How to avoid call-backs
How far should fabricators get involved in the installation process? Glass Times talks to Sternfenster’s technical trades manager, Kev Wallis, who argues that regular training is the only way to complete error-free projects.
Call-backs have become a common feature of installations: unnecessary time spent on jobs that eat-in to your profit, which is difficult to price-in to a job because it could make you uncompetitive.
Choosing a reliable supplier goes a long way to making your life easier. Yes, it may cost a little more up front, but in return you get on-time, in-full deliveries to site, and products that are straightforward to install with components that don’t shrink, warp or crack within days of sweeping up and leaving.
But products are only part of the answer. When it comes to modern fenestration products, a skills upgrade is also often needed. Is this something your supplier could provide?
In the case of trade fabricator Sternfenster, the answer is yes.
Technical trades manager, Kev Wallis, has worked for Sternfenster for 40 years, and he is tasked with trouble-shooting problems on site. He said that while the technology behind windows and doors has “increased massively” over the last 30 years, the skills to fit them haven’t.
“You get fitters who have been around for 20 or 30 years who say they can do everything and don’t need training,” he said. “Of course they need retraining.
“It is complacency that sets in with people, I think. The aluminium side of the industry has drastically increased and improved. Products have got so much more complicated than they were 30 years ago. Installers need to understand that you can’t just put a window in and it’s going to be OK. You’ve got to put it in with TLC. Especially aluminium.”
As a result of this complacency, Kev has seen all manner of errors on site.
“The general cock up you’ll see on site are bi-folds that are not plumb, they’re not level, and they’ve not been toe-and-healed,” he said. “These are all common factors that decide whether a bi-fold will work or not.”
But these are problems he shouldn’t see because Sternfenster has put measures in place to help installers keep their skills levels optimal.
“We’ve got our own in-house training school,” he said. “We had it running for four years prior to pandemic, and we were getting customers coming up with their own fitting teams to learn how to fit bi-folds.
“We’ve also got training videos, which installers can view while they’re on site. They can quickly see how to install and adjust windows, bi-folding doors, aluminium patios, vertical sliders – the whole product range is on the site to inspect.”
A common problem, according to Kev, is when he gets called to site because of what the installation team thinks is a manufacturing fault, but which is a more basic error.
“When I go to site, I can quickly see if they’ve got a new guy working for them because they don’t really understand the way the windows are supposed to be fitted. At which point they’ll realise that they should have sent him to our training school.”
However, the biggest problems that Kev sees are installations carried out by builders.
“I went to this one job, for a big company we were dealing with,” he said. “It was for a set of bi-folding doors that were dragging along the bottom, and he couldn’t get them to work properly. ‘Your doors are rubbish’, he said.
“I said ‘did you fit them?’ and he said ‘no, a builder friend of mine did’. I said ‘you know why they are dragging along the bottom, don’t you? It’s because you’ve got the wheels at the head and the guides are at the bottom – you’ve got them upside down!’
“Builders can’t fit windows the way a normal installation team can fit them. They don’t have that experience – they build houses. I’m not sure where they get trained, but they certainly don’t come to Sternfenster for training.”
Despite dealing with what Kev sees as some entry level mistakes, he enjoys going to site to make homeowners happy with their installation.
“That’s where I get my satisfaction, I really do,” he said. “It’s what makes me want to get up and come to work in the morning.”
Visit www.sternfenster.com/join-our-network to find out how to receive training and benefit from a package that includes extended warranties on components, lead generation, marketing support, and security guarantees.