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study, or based on a recent survey, well here is my idea and how I came up with
it.I was at a measure for bid job yesterday and there was an interior
decorator there helping the client decide on what she wanted. They were after a
bid for laminate because the laminate (that I installed about ten years ago)
had some water damage.As I was getting the sizes I mentioned that we offer other
products and when I started to explain about Solid Surface the decorator spoke
up and said she has a couple of friends that have Solid Surface and they don’t like
it because it is too hard to clean and it is easily damaged by heat. It was all
I could do to keep from calling her a dumb b**ch, why would she say that when
she obviously did not have a clue as to what she was talking about.I kept my cool and went on to explain that (basically she
was full of s**t) that her friends were probably not educated properly by the
company that did the work and that Solid Surface is one of if not the easiest
products to clean. I then explained that in the sixteen years I have been working
with Solid Surface I have only had a couple of issues with heat, and they were all
repairable. However, with Laminate I have had several issues with heat and NONE
were repairable. The customer then showed me a burn on her laminate top, how
ironic.Then I started to think how nice it would be to have a study
or survey to refer to in cases like this, one that was done by companies that
do the work and have first hand and accurate knowledge. Companies that work
with all the products and could give an unbiased report. Something I can say is
backed by X number of companies from across the nation. So then it hit me…The
Fabricators Network.This would be the
perfect venue for a study. We have a well diverse group of experienced people
that would be able to give an accurate account of historical issues with all the
products. I don’t do tile but I can sure share some insight on a lot that I
tore out. I think it could work into something that could help us all. We could
even get it published, it may cost us some bucks but hey, there is a lot of us
here to share in the costs. It would be a great selling tool to be able to hand
someone a document that is backed by a lot of reputable companies that explains
the TRUTH about all the products.So what do you guys think? Can it be done?
Shane
I’m in. How do you want to proceed? I am thinking we can come up with a list of questions and have multiple choice answers. We can do a survey of all the members and encourage participation with a nice giveaway. (Incentives are great). Then we can get it published in trade magazines. They are always looking for articles aren’t they.
This is an excellent idea. While I do not have the experience to add much to the survey, I would gladly pitch in to help offset the printing/compiling costs as this would be a very very valuable tool to help educate the consumer.
Chris
Shane, are you proposing just interview the solid surface guys or all makers of tops? If it was just SS fabs, do you think it would appear biased? The guys that install Silestone for me told me how they love SS. He said they do replacement with granite sometimes because it has broken afetr a few years but mostly from it getting stained around the seams…..
Sounds like a great idea!!!
Andy,
I think you have the right idea in offering questions with multiple
choice answers to make it easy, then the results could be compiled into a
summery of the findings.KC,
I think for this to work we would need to hear from everyone
about every product, preferably from those shops that do multiple surfaces. So they
do not come across bias toward one product.Shane
Shane,then I thinkit is a great idea. For coming up with that, I’ll send you the specs for those Solid Surface Poles that are needed at our booth. Andy is going out this weeked and measure one for us. I’ll let you make 1/2 of them, that way we get to do product testing before the show,and make sure everything works
See,membership has it’s privledges
Maybe a few pictures of some really unique projects at the end of the article would help, I was just looking at Sterling’s website and they have some really nice commercial pics, and I know alot more of you have them too, then a tag line like ” ‘This isn’t your father’s Corian”
Shane,
I do not know if this idea is one that will stick or one taht will go by the wayside, but I would like to give it a try. The primary logistical hurdle that I see is the cost. If we sent say 500 ( I am thinking a 20% response would be pretty good?) surveys to shops throughout the US you would be looking at maybe 4/5 hundred bucks for postage ( including a SASE). That is a good chunk’o change (coming from one place) plus printing, envelopes etc… But….
What if we develop a survey in a format that can be printed out,and say one or two volunteers from each state agree to send a survey to 10 shops in thier state. The cost would be around 10 bucks a volunteer and most of the items (paper, envelopes, stamps etc ) are things you use everyday anyway. 2 volunteers X 50 states X 10 per = 1000 surveys maybe we get 200 back.
All we need now is a way to organize the data. No Problem, I’ved set my schedule lately to fabricating 3 days a week and running daddy daycare 2 days a week. While the crumb snatchers are napping I have 3 hours a day staring at the walls. If all the SASE’s were addressed to me I can put all the raw data into an excel file.
What do you guys think?
Chris
Here is my first round of brainstorming for questions.
Shop Size (# employees) (Gross $ Volume)
Materials Offered
CNC yes/no
what other services provided (cabinets/ floors/etc)
what % of sales do each top material make up
software used
Rank each top material 1-10 for each of the following: stain resistanc, heat resistance, reaparability, etc…
?is the best quality of each material / ? is the worst quality
What do you have in your house?
These are just the questions that popped in to my mind. What question would you like to see answered by a 100+ shops around the nation?
PS: This would also be a great way to get the word out about this site as somewhere in the communication with each shop we would/could mention that the results would be available at TFN.
Chris
We could start be putting the survey on the FabNet and fill it out online. A least we could be a start. We can always send them out to other fabricators if we need. Keep in mind that the FabNet has almost 500 members. If we push we could probably get 100 of them to fill it out.
We need to define what the questions will be and what type of responses we are looking for. Does it need to be multiple choose of are we looking for essay type answers.
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