The Huddle - Episode 162 - You Tell Us: What’s Your Favorite Flooring Tool and Why?
Every flooring pro has that one tool they swear by—the one that makes the job smoother, faster, and better. In this episode of The Huddle, we’re flipping the script and asking YOU: What’s your favorite flooring tool, and why?
From precision cutters to trusty trowels (and maybe a few unexpected choices), we’re diving into the tools that make all the difference on the job site. Hear stories from the trade, discover new must-haves, and join the conversation by sharing your own go-to tool in the comments.
🎙 Listen in and level up.
💬 Drop your favorite organization tips in the comments!
Join the Conversation!
Got a question or opinion about certification and training? Drop it in the comments—we might feature your thoughts in a future episode.
🔔 Subscribe and hit the bell so you never miss out on tips, trends, and raw conversations from the people building this industry.
🎙️ The Huddle is proudly supported by:
🔧 ShagTools.com
Your go-to source for professional flooring tools, supplies, and accessories.
🛒 Use code HUDDLE10 for 10% off your first order!
👉 Shop ShagTools.com
🚀 Go Carrera
Build your profile, prove your skills, and connect with contractors—all in one place.
👉 Learn more at GoCarrera.com
🛠️ Stubbi Tools by Preferred Flooring
Installer-designed tools that work as hard as you do.
👉 Check out Stubbi Tools
NAFCT
NAFCT is a leading provider of flooring solutions, offering top-quality training, certifications, and support to elevate the industry.
👉 Learn more: https://www.nafct.com
🔹 Divergent Adhesives
Innovative adhesive solutions crafted for performance and reliability in the flooring industry.
👉 Check them out: https://www.divergentadhesives.com
🔗 Meet all our sponsors & partners: https://thehuddle.team/sponsors
Stay Connected & Join the Conversation!
The Huddle Podcast is where the flooring industry comes together to connect, learn, and thrive! Recognized as the #1 podcast in the flooring community, we provide an unmatched platform for professionals to discuss everything from installation techniques to industry trends.
At The Huddle, we’re all about driving Forward Progress—empowering seasoned installers, contractors, and flooring enthusiasts to grow, innovate, and lead in their craft. Whether you’re looking for real conversations, actionable insights, or inspiration to take your career to the next level, The Huddle is your home for real discussions that matter.
Want to be a guest on The Huddle? Email forwardprogress@thehuddle.team
We want to send a special shoutout to our sponsors!
FloorCloud
FloorCloud revolutionizes jobsite management with its cutting-edge platform, allowing contractors to remotely monitor ambient conditions like temperature and humidity in real-time. Paired with rugged sensors and instant mobile alerts, their technology ensures installations meet manufacturer specifications, reducing liability and enhancing quality control. Learn more at https://floorcloud.com
Go Carrera
Create your FREE Installer profile at https://gocarrera.com and become part of the future of the industry TODAY!
GET TRAINED! Find a list of training dates here: https://gocarrera.com/resources/training/
Preferred Flooring
Preferred Flooring proudly introduces Stubbi Flooring Tools—designed by installers for installers. Stubbi tools are crafted for precision, durability, and ease of use, helping flooring professionals tackle any project with confidence. Explore the full Stubbi line at https://preferredflooringmi.com/stubbi
Please visit our new website! https://thehuddle.team
What is up, guys? Welcome back to the huddle. We're your weekly playbook helping you gain forward progress in
your career. Simply put, we're here to help you win. For the new viewers,
welcome to the team. What's up, guys? What's going on?
just, you know, running from one jump job meeting to the next and uh trying to
make sure I'm here on the huddle uh in time. So, I made it.
Same. Doesn't always feel like you have a lot of time and then all of a sudden it hits one hour prior and then
everything like time just goes too fast. I could squeeze this email, this phone
call. I thought I could. Well, I didn't have a choice or doing an Amazon project and I
had to squeeze squeeze a a site meeting in and uh I thought I had plenty of
time. But boy, I tell you what, walk one of them buildings and and uh probably
underestimated the amount of steps it was going to require. Yeah, we we got one coming up too in the
next uh couple weeks here over for Amazon. Oh, yeah.
noise. Well, um, glad you guys are doing well. The day is
treating you well. I want to mention today's sponsor is The Virgin Adhesives.
So, you guys uh make sure to give them some love. We'll uh mention them a bit
later as well. Today's topic is pretty simple. This is a
easy a light-hearted topic, I think. I don't know how many times I say that
and the the session ends up in some deep well of trying to solve the uh
industry's flooring issues, but what's your favorite tool and why? Um
you know, I know that's a loaded question. So, uh just keep that in mind as we continue the conversation here.
