves more than a little bit up or down, mark the area as high or low with a pencil.
If you do that to the whole room, you’ll be able to step back when you’re done marking out the spots and see the game plan laid out in front of you. High
here, low there. Low right over here, high over there.
These kinds of prep steps save you hassles later in the process. By doing everything you can to knock the floor flat upfront with your big machine, the
fine sanding steps will go much better. If not, the unevenness will continue through each step, making you have to work harder all the along the way.
Want a chance to improve on a practice floor with Lägler at your side? Call us to set a date for you and your crew to get Lägler certified: 800-848-6635
(800-8-HUMMEL).
https://www.laglernorthamerica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/TestFlatness-title.JPG422750webmasterhttps://www.laglernorthamerica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/logo2-300x90.pngwebmaster2017-08-01 23:51:172020-02-28 23:51:44How to Test Floor Flatness with a Big Machine
Lägler engineers took on a special “Coke vs. Pepsi” kind of project in 2015. They spent more than eight months testing to see if the TRIO really held its
own against competitors’ multi-disc attachments, and then analyzing their test results.
After all, it’s useless to hide from truth and blindly follow bias for the company, especially if there’s no substance to it. You’d know the difference
just like we would.
Obviously, the engineers had expected their designs – and massive investment in the machine since it was invented and put out on the market in 1993 – to
be everything they’d planned. But since the TRIO entered the market as a one-of-a-kind fine sanding machine, competitors have come out with their own
ideas to counter the TRIO, all options that are more affordable to make and for contractors to buy.
Affordable is good. Lägler’s take is that investing in quality is better – and more affordable in the long run.
Competition is good, too. It pushes our games higher, right?
So, Lägler’s engineers setup their lab experiment to learn for themselves the truth about the TRIO and its competition. They used Lägler’s training facilities
and put each of the machines through the same precise test, using Lägler’s Premium Sanding Technology (PST®) hands-on certification process.
Lägler GmbH factory and PST training facilities in Germany
Why Conduct Multi-Disc Sanding Test?
The trend in wood flooring in recent years has been to achieve a natural surface appearance. Also, the demand for ever-higher surface quality is in
part due to design trends that open up living spaces, use larger windows and improve overall lighting.
People are seeing their wood floors, and appreciating them in ways they often didn’t before. They are choosing to have wood floors as a key
design element in their homes with expectations their floors are something to be showed off.
The TRIO was designed for this fine sanding need.
Single-disc machines are not designed or intended for fine sanding, not even Lägler’s SINGLE.
To achieve perfect surface quality a significantly longer amount of time is required, if using a single-disc sander. Due to the large sanding disc,
the pressure and abrasion are much less.
Manufacturers of single-disc machines recognized these problems. Several of them started offering multi-disc plates as an optional attachment.
Comparison of Multi-Disc Concepts
Lägler set up a real-world job site to test the differences between its TRIO, a dedicated multi-disc sander, and two single-disc machines converted
for multi-disc sanding with attachments. Each was made by a different manufacturer. The engineers compared the three machines using Lägler’s PST® method on a 108-square-foot floor (10 m²) at Lägler.
The two single-disc machines in this test (Machines A + B) were equipped with four-disc attachments, in which the individual inflexible mounted sanding
discs were driven by an outer gear ring. The time required for each sanding step was recorded.
The individual times in the image below show Machines A and B needed more time than the TRIO, especially when fine sanding. With Machine A, in particular,
time added up, in part, because it was necessary to sand some areas twice to remove visible scratches from the first attempt.
The key difference-maker – and, frankly, part of the reason why the TRIO was designed the way it was nearly 25 years ago – is the TRIO’s independently
flexible sanding plates. Each of the TRIO’s three discs adjusts to the floor independently, maintaining contact with the surface and sanding uneven
spots to be flat.
The inflexible suspended discs of the four-disc sanding attachments did not adjust themselves to the floor, allowing for uneven surfaces to either
remain uneven or call for additional cuts.
Overall, looking at the chart above, the TRIO achieves a time savings of approximately 25 percent compared to Machine A and about 18 percent compared
to Machine B. The TRIO also produced the flattest floor, due to its flexibility.
Measuring + Comparing Abrasion
To determine the amount of material removed, the wood dust from each sanding machine was weighed after each sanding step. The area used for this test
was 388 square feet (36 m²) of oak mosaic flooring at Lägler.
