Boston, Mass.—Robert Varden has joined Floorcloud’s board of advisors. Varden is currently the founder, president and CEO of “UNITE,” The International Floor Covering Training Alliance.
According to the company, Varden is the provider of vision, voice and operational oversight for the association, which advocates for professional installation training organizations throughout the world. Varden started his flooring career as a commercial flooring installer and expanded his expertise into inspection, training, consulting, speaking and writing, in addition to running a commercial workroom. With over 40 years in the flooring industry, Varden brings a unique perspective to the trade and Floorcloud team.
Floorcloud is the industry’s only cloud-based, job site conditions monitoring and data capture platform. It enables contractors to remotely monitor their installations in real-time and compare job site conditions to the manufacturer’s specifications of the products being installed. No other technology solution available today provides all project stakeholders, the real-time data insights of Floorcloud, according to the company.
“Our mission is to help protect flooring installations for all project stakeholders, by helping detect issues early, before they escalate,” said Scott Banda, co-founder and president of Floorcloud. “Floorcloud strives to save the construction industry hundreds of millions of dollars annually associated with installation failures and delays resulting from easily detectable ambient and substrate issues.”
Over the past year, Floorcloud worked with organizations such as the National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA) and INSTALL to uncover new ways to integrate technology into installation training. “We know the next generation of installers will rely on technology to make them more efficient and profitable, and Floorcloud should be a component of any training program,” Varden said.
Floorcloud shares Varden’s vision of professionalizing the flooring trade, to not only help attract new talent but to elevate the quality of work performed. As one of the most visible finish trades on any project, performing work nearing a project’s completion date, the flooring professional needs to have all of the tools available to them to succeed, according to the company.
“Robert’s insight and industry connections will help Floorcloud become a vital part of the today’s flooring installation world,” said Patrick Mullins, co-founder and executive vice president of Floorcloud. “We are thrilled to be working with him and look forward to further enhancing our solution with his insight and industry relationships.”