Many Australians love the look of wooden floors. Wooden flooring tends to complement other elements in a room like the walls or furniture.
Do you work in the flooring industry? You may have come across issues that make it difficult to complete a job. We recently chatted with Jacob and Peter, owners of local flooring business JP Timber Floors. They let us know the biggest challenges they have faced over the 15 years they have been working in the flooring industry;
1. Dust
Dust is a major factor for flooring tradies as well as others working in the wood industry. Many would agree that working in a dust-filled environment is not ideal. Health concerns, as well as cleanliness and finishing can be affected heavily by dust. We spoke to JP Timber Floors about this: “The biggest thing for us would have to be the dust extraction, back 15 years ago when we first started our trade, dust was a huge issue on jobs, it was very dusty without Mirka”. “Creating a clean work environment, especially in something so dusty such as floor sanding and restoration, the technology of the vacuums from Mirka allow us to be able to go into someone’s house and be assured that there’s not going to be dust throughout the house after the job is completed”.
Further to this, Jacob and Peter commented on how Mirka has helped open up a larger field of clients; ones that require a high standard of dust control. “We found that using the M class vacuum has allowed us to enter into different worksites, the classifications of the vacuum allow us to work in a much wider variety of working environments that we were never able to enter into before”.
The state of the site when the job has reached completion really makes a difference to the time it takes to finish a job as well. “Cleaning up at the end of a job site has become a breeze just because of the amount of suction that these machines provide, it’s become such a more friendly environment for clients, and for us to work in”, Peter commented.
2. Reliability
Mirka tools and abrasives offer reliability. Mirka tools are backed by their 2+1 year warranty and honestly seem to have fewer issues than other tools. Also, Mirka abrasives are proven to last longer than other abrasives saving time and money. Jacob mentioned “We can go into a job and be confident that there’s not going to be any blowouts with the machinery or any issues with dust extraction. It allows us to feel certain that we will not run into any issues”.
3. Powerful tools
Mirka tools, as well as being low vibrating and lightweight, also are very powerful. Being powerful provides an efficient and quality result to the user.
The boys commented on their favourite Mirka sanders:
Mirka Deros Sanders
The Mirka 150mm Deros Sander can be transformed into a 125mm machine simply by changing the backing pad. It is also available in a kit (Mirka Deros 5650CV 125/150mm Sander in Case).
“A benefit for us is being able to change from a 150mm to a 125mm when sanding stair rises and things of that nature.”
Sometimes when sanding, you have narrower spaces that require a smaller sander, Mirka’s versatile Deros allows the flexibility to adapt your Deros machine.
Mirka Deros 8mm Sander
Peter told us what he thought about the Mirka Deros 8mm Sander: “You can’t go past the power of the 8mm Deros, the low profile and the sheer strength of the machine, it really helps us get the job done while being able to get under low lying areas”.
Mirka Deos Delta Corner Sander
Jacob was keen to tell us about his experience with the Delta Sander:
“The Delta sander has definitely been an advantage for us, in the past we’ve had to do a lot of labour-intensive hand scraping, and other things of that nature, and the low vibration, and the power of the Delta, has changed the game for us”.
4. Long lasting abrasives
Peter let us know about his experiences with Galaxy: “We’ve used a lot of sandpaper before, but we found that the Galaxy sandpaper, with the power that it has does not leave as bad of a scratch pattern then other brands of sandpaper.”
The boys at JP Timber Floors use a large rotary sanding machine that takes 6 125mm discs. Using Galaxy works well with this kind of machine. Jacob had this to say: “Using 6 discs at a time, in the past we’ve had to run through a lot of material, and not be able to move through a job as efficiently as we would like, Mirka Galaxy discs allow us to use less discs in a bigger area and less changeover, so that’s less downtime where the machine is not running.”
We enjoyed having a chat to both Jacob and Peter at JP Timber Floors and the team at Best Abrasives continue to support them and other flooring businesses with quality tools, abrasives and advice whenever it is needed.
Be sure to watch the video to learn more about JP Timber Floors, Best Abrasives and Mirka products.
