Hardwood Floors April May 2018

”Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” - Steve Jobs”

(Continued)

C ONTESTANT #3

PAUL GAUNT Better Timber Flooring Quikbrace Business Idea:

™

The Brace will be your extra pair of hands

e Quikbrace is the most innovative tool since the secret nailer. It was designed and developed by the team at Be er Timber Flooring to help them lay tongue and groove oors e ciently and e ectively. e product has been established for more than 12 years, with more than 400 units made and sold. e brace is a multifunction ooring clamp; it can assist oor layers to stay standing up and not having to get up and down all day, every day, every week. It produces momentum and saves time upward of a minute per row. Add this time up per row, hour, day, and job, and you will see results and a return on investment in the rst job or two. e air-driven ram not only pulls boards together, but can push them too, using the brace on all tongue and groove ooring installation methods. Heavy duty replaceable spikes anchor into sub oors/ba ens/joists quickly without damaging or chipping the sub oor. A uniquely designed wall foot a achment pushes o the wall, clamping the last boards e ortlessly. Direct Stick, using strips on top of the boards, can pull multiple boards together very quickly laying meters at a time.

NB002 Pneumatic Floor Laying Clamp SAFETY AND OPERATIONS MANUAL

How did you come up with the idea? I started as a cabinet maker at 14 years old and laid parquetry when needed. I then started to sand and nish the parquetry. e be er prepared the sub oor was, the a er I laid the parquetry. en I started to lay timber oors as we knew how they needed to be nished and sanded, so we laid them be er and a er than most of the builders for whom we did work. About 2004, I started to lay recycled timber oors and secondhand timber oorboards. at’s when I invented the Quikbrace. We also did decking timber boards, and this machine has been a real bene t. I realized that if it helped me, it would help others. e process of inventing everything to do with this and nding ways to get it to the trade has been a great journey so far. It has strengthened me as a person. It has brought me other great ideas to develop other products, and inspired me to continue challenging myself in other areas of my life. I’m still on the sanding machines today and still passing down the good traditions that were taught to me 30 years ago.

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