For the TRIO, the plastic dust bag was removed from the machine’s integrated dust containment cylinder and weighed. For the multi-disc machines, separate
containment systems were needed and the dust was removed from the vacuum bags to be weighed.
The chart below shows the size of abrasives for each machine, the types of machines and disc suspension, and the wattage for each. The image also compares
the machines’ levels of success across the wide range of grits: 40-60-80-100-120. The results of how much material was removed from the floor highlights
the sanding pressure and capabilities of each machine.
Comparing Abrasives
When comparing the success of sanding, testing the sanding machines is only one part. The machine is important for the surface finish, while the abrasive
material determines the actual removal rate.
To compare Lägler’s zirconium-based abrasives against another manufacturer’s zircon-mix abrasives, the Lägler engineers took the TRIO out of this part
of the test. Only the two converted single-disc machines were used. The test area again was 388 square feet (36 m²) of oak mosaic flooring.
The abrasives with the higher zirconium content removed up to 20 percent more material than the zircon mix, depending on the grit and machine used.
Truth in Testing
The truth is what it is. Luckily, for Lägler, no bias is needed to appreciate that truth. Sure, had the results not come out so favorable for the TRIO,
talking publicly about it wouldn’t be the point just yet. Instead, the focus would have been on improving the machine to make sure it gives sand-and-finish
pros the long-lasting quality they need.
The real point for Lägler, as always, is to produce the best quality floor sanding machines on the planet.
Learn More, Earn More
Learn more about the Lägler TRIO and get hands-on experience
in PST certification training.
Plan for one day of PST in Denver (or the U.K. or Germany), and take an extra day for yourself to go skiing, fishing, brewery hopping, or whatever.
We’re doing what people do at the end of one year, beginning of another. We look back at what we did well and what we can improve. We always want to keep
doing better.
That runs from machine designs and production at the factory in Germany to customer service, certification training and every way we connect with you pros
online here in North America.
We kicked off a new, mobile-friendly website in 2016. With it came a blog, and we started social media pages on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. We started making videos and answering top questions you have about using and
maintaining Lägler machines.
Added up, you all spent about five work weeks of the year learning from the content on our blog. That’s a great start, and we aim to build on that in the
coming year.
Here’s a recap, highlighting the most popular how-to topics and just plain fun social media posts.
TOP BLOG CONTENT
Lägler Certification: What is Lägler PST?
Our most viewed blog page. Like we say in that post, our training program is about two things:
1. Building relationships with contractors, letting them know we are the true resource about Lägler machines and we’re ready to help.
2. Helping contractors to maximize success with their sanding and finishing businesses.
In this post, we describe the Lägler process that gets you the most out of every floor while taking the least time on the job. Greatest efficiency for
the flattest floors. We tell what the one-day certification course costs and why we offer it at a financial loss to ourselves.
Nothing builds trust like truth and, of course, quality machines you can count on for many years. That’s what we bank on every day.
Not surprisingly, HUMMEL blog posts are a favorite among all our topics. It’s the most popular Lägler machine in North America, and is used by many thousands
across the world.
How to Replace a Lägler HUMMEL Sanding Drum
This post tells the two most important things to know about the HUMMEL drum. It also includes step-by-step instructions.
The video in this post shows proof that the HUMMEL design maintains its nearly 50 years of original engineering while also taking on all the parts that
have been refined along those many years. New parts on, say, a 1983 machine? No problem. Maintain and roll on.
Why You Should Sand Wood Floors at an Angle + Left to Right
We’ve refined our thinking on sanding at an angle. For example, we used to recommend cutting at an angle for the first pass, and then with the direction
of a straight-laid floor for finer grits.
Now, we recommend using at least a slight angle for each pass. It’s all about getting the flattest results.
We also explain why to sand left to right as you move across the field of a room, and why you should not sand right to left, if you want to achieve the
best results.
4 Reasons Not to Use a Wire-Brush Drum with a Lägler HUMMEL
We know the wire-brushed look is especially cool with current trends in wood flooring. But we also know the reasons you don’t want to throw a wire-brush
drum on your HUMMEL for that job.
What did we say about truth above? Truth builds trust, and trust us when we say we are focused on quality floors and offering the best information we have
to you.
Do you have Lägler HUMMEL questions and helpful content ideas? Use the Contact link in the menu heading above to submit your suggestions.