Um, type in the chat, let us know what you're thinking and what your uh f
favorite tool is. Also, it'd be kind of cool to know if you guys are buying tools, you should be buying them from
Shag Tools. They are also a sponsor of ours and those guys over there are great. Uh, go over to shagtools.com and
check those guys out and get your Huddle 10 code for some uh, you know, some
savings. So,
awesome. Well, okay. Who's who's uh who's got the first tool? Who who wants
to go first? I'll start, but I'm going to start a little different. Um, and I'm going to
say favorite tool from first time I started flooring till
now has definitely evolved. Um, and uh, I say when I started getting
into uh, first year into it, started doing prep, favorite tool was definitely a gauged uh,
a gauged drywall spat um, for ramping. Um, that was like
that that was the whip as soon as like someone showed me that. Um because I used to use a notch out a piece of VCT
to get like the initial ramp to get the height and then you have to go over it again and then it's like
always had to go find a piece of VCT even if I was doing carpet or something, you know. And uh that old trick still is that might still
be one of my favorite tools though is a good oldfashioned piece of VCT to notch out and use
for a for the gauge of floating out your flooring up the ceramic tile or a
threshold or whatever. Yep. That was my first favorite tool I would say. Like I I couldn't do without
it. I kind of in stages, right? because you like you're new and then you you're
using certain things and then you figure something out and it's like this is my new favorite.
Yeah. I mean I've got to go my brain goes demo like first and then the stuff
that it takes to So the by far favorite tool is the ride-on
machine. Uh it's that that thing has saved me so many times. Our uh we run a
national 5700, but there's a lot of good machines out there. Ours is a battery
powered. So, but then on that demo line, if you're doing something small, I have yet to
find a more powerp packed uh tool than the Little Eddie. And I wish they would
uh sponsor this video. I'd love to do like a deep dive on little Eddie if nobody's ever used them. But that for uh
doing demo in small areas and just the ease of moving that thing around,
that's one of my uh that that's the demo side of life for me.
We still haven't used one, so I we we can only go by what you're saying. Yeah. Um is it is it comparable? Well,
if uh I forget the gentleman's name, but uh reach out, sponsor the huddle,
and we'll do a live tool demo for everybody because more people need to know about that tool.
It's from the sounds of it when we were looking at it at um surfaces, it's really really versatile.
Yeah, it is. What about uh Okay, so what's your favorite sheet vinyl tool?
Because I think you got to go in segments here. How can you How can you? So the vinyl roller just
like it. We used to just roll the sheet vinyl, cut it, and then you have to flip it and then it was like, "Oh, there's a
vinyl roller. You don't have to do this. You can start skipping steps and you don't have to struggle with rolling this
thing everywhere, and you don't need a 100 foot hallway to get 20 foot of roll out." So what he's
talking about is the roll. It's got three rollers. Some of them have four.
And you they're six foot wide most of them. And the wheels are this way. So
the rollers are this way and the wheels are this way. So you can pull it out and it won't it won't slide on you. It won't
go anywhere. Well, theoretically. And then you just pull your vinyl out.
And the way we did it back in the old days is just pull it out, lift up the
vinyl. Somebody had to back roll a 200 pound piece of vinyl to roll it out face
first or you roll it out face down and um like Daniel said, you have to flip
it. So yeah, that's a great tool. That's a mustave if you do a lot of sheet vinyl.
Yep. Um well I guess a mustave would be actually a roller
that too. Yeah. Yeah. Um the salvage trimmer. I remember the first time I seen that.
Pop this up so people know what we're talking about. Yep. Yeah. They have those in the uh what? 4
foot or 36? 4 foot. 36 inch. 18 inch. Yeah. And they have have the dollies too, but I don't we
don't have the dollies. Yeah. That How far you're saying that's three foot long? I thought ours was like six
foot. No, they're they only come in maybe the old ones, but now they only come in 36
and 18 inches. Oh wow. I will say they do their best to make them light, but uh the cast aluminum
once you let a roll go a little bit too quick on that. Yeah, just be careful. Be careful.
Don't drop it. Don't drop it, man. It's not indestructible.
Um, what was I saying? The salvage trimmer. And I know they have a lot of variations of them now, but
I remember the first time that we see we call it the mountain climber because it looks like a carabiner.
We'll leave Daniel on here. Daniel's gonna have to pull up each each tool.
Yeah. Um, I'm on it. And what's up, Kyle? How's it going? What up, Kyle?
Mr. Haden. What's up, brother? So we had
but um the salvage this is the one hand trimming everything we call the mountain climber.
Yeah dude. Yeah hand trimming everything and then that thing popped up and the sad part is that
it was available for a very long time before we discovered it. I wish I could show you how that's used, but
essentially your vinyl lays in that groove and it cuts off because if you don't do a lot of vinyl, you don't know,
but the very last inch or so of vinyl is typically thinner. It's not meant to be,
but so you cut that off. And this thing, you just kind of hook it in and get to pull it down.
Yeah. Which is why uh Daniel and Jose are calling it the mountain climber.
Like a carabiner. You're like climbing the mountain, brother. I think baby sister is the one that came up with that name.
