Floor covering app

[Darren Ramey]

I've taken many stabs at writing this app and gave up mostly due to the math involved. Fast forward a few years, and with the current state of AI, I decided to take another shot at it and let AI handle the mathy stuff. It worked like a charm. I don't think I'm breaking any rules here - the app isn't finished, and I'm not trying to sell anything... yet. I'm just trying to gauge interest.

I'm a mostly independent installer. I measure the majority of jobs I do, and I suck at it. I can't tell you how many times I've measured a job 100 miles out of town, only for the decorator to change from 13' goods to 16', forcing me to drive back to remeasure. Area rugs are another Achilles' heel of mine. In my 45+ years of installing, I only remember screwing up one piece of wall-to-wall carpet so badly that I had to pay for it, and that was in a bathroom. However, I have eaten the cost of quite a few area rugs. They can be tricky to measure when the decorator wants you to weave around every fireplace insert and dormer.

This is an iPad-only app at the moment. I found a phone screen just too small to be useful. I still have a ways to go with development. I need to figure out how to handle staircases, add support for multiple floors, enable printing capabilities for everything from a single room to an entire job, and I have a few other ideas for the future.

I'm primarily developing this for my own use, but would anyone else find it useful? I'm biased, of course, but I'm already loving it. Your average installer working for a shop won't get much use out of it, but salespeople, decorators, or independent installers should find it valuable. This is the kind of app that I would probably buy an iPad for if I didn't already own one.

I'm not planning on getting rich from this, but I do want to get something on the App Store just to get over that hurdle, and I'm hoping it will lead to many more apps and maybe some passive income. I'm getting too old for this working-for-a-living stuff.

Floored

 

[MSLI]

Nice Darren ! Is the app for measuring only for yardages and seam layouts ? Or will it also have a check list for job site conditions.

I got really good at measuring for cut to fit area rugs as well as stair and hallways.
What I lacked in math and geometry knowledge, I made up with measuring everything and generating a scale drawing when I got home. It was mot uncommon for me to be at a measuring job for 2 to 3 hours. If they changed the product, I just did another take off and billed accordingly. The program was called
‘ floor plan pro ‘ …. If you need me to draw something up, just for fun, let me know.

Good luck man !

 

[Darren Ramey]

Or will it also have a check list for job site conditions.

I wrote a totally different text based version of this app several years ago, that had a checklist(and was just too clunky to use), but hadn't thought to add it to this one, it's officially on the list now, thanks. What all should be on it? Substrate, transitions needed, doors that need cutting, prep... I tend to think like a carpet guy, I'm sure I'm missing some things.

The whole point to this app is not to be a 3D floor plan generator that takes hours to work up an estimate on. I just want something quick and dirty that is specific to floor covering that will be able to work up a floor layout that is good enough and do it at least as fast as you could on paper.

 

[MSLI]

About 12 years ago while getting a massage from the local masseuse. I shared my occupation, and she proceeded to tell me that she
Was a measuring service for Home Depot, and then decided to create a program to accomplish the task quickly and then sold it to Home Depot. I would imagine that it has been improved upon since then. Now, hopefully you can improve upon that.

I actually don’t like the checklist because you have too many options to go through. I personally like to make the list myself.

Now I’m remembering this discussion a few years ago when you were working on floor plan number one.

 

[highup]

I've taken many stabs at writing this app and gave up mostly due to the math involved. Fast forward a few years, and with the current state of AI, I decided to take another shot at it and let AI handle the mathy stuff. It worked like a charm. I don't think I'm breaking any rules here - the app isn't finished, and I'm not trying to sell anything... yet. I'm just trying to gauge interest.

I'm a mostly independent installer. I measure the majority of jobs I do, and I suck at it. I can't tell you how many times I've measured a job 100 miles out of town, only for the decorator to change from 13' goods to 16', forcing me to drive back to remeasure. Area rugs are another Achilles' heel of mine. In my 45+ years of installing, I only remember screwing up one piece of wall-to-wall carpet so badly that I had to pay for it, and that was in a bathroom. However, I have eaten the cost of quite a few area rugs. They can be tricky to measure when the decorator wants you to weave around every fireplace insert and dormer.

This is an iPad-only app at the moment. I found a phone screen just too small to be useful. I still have a ways to go with development. I need to figure out how to handle staircases, add support for multiple floors, enable printing capabilities for everything from a single room to an entire job, and I have a few other ideas for the future.

I'm primarily developing this for my own use, but would anyone else find it useful? I'm biased, of course, but I'm already loving it. Your average installer working for a shop won't get much use out of it, but salespeople, decorators, or independent installers should find it valuable. This is the kind of app that I would probably buy an iPad for if I didn't already own one.

I'm not planning on getting rich from this, but I do want to get something on the App Store just to get over that hurdle, and I'm hoping it will lead to many more apps and maybe some passive income. I'm getting too old for this working-for-a-living stuff.

Floored

It takes a lot of time for me, like MSLI, to measure. I go overboard, but it has it come in handy at times. I use an engineers scale, for accuracy mainly. Yeah, it's like an architects drawing... but sloppier.
Everything is there ...I mean every wall, closets etc. Every wall is accurate.

I do ZERO layout at the job site. If you do that, then they change to 13 foot material, you're screwed.

Another tip. Write down the exact measurements. If my laser says 23' 2 and 5/16", then that's what I write down. I don't round off anything. If you write EXACTLY what you measure, you'll be reminded that your measurement is correct.

I measure ONLY wall to wall, not wall to the center of a door seam or transition.
Door casings are 4 1/2"...... just add that in later. Unless the house is odd, that will never change.
Be consistent and measure wall to wall only, then add the door casing later.
You may not need to write down every measurement, but use the scale to at least draw all the walls in accurately. If the customer asks for new baseboards later, you will have every wall in place and can measure any wall length with the scale.

Make a handful of copies to scribble on so you don't mess up the original one. Draw in seam locations on those.

With the drawings accurate, you can quickly use the engineers scale to visualize seam locations at home instead of of at the job site.

If the home looks ranch style, look outside anyway to see if it's a rectangle or if there's an extended wall. Once inside the home doing layout, you might find something is way off...... because part of the house had been extended out

I measure the house in exact width, then exact length. Assuming it's ranch style, you'll draw a rectangle on your graph paper. Now, start at one corner room of the house and start filling in the blanks.

I'm doing this old school, but some of these things I brought up might be useful when filling in data to the app.

In my slow pokey measuring method I've also discovered issues which might go unnoticed with the way most guys measure..... like a layer of underlayment in one room or area and not in others.

Also, take a few pictures. How much furniture and where will it go? Or hopefully , the customer moving it.