We want to tackle all the information that will be helpful to you in the field with future blog and video posts.
TOP FLIP® BLOG POSTS
The FLIP edger finally is getting its due in North America. The machine was launched in 2001 in Germany, and now is becoming much more widely known and
used here. Search #LaglerFLIP on
Instagram to see photos and videos from some of the guys who are using it — and bragging about it — across the land.
How to Use the Lägler FLIP Corner Attachment
How do you handle room corners, around pipes, and between railing balusters? You could scrape. You could use an orbital sander in some of those spots.
But the FLIP corner attachment is the high-speed tool that knocks it all out the cleanest and quickest.
The FLIP is sold with the short and corner attachments, and this blog post includes tips for using both.
Like everything with Lägler machines, the engineers have lightened the pro’s load on the job. With the FLIP, don’t burn out your shoulders to add a touch
of pressure here or there. Just use as recommended.
This blog post gives step-by-step instructions for making sure the FLIP is cutting as expected. It tells how to set the pressure based on which attachment
you’re using, and in only of seconds of effort on the job.
The CAD drawings in this post also show what goes wrong when you’re edger is running on off-kilter settings like an old sea captain with an uneven peg
leg.
What Lägler FLIP questions and helpful content ideas do you have? Tell us, using the Contact link in the menu heading above. We want to
turn those questions into useful blog and video posts to help everyone #LearnMoreEarnMore.
TOP TRIO BLOG POSTS
What is a surefire way to know when a floor sanding guy doesn’t own a TRIO and hasn’t participated in Lägler’s Premium Sanding Technology (PST®)
certification training? He calls the machine a buffer and thinks it slows down the process.
For those who know better, we’re building our how-to TRIO content. For those who want to test-drive a TRIO and see why so many others swear by it, read,
“What is Lägler PST?”
and get in touch with us.
Lägler TRIO: Sanding Disc Arrows + Abrasives
Let’s veer off the path for a minute. Have you ever noticed on the gas gauge in your truck that arrow next to the little silhouette of the gas pump that
either points left or right? It’s a reminder, showing you on which side of the vehicle your gas tank is when you pull up to the pump at the gas station.
Well, the TRIO has a similar reminder on its three sanding discs. This blog post tells why the arrows cast in the plate are there and how that plays a
part in extending the life of your abrasives.
What are the three things you need to know about cleaning the TRIO filter? What is the one thing you really shouldn’t ever do and, we’re willing to bet,
you or someone on your crew has done?
This post includes a super-short video and the three simple steps you should use to clean your filter in only seconds.
What Lägler TRIO questions and blog/video ideas do you have? The Contact link in the menu heading above is your path to telling us. We
can turn your question – which likely is a common question many others have – into helpful blog content for everyone.
TOP VIDEO CONTENT
We started a YouTube channel this past year. It’s great for embedding videos in our blog posts. If you watch as much on YouTube as you do on TV, like your kids do, look us up and
subscribe.
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We recently wrapped up our second Lägler Fly and Sand trip of 2016. It was a new step for us and Lägler GmbH, in nearly 10 years of offering this lottery,
to put together two trips in the same year. We rounded up American contractors for the trip in July, followed by a Canadian group in September.
For those who have been part of a Fly and Sand – touring German countryside, taking in a collection of villages and cities, restaurants and vineyards –
this experience is once in a lifetime. It combines seeing some old-world Europe with the passion everyone involved shares for their wood flooring craft.
We see friendships and business contacts being built on these trips. It’s awesome to us to be part of connecting these industry dots across North America.
We get to know more guys like us, too, and learn from everyone else. Two-way deal.
Connecting the Wood Flooring Industry
The guys who participate on these trips – it’s been almost all guys who have entered to win one of these lottery slots, though women are encouraged to
enter, too – leave Germany and scatter across the country again, often with plans to reconnect at industry meetups like the NWFA Wood Flooring Expo.
They connect on social media and end up tapping each other’s brains as resources to help solve issues they run into on the job site. Give and take.
In short, Fly and Sand is an irreplaceable five days that offers lasting benefits beyond Lägler sanding machines and certification training.
Of course, those machines, that history, the way they are built, and the way they get used is at the heart of the time spent at the factory and in the
training facility during Fly and Sand. But it’s only part of why Lägler offers Fly and Sand.