She She is. She 100% is. Um they have other variations of that that you can
adjust the depth of what you're trimming off too. So in case you're working with like a pattern piece or or something
like that where you have a specific line to go to. Um Oh yeah. I've never used one that had
any adjustable. It's that exact one. And sometimes you had to go through twice
because you didn't cut off enough on your first run for the salvage of a particular vinyl. Um, never had to go
through more than twice, but sometimes you got to go twice to get to the the full actual thickness of the vinyl
because nobody wants your seams to be a valley,
man. I've seen that. And that's not the way to do it, fellas. So, they do have this one right here. So
that way it mitigates all that stuff and you can um gauge how
much you want to cut off before you start cutting off. Oh, the wolf. You know, I've never got
to use that thing. I seen him demo it. Amazing. I seen them demo. I think I seen on your
social too one time somebody using it. That's That's a cool
It looks like a a call sign or a call button for a the
Star Trek to come get you. Beam me up, Scotty.
Right. Uh that's what this one is for. This one is instead of using underscribes, you
can use this one right here. And you can this knob right here
adjusts um how tight you want it. So that way you
can actually just start cutting and you can cut all the way through it sometimes or you can just score it and you can
adjust the the height that the blade goes in. It's actually really nice. We use this a lot for um tight fit LBT
cuts. Nice. Yeah, Wolf Wolf, we're we're looking at you
for for some sponsorships, too. Partners. All right. Well, uh, let's see.
We got I would love some of the carpet guys to get in and and talk because,
you know, carpet today in the commercial world is almost all carpet tile. So
dude, like it's like a chalk line is your best friend is pretty much the the game of
commercial carpet anymore. Once in a while we'll get a broad loom. We have one job at our out of our Kansas City
office. It's a it's called Andredis. I believe it's a well just like what it
sounds is a um indoor racetrack kind of place and they
have a lot of like gaming areas and guest areas and you know meeting areas
and stuff for kids or whatever birthday parties and the and the such and it's
got some broad loom um but I mean literally 95 98% of our our carpet
anymore. In fact, we're going to be redoing our racking out in the warehouse and getting
rid of a whole section of broad loom racks. So,
KBY guys, I'll bet I someone's got to have cool glide.
Someone has to have Cool Glide as their like favorite because that did change the game. If you're trying to patch in a
bad part of carpet and that kind of stuff, I've seen those guys do some
pretty amazing separated. Then you got to go residential and commercial. So residential. Uh yeah, that uh the cool
glide. Yeah. But what possibly a favorite tool
in commercial carpet? like you got a rope finder, a rope cutter,
and you know, hey, the crab stretcher was probably the
biggest game. Probably the the biggest game changer. I remember kicking till my knee was uh
black and blue on a Walmart back in probably 2000 trying to put 100 foot
seams together with solventbased adhesive back then. Uh, so it have been
like 99 or maybe even 98 and this thing changed the game for putting commercial
seams together. So yeah, that's my vote right there. Yeah.
And I'm pretty sure you can get that on Shag Tools, guys. That's where I'm looking at right now.
There he goes. Yep. This right here. I mean, there's pattern. Yeah. Pattern matching.
Well, just the bow and skew on a mainly the bow on a row. Trying to get that
together. If you don't have a cross pattern, maybe you have a very few carpets don't have either a diagonal or
cross pattern like dotting or lines. Um, but trying to get just the seam to come
together. Just getting the seam to come together. You got a guy on each side of the carpet
kicking trying to get it to go together. My knee hurts think just thinking about
the things that we used to do with this carpet and before we had I even knew that there was a such thing as a crab
stretcher, man. Like yeah, I don't know when I even found out about this thing, but it was not until I
had my uh till I had started my own company that I knew about it. My it was
probably my boss at the time had zero concern about us saving our knees. He
was just like go put it together. But yeah, go to shacktools.com, pick that
thing up. And just a reminder, today's actual sponsor is Divergent Adhesives.
Go to divergentadhesives.com.
I I just remember, you know, them bringing out the crab one time and it was like, this has existed this entire
time and we've been doing it this way. I think that's what put things into perspective when it's like, man, we're
not going to be that company that's just trying to do things and not purchase the tools that are going to make things a
even if it's just a little bit easier or it takes a little bit off your body, it's worth it. Well, and that thing also
the big difference outside of your body, which is like the most important part
that it does, I think. But the the other part is, dude, you kick on a carpet
enough times and you break that secondary backing away, it starts to grab to the adhesive and you're still
kicking it. I've literally had the carpet delaminate trying to kick the dang seams together.
Kyle says they bought the first one. Hutsluff air sled.
