INSTALL Minnesota Maintains Brisk Pace of Training
6/29/2009 -- Local 596 members, also known as INSTALL Minnesota floorcovering professionals, are keeping a brisk pace in training to stay current with emerging flooring installation techniques. In just the past few months, major flooring manufacturers Forbo, Shaw and Ardex have visited North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters training centers to offer comprehensive training or certification sessions for members. Flooring training coordinator Ruben Stewart said another dozen of Local 596 members earned their Forbo associate mechanic certification in June. Prior to that, Shaw’s Patcraft Designweave experts held a training session at the St. Paul INSTALL training Center to review Shaw’s newest green products.
Floorlayers in the Duluth region were also recently given personalized training by Ardex technical experts regarding Ardex products and substrate moisture issues. Finally, floorlaying members in the southern part of the state were visited by INSTALL instructors to administer the elite INSTALL certification test for resilient and carpet, Stewart reported.
“All of this activity is done for one reason: to give contractors the best flooring installers in the region,” said Terry Nali, business rep for Local 596 and coordinator of the INSTALL Minnesota program. “INSTALL partners with 100 of the flooring industry’s major mills and manufacturers in part to have inside and immediate access to new materials and installation methods as they become available. We appreciate the effort of our partners to keep floor layers from our regional council current with ongoing training.”