Why Does Lägler Offer Fly + Sand?
If you try to ballpark the numbers on what a trip like this costs for 10 people per Fly and Sand you can figure out it’s not cheap. So why does Lägler
do it?
Why does Lägler pay for the group to fly to and from North America, set up everyone in individual guest house rooms, buy the meals, pay for entrance into
super-cool places like the Mercedes-Benz Museum, make sure transportation is Johnny-on-the-spot for every stop – e.g. Heidelberg Castle, dinner each
evening?
Why does Lägler give a tour of its factory, where every one of its iconic machines, including the HUMMEL®, TRIO and FLIP®,
are hand-built? And why does the company provide its Premium Sanding Technology (PST®) certification at no charge?
It’s simple. Belief in Lägler quality, and belief in the contractors who know their craft, and are able to sort out the what’s-what about the machines
they use day in and out on the job.
Lägler handles its part – engineering, manufacturing, training – and leaves it to those who participate in Fly and Sand to see it all first-hand at the
source in Germany, and make up their own minds. (The same goes for participation in PST, available year-round with us in Denver, and in the U.K.) We know that
if you believe in Lägler like we do, you’ll tell others. And your word carries weight throughout the industry like no manufacturer’s can.
If you’re part of Fly and Sand, you get to learn more about where the machines come from. You get to see the care that is put into them by long-standing
experts in their production roles, and you can know by first name.
For example, Sergei likely put together your HUMMEL, if it was made in this century, and Andreas likely is who tested it. Thorsten probably powder coated
your HUMMEL hammer tone olive green, if bought in the past more than a decade. Several others had roles from parts fabrication to assembly to packing
and shipping.
Lägler machines are produced start to finish in one location, with few parts fabrication exceptions that are made by partners located nearby.
Of course, Karl Lägler, the son of the company’s founder, who also was the man behind the HUMMEL, knows the machines and their uses in every detail. And
he is very involved in each Fly and Sand group’s experience. From picking you up at the airport in Frankfurt to the handing out of PST certificates
and the last auf wiedersehen before the group returns to North America.
No Catch + No Sales Pitch
With each Fly and Sand, the process includes making phone calls to the lottery winners to let them know their names came up on top. Sometimes those phone
calls are met with skepticism. “For real? What’s the catch?”
We’ve heard from guys on the trip how they kept waiting for a sales pitch, as if they were on a “free” trip to Disney World and expected to get stuck in
a time-share sales-pitch hell as payment for the vacation. Not gonna happen.
There is no catch. There is no sales pitch.
So, why does Lägler offer Fly and Sand? Because we trust in the quality, engineering and endless research and refinements that go into the machines
and the PST training. (We welcome your suggestions for improvements, too.)
And we trust those of you who make your living using the machines to know the differences between a champion and a pretender.
By the way, we’re swinging big again next year. Two Fly and Sand lotteries. You’ll be hearing about it by early in 2017 on our Instagram, Facebook and Twitter pages, and via our monthly email newsletter.
See more photos from this year’s trips in our Facebook photos. You probably will recognize
some of the people included.
Editor’s Note: Brandon Santiago, of Cleveland Hardwood Restoration, was one of 10 wood flooring professionals whose names were drawn as winners of this year’s annual Lägler Fly and Sand lottery. Below, is Brandon’s take on the once-in-a-lifetime experience. All photos shown are courtesy of Brandon, and come from his Instagram account (@clevelandwoodbee).
By Brandon Santiago, Cleveland Hardwood Restoration
Those of you who follow me on Instagram saw that I recently visited Germany to attend Lägler PST training. If you’re in the wood flooring business, and
you don’t know what that is, you should.
PST training is based on Lägler’s Premium Sanding Technology.
It’s designed to help wood flooring geeks like me become more efficient and consistent with my sanding skills, which will have a huge impact on my
bottom line.
“I’m not ashamed to admit that walking into the factory for the first time was an emotional experience.” ~ Brandon Santiago, Cleveland Hardwood Restoration
Lägler hosts this training in Denver, in the U.K., and in Germany, but I was part of a lucky group that got to attend the training in Germany. And Lägler
picked up the tab. Mind-blowing, right?
The sight-seeing we did was great, as was the German beer and food, but the real highlight of the trip for me was touring the Lägler manufacturing facility
where the machines I use every day are made. I was so amped up about touring the plant that I couldn’t sleep the night before. Lots of other guys on
the trip couldn’t either.