Oh, dude. Airled. That That's a residential guy's dream, I'm sure. Not having to uh muscle around
all the appliances that come along. You you also, if you're watching this and
you're new to flooring, if you're a residential replacement installer, you're also an appliance removal and
replacement expert, just in case you didn't know what you're
getting into. And for I'm going to pop it up for the people that don't know what the air sled
is because it it is amazing, man. Like
I've used this um when we were doing the YMCA to move one of their machines because they were like, "Uh yeah, you
guys can have this area, but they're not going to be here to move this machine until like tomorrow." And I'm like, "I got it."
Was it a vending machine? No, it was um like a weightlifting machine or
something. Yeah, it was it was a a weighted um pull-up. So, an assisted pull-up.
Oh, gotcha. And the air sled did the deal, huh? Air sled moved it wherever we needed it
to. Oh man. Well, it's $4.95
and if you use Huddle 10, that's 10% off and that is probably going to save your
back and body. I've seen them work. I've never had actually used them. I didn't do enough residential replacement back
in my day-to-day install days um to really um ever
use one myself, but I've seen them used. I've used them and they are amazing. And
if you do residential and you are moving stuff like and you don't have one, you you're going to thank yourself once you
do get one. Kyle's 100% on that. And it's just the matter of um
like scratching what you just put in. That's the big thing cuz you can get those um sleds or the
the little pucks with the carpet on them, but you still don't know what you're going to be dragging with that
stuff. Yeah. I mean, the the problem with that
is even if you think it even if it starts clean with any of the sliders, it
grabs one little rock, goes across your new LVT you just
installed in someone's kitchen. That's a bad day. And and then you just hate yourself and you hate your life and you're like, "Why
was I so lazy? I could have done it differently." And what he's talking about right there,
too, it's the the dust cuff, right? the so if you're ripping out ceramic and
stuff and you're on a commercial project with the since the silica standard came out it's really really tough to control
that and I mean we've done it before where it's like all right you're just going to stand next to me and keep the
vacuum hose right where I'm removing it or you know where you're following them with a machine and it's like yeah that
thing actually does work. So, we have um it this the dust cuff is actually like
compatible with numerous different um demo hammers and stuff like that. And we
have one that DeWalt actually made that hooks right up to their demo hammer, too. So,
nice. Dan says, "Uh, my aisles is one platform about 2 and 1
half by 3 in crane." I don't know what that means. Do you
expand Dan? We're send us a URL and let us uh pop it
up so everyone knows what you're you bought it in 93. I graduated high school
in 94. So that thing is uh and I graduated 10 years after you did.
That's how old I am. Yeah. Anybody who graduated in ' 04, I look at
like a baby or in, you know, the 2000s. I'm like, "Oh, not not in the 1900s."
Not in the 1900s, as my kids say.
I mean, it's pretty legit when my You were born way back in the 1900s.
I'm like, man, thanks. Did they even have color TV then?
They had My daughter did ask me that.
Well, I tell you the the what they didn't have then was problems with adhesives. And we all went through that
time frame when adhesives were just we took the solution the the solvents out
of adhesives. Do you guys remember? I mean, that would have been early 2000s through mid 2000s
where the adhesives just were not very good. And today, you know, it's it's
just a different story. They really have gotten it right. And one of the companies that really got it right is Divergent.
Um, you know, they they've really I know Sunny on multiple other uh things and
him as a trainer and always being in the industry. So he knows how to build an adhesive for the real world. Um, you
know, we all need that adhesive that delivers high performance. Divergent adhesives are designed specifically for
the demand that we go through today. Something high-te, quick drying, you
know, those innovative for uh formulas that go across different products. Uh, I
suggest you guys go check out Divergent at divergentadhesives.com. They they are definitely the go-to for
many contractors who use it that can't afford the time for failure, you know,
replacement, something not sticking. When you need an adhesive that's going to work in today's environment, go to
diversionadhesives.com. Go check them out.
Okay. We we have some clarification. His air sled. Okay. Yeah. The old um the the old
uh autocorrector or Okay. So his is actually just one big piece then. It's not the two that it
comes with today because it was b it was bought in the 1900s ski. It's a air ski
way back in the 1900s.
Trying to look at some pictures. So I I remember um some episodes back we
talked about how your number one tool should always be your body, right? And in order to take care of your body
and the thing that we did not use or yeah we I'm talking
the these boys right here like I tell people now my knees don't hit the floor unless I got my knee pads on.
I'm that old guy. I'm that old guy when it comes to that
kind of stuff now where it's like before I my uncle used to be like um oh you're about to cut that. Let me go grab these
safety glasses. and you know, you just squint and it's like I'm good. But now it's like no, man. Like I understand why
the they were the way they were because you you got to take care of your body and knee pads were number one like I
used to tell people that I it looked like I had two knees because the bump from just crawling around without them
and then once I started using them it actually did it went away. So definitely worth knees are are worth the
investment. They are uh we bought all of our guys
uh pro knees several years back and they are still and I mean I you can go back
in the huddle I think I've talked about this multiple times. We bought them for their end of year kind of Christmas uh
stuff and along with some coolers and other nonf flooring related items. But
one of the things they got inside those coolers was a set of pronies. They were. You want to talk about some excited
dudes? And all of them still have them. They still are in good shape. All you
got and they're refurbishable. So, like it's awesome, man. Pronies are awesome.
