Leslie Segrete: This is Leslie Segrete from the 2015 National Hardware Show in Las Vegas. We are here to bring you the news on the newest, best, and most innovative do-it-yourself products. More and more of us are reclaiming our garage and our basement spaces to create t
hat much needed workspace, or even playrooms. Joining us to discuss these options for a functional floor is Zach Ply from WeatherTech. Welcome Zach!
Zach Ply: Thank you Leslie! Very happy to be here at the 2015 National Hardware Show. We’re known, of course, for our automotive accessories, but we’re here at the show to showcase some of the other products that we’re coming out with.
Leslie Segrete: You know, Zach, it’s interesting, at the Money Pit, one of the biggest topics of conversation that we get on the show is about flooring. I think a lot of people in this sort of effort to regain space in their homes, and sort of take back that last frontier, which is the basement or the garage, they get to the floor, which is essentially your fifth wall, some people say the fifth wall is the ceiling, I’ll go with the floor this time, but they don’t know what to do. They look at epoxy compounds for the floor that doesn’t really hide any flaws, it just sort of covers them up and you still kind of see the texture difference. I think what you have here, as far as the TechFloor goes is kind of innovative. Why don’t you tell us about it?
Zach Ply: The TechFloor is something we created about three years ago and it’s our step into the modular flooring game.
Leslie Segrete: This was originally created for the garage?
Zach Ply: It was originally created for the garage, however, we took into consideration that people would maybe use this in other parts of the home. One of the big things that’s unique about our product is the fact that it’s not as tall as some of the other ones out there. It’s about a quarter inch tall versus … some are almost a half inch tall. If you use a half inch tall tile inside the home, one thing you’ll have an issue with is opening doors. With ours, you can actually use this inside the home, in the garage, in a playroom, in a workout room, and it’s something that will work. The customer can snap it together. They can go on techfloor.com, use our configurator, see exactly what they need, and it’s a project that they can do themselves.
Leslie Segrete: Now, let’s talk about it because I think what a lot of people start to think is “how do I sort of set up these different areas?” Is TechFloor, say, a wall-to-wall product? Could you utilize it in that way or can you create area rugs without the risk of slippage?
Zach Ply: It is a product that you can use wall-to-wall, of course. It’s something that we actually offer six different tile sizes so the customer doesn’t have to cut. We offer down to a three quarter inch by twelve tile. If you do need to go out to an edge, you can’t get that done with a twelve by twelve tile. The customer doesn’t have to cut.
Leslie Segrete: That’s really great. Tell me a little about, I notice you have here, one, I guess this is sort of a finished edge? You can sort of tidy up what the finished parameter is of the piece itself. But in doing so, I might be nervous that if I put this on a basement floor, and only am creating a specific play area for the kids that we might get some movement. So I understand you’ve guys have introduced something new, where you’re not going to get that movement of the pieces of flooring.
Zach Ply: Our tile is unique in that it’s not just a polypropylene tile. It’s got a second shot of TP, so it’s a rubber-like plastic that expands from the top to the bottom. On the tile, you can see this unique pattern, it allows for not only the tile to not slip on the floor, but on top, it allows traction and a comfy feel. It’s not like a normal modular floor, where it’s loud.
Leslie Segrete: I was gonna say, do you get a lot of noise?
Zach Ply: It’s a very quiet floor. If moisture happens to get underneath the tile, it’s something that we designed the pattern on the bottom to allow it to escape.
Leslie Segrete: It’s got nice air flow in there. Which I think is really interesting because especially if we’re talking about a basement space, they’re just inherently moist in their own nature. It’s like you’re dealing with sometimes high levels of moisture, sometimes super dry zones, it depends on what is going on climate wise and what your drainage conditions are. I think it’s important to consider that perhaps at some point in your basement’s lifetime, there’s going to be water down there.
Zach Ply: I think that’s safe to say.
Leslie Segrete: Safe to say? Now I’m looking you brought an assortment for us of the TechFloor and there’s a lot of colors, there’s a lot of different sort of surface options; how do you go about, I know you said on techfloor.com you can sort of configure and figure out … Does it come with a pricing component in there as well so you can figure out what the cost is?
Zach Ply: Yes, it does. Techfloor.com will walk you through the entire process. It’s something that once they configure the floor, they put in their dimensions, it will give them a price to outfit their space with this floor. We offer a few different types of the tile. We offer the premium with traction square, that’s our top of the line tile, with the TPE. That retails for three ninety nine a square foot.
Leslie Segrete: It really isn’t that expensive. I mean, it’s affordable considering you’re covering up such a large portion of a surface in a space that you really want to reclaim and reuse.
Zach Ply: Especially in the modular flooring game. When it comes to modular flooring, we are right there with everybody else, yet we have this unique characteristic to our premium tile. We also offer a solid with raised traction square. It is a polypropylene tile through and through, so it’s like some of the other modular floors out there. That comes in at a lower price point, so if the customer does not have the premium product in their budget, we do have that option with the single shot tile, as well. That’s at two ninety nine.
Leslie Segrete: You’re not skimping anywhere on quality or durability at all?
Zach Ply: WeatherTech is definitely known for their fit and finish of their products. In the automotive side, we are known as the absolute best and we carry that on to all products.
Leslie Segrete: Let’s talk about that a bit. We know everybody seems to know WeatherTech in the automotive product and because of that customization of the type of car you have, and the durability of the product, and the clean-ability of the product, you sort of have ventured into mats as well for indoor and outdoor usage.
Zach Ply: Correct. The indoor and outdoor mat is our newest addition to our line. I guess you’d only figure that the leader in automotive floor protection would get involved in floor protection for the home, as well, with our indoor and outdoor mat.
Leslie Segrete: I think it’s important, a lot of people don’t realize that unless … Just shy of walking into your house and taking off your shoes, immediately upon getting in the door, you are tracking every inch of that dirt and dust and bacteria and whatever else you’ve dragged in from the out of doors. It’s so important to have that outdoor mat, sort of as your first line of defense. Now talk about that clean-ability because I’m looking at your outdoor mat and there seems to be notches around the edge and all sorts of raised bumps where I really feel like I could rub my foot on it and clean off my shoe.
Zach Ply: Right. The characteristics of the outdoor mat is that we wanted something that would scrape off any remnants left over, you know, going hiking or skiing or whatnot.
Leslie Segrete: Please talk to any parent across the United States of America, they are spending Saturdays and Sundays on every type of sporting and play field from dawn to dusk, so you track in a lot of stuff.
Zach Ply: Right. The texture is a very aggressive texture that allows you to get that out of the bottom of your shoe, any moisture, any snow that builds up on the mat will drain out. It has drainage so it’s not going to hold it on top of the mat. Pretty ingenious design.
Leslie Segrete: Well, Zach, really great innovations. If they’re meant to stand the test of automotive industry, then we know it can definitely handle anything that the average homeowner can dish out. If you guys want some more information that TechFloor is really great to look at and try the website is techfloor.com. You want to check out the mats, it’s weathertech.com. Zach Ply, thank you so much for joining us here at the Money Pit.
Zach Ply: Leslie, thank you very much.
Leslie Segrete: Thank you.
Leave a Reply