Who is Resin Flooring International?

Collaborative Platform (Resin Flooring)

 
Although resin flooring has been around for a long time, it has struggled to grow and mature like other floor coverings such as timber, carpet, tile and vinyl.

There is no united voice to drive common interests; no standards, best practices or industry guidelines; no networks, groups or industry forums for its members to lean on.

To reach our full potential and become a genuine mainstream flooring option, I realised we had to start addressing this issue; to start communicating and creating a better future for our industry.

Resin Flooring International was created to make this happen.

Operating since 2016, it serves as an open, collaborative platform aimed at establishing standards, best practices and training for the resin flooring industry.

The first big step in this goal has already been taken with the drafting of a common framework to make global specification, training, standards and best practices possible. In late 2018, this framework was approved as the basis for the Australian Certificate III in Flooring Technology - the first-ever resin flooring qualification recognised by the Australian Federal Government.

Ultimately, it is hoped the efforts of Resin Flooring International and contributing members can lead to the establishment of local resin flooring associations around the world.

Learn more about how Resin Flooring International is solving problems by establishing standards, best practices and training for the resin flooring industry at www.resinfloor.org

Video Transcription: 

I was asked a question today that pertained to Resin Flooring International, and what is Resin Flooring International? And I guess in simple terms, how does that help me?

I guess the best way I can address that is to take a step back and explain a little bit of the history of how it formed. And it actually dates back three or four years after I could see the demand, the problems that we had in this country with regard to a qualification or lack thereof.

I started posting, I started engaging with industry professionals all around the world and realized that there's only one country in the world that actually has an association and a qualification, and that's the UK.

Everywhere else is lacking. In fact, we didn't even have a common framework to be able to communicate. And when I realized that, and I could see what was happening in the Australian environment where the federal government was starting to address the needs of a qualification in the sector, I set up a benchmark. I set up this framework, it was called Resin Flooring Network, and it was there to propose fundamental framework so that if we're all talking thin film roll coats, here's the fundamental things we're going to talk about. And yes, every country's going to have its own measurements.

We talk in square meters and liters and so forth, whereas in the U.S they talk about pounds or gallons per square foot and so forth. So there's always going to be those sort of localized differences. But fundamentally, we talk about the same thing, whether it's thin-film roll coats or thin-film broadcast, trial downs, high build, decorative [inaudible 00:02:09] or thicker [inaudible 00:02:12], and so forth.

So self-levelers, sorry. And so if we had this common framework that we could all utilize and communicate, then when we have one qualification set up as per that framework, other countries, other entities, other companies, other education organizations, could utilize that same framework and we could actually collaborate internationally using that same framework. So that's what we did. We set up Resin Flooring Network. It was the framework. We had a lot of engagement from all around the world. I think it's 5,000 views, all sorts of comments, feedback, likes, shares, and so forth to get genuine feedback from all around the world. And that still sits on that framework.

We since renamed it to Resin Flooring International, and I invited members from all around the world, from all different sectors, from all different countries to be a part of that. It's a voluntary basis to be a part of it, to kind of contribute and oversee and help it evolve. It will become more formal for the moment. It's the goodhearted nature of these people that have been in the industry for a long time, silverbacks in many ways, like people that are prepared to share their knowledge.

And it's them just wanting to see this industry evolve. And they believe that a common framework is possible in this industry. And in fact, the Australian qualification is the first qualification, like federal qualification to have adopted that framework. So we're off to a flying start. It's something that's going to translate across other countries, different trades in different countries. And as a whole industry, we will evolve much faster by having this collaborative platform rather than splinted organizations repeating the same areas and learning the same ways. So that's what Resin Flooring International is all about.

It's an invaluable step to building or achieving this fundamental vision of making Resin Flooring mainstream. I hope that makes sense. If you have questions on this matter, then please just ask or go to resinflooringinternational.com, take a look there. There's a bit of detail on there that'll help to explain what it's about. I'm Resin Jack, as always, take care and keep smiling.