That's a great point. Take care of your body. And people don't like the bulk. So, a lot of the guys are actually going to
these um all-purpose knee pads, which still give you the comfort, just not the
everything from the big ones that the bulkiness. So, yeah, that's that's an option, too.
And they're still rebuildable and everything. So, we actually um put Protectile on ours
for a while. Oh, on the face. Yeah. And it it did it lasted a really
long time. Wow. Cheat code. Cheat code. That just get that's just some
innovative dudes. Yeah. I don't know. I I tell you anything that'll save your body. It sure
seems like a lot of the things that are being mentioned. We said the right-on demo machine. If you've never sputed or
used what we used to call idiot stick, did you guys ever use those? They were literally about that big a
round. solid iron, sharp on the bottom, and you just you didn't have to put any
weight like down on them like a sput ho you would have to because they're too light.
And we called them they were I don't know if they got a different name, but we called them idiot sticks
and you just scrape away. If you've never done it the hard way, then u and you've always had
some mechanical machine, you can't fully appreciate it. Even going on to like the
vibrators or the the vibrating machines or the um little Eddies, it's still a
huge difference. Jump on a machine and go and it work. So when we we were doing it back in the
day, it was a little red shaker box is what we called it. And it had the weight on the front that was just the tension was just from a
screw and the screw would always get loose and it falls. Yeah. Screws always come out.
Yeah. Yeah, I remember everyone's mentioning tools that save your body. You know what I mean? Like
the the air sleds, the the demo machines, the the knee pads. So, take
note of that. If you're a new guy here, it's really important that you take care
of your body. I can tell you as almost 50 that u taking care of your body is the
most important thing for sure. 100%. And you got to take it easy with your body and buy the
tools that make your job easier so that way you can get more done and less headaches.
You know what else we didn't mention with that crab stretcher is the little seam clamps. Oh yeah,
those were key as well because you as soon as you get a carpet stretch if you
didn't clamp it and it was like hard to get together
like same um your back kicking it or stretching it or
pulling it back because the adhesive setup. So seam clamps is another one for commercial carpets anyway. Those work
really well back in the day that we in combination with the crab stretcher seam clamps and your turning tool, the
one with the with the knuckle on it, your aug or turning tool, whatever everybody calls it. Um
Oh, those are like rowinder. No, it's um I don't have I don't have it
with me. All it is is uh um you know you have your straight all and then they have the the all that's called the
turning tool. It's got a bend on the end. The last inch and a quarter of it is bent
and you stick it in through the carpet and you pry on it to pull it up away from the adhesive and then you can push
uh bubbles and patterns through it. Um learned learned a lot with that.
Everybody I've never seen one of them. Hated me. Never used one of them. Everybody hated me because I'm like, "All right, that's enough.
We have the straight. We can push this bubble out now." Like, "Oh, just use the crab." Like, "No, we're going to keep stretching it, man.
We got to push it out now. We got to stop stretching the carpet. And this one right here is some guy's
favorite tool. I I know that a few weeks ago someone went on um Flooring Installers of America and was asking if
we knew where to get one.
So So the the all the turning tool looks like the end of that.
Gotcha. But that I mean, some some guys swear by this
stuff, but then when you actually go through training, everyone says it's a no no because it can
never use it. Yeah. It can mess up the carpet. It can mess up the subfloor. It can do a lot more
damage than good. And then you don't know until the inspector gets there. And that's why a lot of inspectors love uh
love what they do because they can go back and be like, "Hey, this guy, it's the installer's fault." Mhm.
Whether or not you want to believe that it's your fault. Guess what? It's your fault.
Will be if you use that thing. What about the dead man? Or it could be. What about the dead man?
That's commercial and and and that's kind of like a built that's like a built thing. I don't know. Do they
have dead mans you can buy? We always took a pallet and freaking put tax on
tack strip on the bottom of it. I believe they do. like we've done ours and then we toss put a little pole on
and toss 45 lb weights on it depending on how heavy we need.
Dan actually sent us sent me a photo of his uh his air sled.
Oh yeah, that is old school for sure.
Still in great shape. That shows you Dan's the man. It's in It's in better shape than keeping his tools in
keeping his tools in good shape. He probably just keep cleaned it with that gain right next to it.
You know, I would say, you know, that's thing you just you made a good point on that. Doesn't matter what what tools you
have, right? If you don't have the right space or the right method to take care of them, put them away, they won't last
very long. um tool boxes. This is true. Toolboxes and and maybe your vehicle setup.
