Elevated Steel Slashes Installation Time and Labor by 50% Using Stand-Up Screwdrivers on ResinDek® Flooring

Colton Lemon, CEO, Owner, and Founder of Elevated Steel, has personally installed several million square feet of ResinDek® engineered flooring panels in the 14 years he's worked with the product. His company provides turnkey structural steel services to the construction industry, including a full-time team of 70 installers and technicians who travel to job sites throughout the U.S.

Annually, Elevated Steel installs more than a million square feet of ResinDek flooring panels. The company has installed it on elevated work platforms, mezzanines, and pick modules, as well as over ground floor concrete for robotic applications. Lemon describes the flooring as "the gold standard in the market."

"Because the flooring panels are precision engineered, it's important that the installation likewise be precise," Lemon said. "We train our installers on the proper screw depth and pattern, as the quality of workmanship is really important for the finished ResinDek floor," he explained.

Through the years, the Elevated Steel installation crew had mastered the art of fastening ResinDek panels to corrugated steel using impact drivers. However, it was a physically demanding job. One, Lemon admitted, most of his installers shied away from when possible.

"When installing ResinDek flooring with an impact driver, fastening the panels to the steel decking beneath it means either bending over or crawling on your hands and knees. Both ways are hard on your back," he explained. "Plus, if you're bent over, it can be tough to breathe. Honestly, screwing in the floor panels was the install job that nobody wanted to do."

With his background as an installer, Lemon is always looking for ways to make challenging jobs less taxing on his people. "A happy employee is going to do a different job than an unhappy employee," he explained.

So when Elevated Steel's National Sales Manager Jarod Rouch suggested trying a different tool for fastening ResinDek panels from the top, Lemon was eager to hear more.

Opportunity to Test Two Installation Methodologies Arises

Rouch knew Cornerstone offers a stand-up screwdriver to help with ResinDek installations. He also knew that the Elevated Steel team had never used anything like them before. With a team preparing to install ResinDek at a job site in Indiana, Rouch saw the perfect opportunity to compare using impact drivers against Cornerstone's stand-up screwdrivers.

"Our crew was installing two, 6,000-square-foot prefabricated mezzanine structures as part of an e-commerce fulfillment operation's expansion," recalled Rouch. "It seemed like an ideal time to do an informal, side-by-side time trial to see which tool got the job done faster."

Both Lemon and Lorenzo Alvarez, the Elevated Steel Installation Crew Foreman in charge of the Indiana project, agreed to the plan. Rouch reached out to Cornerstone to ask if it would be possible to get a couple of the stand-up screwdrivers delivered to the site.

"The kicker was that this project was on an extremely tight schedule," Rouch said. "To make this happen, we needed Cornerstone to not only provide the tools, but also someone to train our team on how to use them, in extremely short order."

"Cornerstone has always come through for us with great customer service and responsiveness," he continued. "They'd already moved up the delivery of ResinDek panels to this job site by two weeks to help us meet the customer's timeline. They immediately sent someone onsite."

Due to timing and availability, that someone turned out to be Keith Shipman, Cornerstone's National Sales Manager. Shipman brought two stand-up screwdrivers and — within three minutes — had trained Alvarez and his team on how to assemble and use them.

Designed for securing ResinDek panels from the top, Cornerstone's stand-up screwdriver works with collated strips of 50 fasteners. The engineered fasteners secure the flooring panels to steel decking underneath with no countersinking or pre-drilling necessary. And, as the name implies, installers operate the screwdriver from a standing position.

The Head-to-Head Results Stand Tall

Alvarez, who has installed ResinDek for more than eight years, typically assigns five installers to fasten the floor panels with impact drivers. He did the same for this side-by-side comparison, sending a crew of five to one mezzanine, and a crew of two — each equipped with a Cornerstone stand-up screwdriver — to the other.

Within just a few minutes, Alvarez saw an impressive difference between the two methods.

"Cornerstone's stand-up screwdriver cut the time it takes to screw each panel down by at least 50%," he said. "On this project, each mezzanine called for three bundles of ResinDek, which was 90 sheets, and 20 screws per panel. With five installers using impact drivers, a job that size takes about four hours to complete. But the two using the stand-up screwdriver finished the entire platform in under two hours. I was very, very impressed."

Alvarez credited multiple factors for the substantial time and labor savings. "The installers didn't have to continuously charge and swap out batteries. The strips of fasteners meant they didn't have to handle individual screws. We've had impact drivers burn out on the job; these stand-up screwdrivers had no issues whatsoever."

"Installer ergonomics also improved significantly," reported Alvarez.

"It was much easier on their backs, hands, and knees," he said. "Also, there was no issues getting through the ResinDek and the steel decking underneath it. With an impact driver, you usually feel vibrations because you have to press down hard to break through the steel. But the stand-up screwdriver does everything for you, including keeping the depth the same every time."

When the two installers using the stand-up screwdrivers finished, Alvarez sent them to the other mezzanine to help the crew of five finish up. "Once the second crew saw how fast and easy the Cornerstone screwdrivers made it, my guys were arguing about who got to do the job. That tells you how beneficial and easy they are to use."

Alvarez was also thrilled that the higher productivity allowed him to reallocate members of his team to other tasks. That was particularly helpful on a project with an extremely compressed timeframe.

"With the stand-up screwdrivers, a smaller crew can install the ResinDek faster and the other guys can do different installation tasks elsewhere," added Alvarez. "I got more work done throughout the day because I could move manpower where I needed it. We'll definitely be ordering these tools from Cornerstone."

Lemon agreed. "Everything we do is focused on making the installation team's work as easy as possible. We appreciate Cornerstone helping us figure out a better way to get the job done."

ABOUT ELEVATED STEEL

A leading provider of turnkey structural steel services to the construction industry, Elevated Steel, LLC (www.elevatedsteel.com) specializes in custom fabrication, powder coating, and expert installation on commercial projects throughout the Continental U.S. The company and its dedicated team of skilled technicians — supported by its state-of-the-art 113,000-square-foot facility north of Atlanta in Adairsville, Georgia — are passionate about exceeding customer expectations. With a flexible, customer-centric approach, Elevated Steel is committed to being trusted partners on every project.

ABOUT CORNERSTONE SPECIALTY WOOD PRODUCTS, LLC

For more than 20 years, Cornerstone Specialty Wood Products, LLC (www.resindek.com) has been in the forefront of research and development in the field of engineered wood floor panels for the material handling industry. Solutions include durable flooring that withstands the rigorous demands of heavy rolling pallet jacks, automatic guided vehicles (AGVs), and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), as well as flexible shelving systems.