26 Defense Communities

Natalie Hansen knowingly broke rank from conven-tionality. But it was a move that has brought signifi-

cant savings to hundreds of military families and reduced the overall opera-tional costs of her employer, Lend Lease, a property solutions provider responsible for about 40,000 U.S. mili-tary homes.

This enviable bottom-line effective-ness is the result of what’s now afoot in flooring for Lend Lease properties, plus Hansen’s decision to eschew conven-tional wall-to-wall carpet for modular carpet tile.

As Director of Strategic Procurement and Supply Chain Management at Lend Lease, Hansen partnered with InterfaceFLOR, LLC. She projected there would be payoffs for working together,

and those payoffs have, indeed, been realized.

Positive impacts“One of our top goals in switching to modular carpet tile was to help alle-viate the financial burden incurred by young military families when they moved from home to home, bear-ing responsibility for the replacement of damaged carpeting. With flooring a part of the home particularly vul-nerable to damage, these costs could average from $1,200 upward,” said Hansen.

“But, with carpet tiles, if there’s a stain that cannot be removed, it’s far less costly—about $9—to replace a single tile, and it doesn’t require a professional installer,” she said. “In fact, in many instances, the resident

can clean and replace the tile with no help needed. So we’ve already seen the positive impact carpet tiles have had in this situation.”

The second key benefit Hansen was seeking was to help Lend Lease lower its own costs. She admits there’s a higher initial capital cost of about $250 to $400 more per home with car-pet tiles, but the long-run savings are impressive—especially when it comes to speeding up the turnaround of a home as one resident leaves and anoth-er moves in.

There’s now less maintenance down-time between occupants,” she said, “because there’s less need to take time out to remove carpet or reinstall. We’ve saved about a day and a half by switch-ing to carpet tile, again because there’s no need to pull out the whole thing or

The Lend Lease-InterfaceFLOR partnership takes after-sale service on floor maintenance beyond the norm

SPECIAL SECTION: MAINTENANCE STRATEGIES

STEPS in the Right

DirectionBy Esther Perman

november | DeCember 2011 27

bring in installers. Our own mainte-nance team can handle any tile replace-ment needed in a matter of hours. The reduced downtime is a gain in rent, and even that one extra day adds up when you have about 17,000 move-ins per year.”

So, for all the right reasons, and many more, Hansen’s decision to switch to her supplier’s carpet tile is proving to be a smart one. As partner-ships go, though, there’s always a learn-ing curve in working with one another. For Lend Lease and InterfaceFLOR, that curve is now arching across mainte-nance strategies.

Owner’s manual and moreNot long after Lend Lease began stock-ing and installing carpet tile, both companies realized they needed to communicate better to maintenance crews and tenants alike how to care for the new flooring solution.

“We were fielding calls and que-ries about spills, cleaning issues, and pet accidents—the typical and expected kinds of situations,” said Mike Hutton, Director of InterfaceSERVICES, Inc., an affiliate of InterfaceFLOR.

“We certainly prepared and fully trained the maintenance crews at Fort Drum, Camp Lejeune, and Fort Campbell, where most of our prod-uct is installed, on how to trouble-shoot and resolve cleaning problems,” Hutton said. “But then it dawned on us that we needed to take a few easy steps beyond the training.”

InterfaceSERVICES created a nine-page Comprehensive Maintenance Plan document for the Lend Lease maintenance staff. It’s a veritable bible of dos and don’ts when it comes to the upkeep of the carpet tile. And its message is that effective maintenance includes five key elements:• Preventing soiling. The soil enter-

ing the building can be contained by using walk-off mats at entrances. This includes outside matting, inside mat-ting, and mats at certain other high-traffic interior areas.

• Vacuuming. Regular vacuuming is the single most important part of a maintenance program. Vacuuming is designed to remove dry soil matter.

• Spot and spill removal. Quick response to spills is crucial. The faster spills are dealt with, the less chance they will leave a stain.

• Interim cleaning. Primarily for com-mercial applications, interim cleaning can also be effective in a residential setting. Several different methods are available. If done regularly, interim cleaning can prolong the need for restorative cleaning.

• Restorative cleaning. This is deep cleaning designed to remove trapped soils. Hot water extraction is the most effective method and the only restor-

28 Defense Communities

ative method recommended by the supplier. The plan elaborates thoroughly on

each of these integral steps, offering tips and recommendations. It con-cludes with advice on removing a lengthy list of specific stains, from but-ter to chocolate, ink, lipstick, and tar.

While the plan was the perfect help-mate for maintenance personnel, an

abridged edition was created for indi-vidual Lend Lease tenants. This main-tenance guide is now included in all new-tenant Welcome Home Packets. It’s as if cleaning guru Heloise herself had penned the piece, with easy-to-fol-low cleaning steps, including the same stain-solution chart that staff members have and use.

“The beauty of the carpet tile is, after

all, that the homeowner can remove the stained tile and clean it. But most people don’t know how to do that, so we simply had to take that extra step to educate them,” said Hutton.

The carpet tile is now sold to 1,500 Lend Lease units. According to Hansen, her company has installed 183,000 square yards of the product so far.

“It’s adding up to be a great relation-ship,” she said, “the kind you don’t ordinarily see between vendor and cus-tomer.”

After-sale serviceTalk about breaking rank from con-ventionality and companies work-ing in tandem: According to John Wells, President and CEO of par-ent company Interface Americas, the InterfaceSERVICES division was a nat-ural outgrowth of managing constant installation challenges presented by a major national account for 14 years, CVS drugstores.

“We want to be not just a vendor but a valued partner to our customers,” said Wells, “and I think we’ve created that with Lend Lease on so many lev-els, beginning with the extraordinary degree of after-sale service we’re pro-viding and including what’s critically important to the U.S. military in offer-ing a highly sustainable product.”

In fact, according to Wells, Lend Lease and InterfaceFLOR are currently partnering on a pilot program with the Department of Energy, an initiative that’s intended to reduce energy con-sumption in more than 750 military base homes.

“Because Lend Lease is committed to the supplier’s reclamation and recy-cling package through our own ReEntry recycling process, over time we’ll elimi-nate the amount of carpet removed from military housing going to the landfill,” Wells said. “To date, we’ve helped them divert over 1.5 million pounds, and this effort will continue to grow.” n

For more information on InterfaceFLOR or InterfaceSERVICES, contact Steve Arbaugh at steve.arbaugh@FLOR.com.

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