It's got to be um it's got to complement the the tools you use every day to to save them and help
them last longer. Yeah, I do have to mention at least one
tile tool. Everybody can say whatever tile saw they like, but I'm telling, you
know, having a good Sigma, especially the larger that can cut
large tile. I've seen them cut an inch off that thing right after color TV came
out. Um, large Sigma cutters for tile guys. Uh, I would bet that would get
some some votes on the tile side of the world. sure makes your life easier than pulling
a a tub saw or a wet saw around everywhere. I I've also heard some guys
I've heard mixed reviews on the the dustless system. I won't uh say good or
bad. I just mixed reviews is all I'll say. But this a Sigma a cutter is like
that. And if you do large panels or panels, you getting a Ruby rail cutter is like a must.
It's almost a necessity at that point. All these manufacturers are coming out with stuff now to cut all these bigger
tile. And when we were at Surfaces, that's what we were looking at too is like, you know, I was um over with QEP
and they were showing me, you know, their system that they're coming out with and they're cutting like some 8 foot by 4 foot panels.
It's a snap cutter. Yeah. With a rail cutter. So it Yeah.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. I remember one year there was a competition of how small you could get. One of the one of the
companies put that put that on. So yeah, you got to have a carpet dolly.
That's another good one. Body saver after you've carried folding carpet dolly.
I don't know about the folding part, but a carpet dolly in general. They do have the folding ones. It just
has a hinge on it. So that way you can put it put it up and then when once you need
it, it just folds right back out.
Sweet.
Well, any tile guys on here that have a favorite tool? Most of us, I mean, we
both I think do tile as with our companies, but I was not a professional tile installer. So, uh I know a guy that
was on all all the jobs when I was uh first getting going in carpet and
resilient. He had a set of tile nippers that was they had to be 50s like they
were old and cut using tile nippers to cut around. They didn't have hole saws
or at least he didn't use hole saws to cut around plumbing and stuff. It was all done once
hand with a with a um if it was glazed, he'd use like a glass cutter to make the the
top cut and then just the tile nippers to nip it away. That's
I think nippers are still still useful.
What about the uh the urinal cake to sand all those edges down? They got everything to just go right on
the grinders and stuff now where it's just like done. Yep. Well, and Dremels and all the the the
oscillating tools, all the stuff they have today. That might be my favorite tool of all is an oscillating a good
oscillating tool. What about What about a a tool? You can put any attachment on it. It's
got so many things you can Oh, man. That thing comes in handy way past just
flooring. But all right guys, we are coming to the end
here this episode. Something that we wish we had. Yeah. Something that's out there, something
that could be better. Like manufacturers, this is your opportunity. What are you missing? I know I have a
lot of designs, but they've never turned in anything.
Well, the tools I wish I had are all technical tools now. like to make my job
personally easier. Uh you know, having a good it's always technical stuff. Having
a way to whether it's connecting with installers or doing estimates, building,
you know, faster takeoffs, all that kind of stuff. I'm not to get into the AI
thing, but I am obsessed with like building stuff on chat GPT5 right now.
Like just seeing what it'll do. It's ridiculous. It's been out for two days, Paul. That's
what you That's all you've been messing with, huh? I That is about it, dude. Like, it is
ridiculously good. Good. I hope it stops messing up on me.
GPT5 is like way it's multitudes better than four.
Well, it says that um the experts say that you have to prompt it different now, too. So people are still prompting
it like they were before and now you actually have to try and give it even more information because it can
decipher that information, right? So it's not just doing something and then coming back and
you're like no do this. It's all right now it's thinking. So 50
mode some tips like telling it to go search
not just give you the answer that it has cataloged on different answers. If you want to search it'll search the entire
every inner web out there in seconds and come back with a different answer for you. So telling it to search uh and to
think deeply uh those some of those things but it
does um it does things codingwise and like building wise I'm
trying to automate everything from the time we get a set of drawings through
the time Oh that is so cool. That's actually really cool. I've never
seen one of them. Yeah, it looks like it's from the 1900s, too. That needs to make a comeback, dude.
Like a cuz those big bulky ones are a heck of a lot harder to move around than that.
Wow, that's cool. But um I would like to automate
everything from the time I get a set of drawings till the time we are scheduling
installers. So everything like the takeoff
price requests submitts, return submitts evaluated and
and uh revised and all the way to ordering, placing the
orders and then giving us ETAs and then we have to do
the real world work um which is, you know, scheduling the
delivery and things that AI will not be able to do and and uh
do yet. And it's such high hanging fruit, meaning there's so many more easier things that it's going to ever do
before it starts taking over our world. it's so far in the future
um because there's so many other problems for it to solve the writers out
there, the video, the graphic design, all that stuff. They have to learn to
use it as a tool or they're going to be outdone by it. And so all those things
are much lowerhanging fruit than putting product on a truck, getting guys to
install it. Uh there was a podcast I just listened to that was talking about
like when do we got to worry about blue collar displacement because it's really
talking the whole podcast was about job replacement with AI and white collar and
that it's a real thing that is not some conspiracy that's going to happen.
there's going to be mass job displacement in the white collar world. Uh particularly with the people who
think it's just another fad or something and they're not leveraging it to get better. And
um I'll tell you what, the
our our side of things, especially uh specialty contractors, they they
actually think that general contractors can be completely replaced with AI.