I’m not ashamed to admit that walking into the factory for the first time was an emotional experience. These machines are engineering marvels, and seeing
for myself how they are made, made me appreciate them even more.
The people working at Lägler are true craftsmen, and you can see the pride they take in their work at every work station. In fact, being in the factory
was like being an eight-year-old visiting Disneyland for the first time. I couldn’t help but wander off from the group to explore on my own.
Seeing these machines lined up by the dozens was like Christmas, Easter and my birthday all wrapped up as one. And then to learn that the name Hummel means
“bumblebee”? It’s like it was meant to be.
One of the highlights of the tour for me came when Jeff Fairbanks, one of our trip hosts from Palo Duro,
gathered the factory crew and put me up on an assembly table to drop trou and show the German crew my big machine – the Hummel tattoo I proudly display
on my thigh. When Karl Lägler himself saw it, he laughed and promptly asked me, “Where is the TRIO”?
The one-day training and certification program was intensive. Marc Schulz with Lägler showed us all the ins and outs of each machine – the HUMMEL, SUPERHUMMEL,
TRIO, FLIP, ELAN and PROFIT. We got one-on-one instruction with each machine, we made our own wood filler, we sanded UV finishes, and we tried a variety
of finish methods.
It’s hard to explain, but being in that environment with so many other talented wood flooring craftsmen, with the smell of the wood dust and finish all
around us, it made us want to get to work and perfect our art.
Which is where I am now. Back at home, in Cleveland, implementing what I learned to improve my business, and leaving my mark on this world one floor at
a time.
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Lägler’s certification program – Premium Sanding Technology (PST) – is about two things: our relationships with contractors, and their success with sanding and finishing wood flooring.
Many sanding professionals across the world know Lägler machines, especially the HUMMEL, the TRIO and the FLIP. Those are the three sanders used during the one-day certification class. PST is about showing you how to maximize efficiency on the job while getting consistent, top-quality results with those machines.
In the 10 years since Lägler created PST and starting offering it at its headquarters in Güglingen-Frauenzimmern, Germany, employees of more than 2,500 companies have been PST certified.
What Is Lägler’s PST Method?
The Premium Sanding Technology method is about consistency on the job. It’s about maximizing efficiency. It’s about applying the same exacting process no matter the species or pattern of wood flooring, and getting the same, top-quality results every time.
Hint: It’s HUMMEL, FLIP, TRIO, FLIP, TRIO, FLIP, TRIO. With the proper uses and grit sequence taught during PST training.
What Is Covered in PST Training?
The one-day course starts with an hour of classroom time, covering:
History about treatment of wood floors
Types and uses of different machines
Ergonomics of handling the machines
Job safety (e.g. dust emissions)
Sanding techniques
Grit sequences
The rest of the class is hands-on training, using the HUMMEL, TRIO and FLIP with the PST grit sequence. The PST trainer will use a stopwatch to time each step in the sequence, showing how time is saved throughout the process. You also learn tips for use and care of the machines.
How Much Does Lägler Certification Cost?
Straight out, the price of attending PST is cheap. Class sizes are kept small to maximize each participant’s opportunity to be hands-on and get questions answered. At $275 total for up to five attendees per company, it is not a money-maker for Lägler.
The pre-paid registration for PST is about receiving the commitment of those who signup, and it goes toward covering some of our training expenses. For example: flooring supplies, training materials and your lunch.
Why DoesLägler Offer PST Training?
Relationships. Serving customer needs. The more face-to-face time we get with customers, the better it is for all of us. We don’t just teach, we learn.
We also take the long view. For example, a HUMMEL is built to last for more than 30 years, if properly used and maintained. So PST helps you know how best to use and care for your machines.
Of course, we don’t sell as many machines, because they are built to last. But when you understand how to get the most out of them, how to trust your machines day in and day out, you know you can trust us too. When you do need something, like parts or information, we’re here.
Our goal is to help you succeed in business for the long-term. That helps us to have a strong business future, too.
PST training is offered in three locations:
Lägler North America in Denver
KHR Floor Sanding Supplies in Southampton, U.K.
Lägler GmbH in Germany
Schedule PST training for an available date that suits your needs: email [email protected] or call 800-8-HUMMEL.
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