What? AI? Yeah. General general contractors because
they would not completely replace. You'd still have your field superintendent and your foreman, but the kind of thought
process was all the scheduling, all of the, you know, like
uh schedules and taking in something that's a scheduled delay, like all of
that data and then manipulation of a schedule to get done on time. It's
nobody's going to be as good as AI at finding the most most efficient path.
And so that is where they think that like general contractors
adopting it like all they're going to be is like
AI controlling people. They they'll actually be AI like technicians
and the then you got the field staff that would, you know, run the the guys in the
field that are doing the work, all the subcontractors. But the subs who put their hands on the product and put it
in, they don't see that side of things. scheduling a lot of tools, a lot of the
headaches we have is one thing, but the actual taking your hands, putting it on
a product and and installing it in the construction industry, they think will be around for decades.
It just it's it does make sense how it's hypothesized
like yeah everything that's um like I said the backend stuff you can go
in there and your schedule's on there and you can go in and give AI
Denise is the best tool that's mess you can't be calling her a tool Dan come on
such a tool it's in a good way but you can you can just like go in
there like say on Procore or something and be like I'm behind schedule. You can probably submit it pictures and it can
analyze how much of the project is actually done versus not done. Well, it already would know
is the thought, right? Because they they would have cameras and stuff throughout and it just be
the the what I don't I forget which episode number, but we did that on the
the AI. Well, it was just like futuristic construction tools and the
roaming robots on job sites are and taking pictures and video and all that
is being tied back into AI to identify where the shortfalls are. It can scour
the internet and find, you know, if this piece of duct work is not in stock here
in Witchaw, doesn't mean it's not in stock in Louisiana kind of thing. And it just if you think about it from that
perspective, you could see where it could take over that stuff the the heavy lift thing when you when you look at agent
mode, right? Because it can be like, okay, just find this somewhere. I need it by this date and order it right away.
I want to build I want to build at least one or two agents. That's what I'm trying to figure
out. That's what I'm messing with so much is if it can take my life,
it would be so much easier if it did all
the automatic updates to ETAs, emailed. You don't have to have a coordinator
remembering to check on an ETA of a job when you do 350 jobs a year, which is
what we do. um you know remembering to check on every product that's ordered
and get updated ETAs and all that. This thing could do in
milliseconds and always giving you a giving you a daily report. My thought is it would
give each PM a daily report and of where all their materials are for
all their jobs and you could just if you're already up to date you don't have
to look at it daily but it would you'd have that information or a spot where you can go and just ask it hey where's
all my materials for this and it just tells you and I've already checked on
you know other alternative distributors for this product that has a back order date of XYZ like that kind of stuff is
is the part where if that's all done and I'm like it got all ordered it got all
ordered right because the agent double checked the return submittals from this architect versus the submitted product
and did the so much so much but I know it could do
it like that that's the crazy part and then it takes so much time for us to do it and if we could do that we could have
two less employees, but not like they get let go. They just
move to different spots. Well, my wife doesn't want to continue to do it, so she she'll probably
she uh she loves her job, but she she's ready for uh for me to finish to figure
out the AI agent for her job. Oh, yeah. And I think we all need to figure that out. And AI is not going
anywhere. So, if you're not on it, it is like get around and mess with it. I'm telling
you what, I'm doing a talk in uh at coverings about or at uh convention
about like where technology and installation collide. That's one of the things like um you know, get in and get
get used to it. Um, you'll either build the tools yourself, which can be
daunting and hard, or you'll buy them from me or someone like me. There you go.
You know, I get that automated and I'll take it to Fuse and tell everybody what I did and offer it as a as a package
deal. Here, you can have these agents that do this as a subscription because everyone's
subscription. You have to pay per month in order to use it. Yeah.
like renting a tool. Yes, sir. But AI is definitely the one of the best
tools to come out in a long time. And if you're not utilizing it, you're only doing yourself a disservice.
And and for those of you in um you can utilize it as an installer,
too, right? You can create anformational database that can help you for troubleshooting products. Go ask Chad GPT the best adhesive to use
on something and it will find the technical data and drill that down into give me three
sentences on how to use the I need the proper notch trial and or whatever. Just
go try it. You'll see it's the best it will find it and give you the answer.
And if you want to double check it, go ahead and double check it. A lot of times it'll even reference where it got it. If
you if you want it to reference where did you get this information, just tell it, give me the references where you
found this information as well. And then you're on job site, you got a technical issue or a technical problem, a
technical question. A lot of you tech reps out there, uh, you should be using
this or you're going to get replaced by it. they will say it's Roberts.
I actually just asked and it said that it was divergent.
So like you you can you to Jose and I kind of cut you off there my friend so I
apologize but you got me all excited when you started talking about installers using it because there there is like it is comp it it'll blow your
mind. The newest version will blow your mind. And I don't know how much it costs.
I think it's around 20 something a month. Yeah. Like just go go give it a shot. Ask it
questions that you're concerned about. It costs one gas station trip.
Yeah. So those are the tools and uh we got on to
AI, but that is a tool. It is. And it's a tool that you better be that you better be using.
And I mean, I talked to my guys about it, I think just yesterday. And it's like just in terms of the simple stuff,
walking around, talking to it, making a list. Hey, this is the job site I'm walking over here. This is the room I'm
in. This is what needs to be done. After you're done, summarize this so I can distribute it to the crew.
You could just do a uh uh what is it called? top of my head. I'm uh
well, you tell it. I do it for contract reading. So now I just upload a PDF contract and it gives me this my 17
points that we want to know about from liquidated damages to is it bonded
and uh you know insurance requirements all that and just spits out a report for
me. So 100page contract here's the things I also have it tell me anything
abnormal that you have not seen in all the other contracts you've read please
point that out in a separate manner. So, like if they have any really I I'm I
want to train that one now that five's out. I want to train it to give it a score on how fair it is.
And uh that'll be an interesting thing. How fair is this contract? And um you'll
ultimately get spit out a an answer of how fair it is based on your parameters
of fairness. I mean, you're the one that has to tell it what you think is fair and not, right? So, there's a little bit
of training, but once it knows and you just ask it and every time I throw a
contract into that uh event, it's called something else in there, I forget. Um,
project or something. Project. Um, but you can build a project for and
have it be job reports or site condition report. And then you go around and you
just talk into it and you're like taking pictures and uploading pictures and and you teach it to spit out a daily report
for you. Uh there's a 100,000 things you can and that that was not even something
I thought of Daniel. So that would be that's an excellent thought on how we
can implement that as a company for our job daily, you know, daily reports and certified payroll.
Yeah, there so much. It's just so so much that you can do with it. Like I I
was um I'm in the process of redoing the handbooks because of some changing laws
and stuff over here. So, we have to keep compliant. And I threw it in there um after I did the builder. And I was like,
"What do you think of this?" And since we do call him Chad, he was honest, right? He was like, "This is uh
I think he he was like 6.9 out of 10. This is what you can change about it. These are the points that you should be
hitting." And then you go back and start revising until you you get a better score. And if you want it to, you can even have
it revise it for you. Give me give me a a an aspect of this. One of the things
you can also ask Chad uh five is like how well do you know me? And if you've
got a lot of chats, see what it says. You know what? See if you agree with it.
It's kind of scary. man. Yeah. So, use it. That's a great idea,
Daniel. That's a awesome way to implement it in the con. And that's what we're talking about. Don't get replaced
by it. Use it as a tool and you're not replaced by it. You're just able to do much more with less people.
And that doesn't mean you have to have less people. If you got 20 people, you can
keep 20 people. But instead of doing 4 million or 5 million or 7 million, whatever you do, uh uh or you know, if
you're an installer and you're doing a million dollars a year with four guys, you might be able to do a million and a
half with the same four guys. We're not looking at it like how can we get rid of people. We're looking at it like how can
we spur growth with it with the same amount of people? How can we keep that overhead number static and increase that
topline revenue number? It'll help fill in the gaps, let you create more efficiencies um internally,
efficiencies, real real efficiencies. So,
so I think that is like we're where we're going to end it because AI literally is our favorite tools right
now like um across the board because it it is just so so much you can do with
it. Well, that's a great spot to uh to leave here. That's a a good one. all of our
favorite tools got uh got a little bit of airtime and and we ended up with Chad. That's what we here at the huddle
call chat GPT is Chad. So that was coined actually by Daniel. So I won't
steal that but I did steal it. Give him credit. I think that was him actually. I don't I
don't remember who it was. But um just a reminder today's sponsor and non AI generated is Divergent
Adhesives. So, go check Divergent Adhesives out at divergent adhesives.com.
Give them some love. Give their products a try. They got to also have a good moisture mitigation one part system.
That's awesome. Reach out to Sunny if you have any questions or us here at the Huddle. And if you guys have any topics
or anything like that that you want us to cover, uh, let us know. Shoot us an
email. And, um, don't forget to visit Shag Tools. Also, I'll be at convention
for CFI. Come see me there. Um, I've doing a talk or a seminar as well as
that's funny. As well as uh I'll be around there uh going to going to learn
myself and hanging out with people. So, look forward to seeing everybody that's going to go and um yeah, so that we
appreciate everybody coming on and we also appreciate the uh all the uh
all the comments and we'll catch you guys next week.
