Bloomington, Ind., counts an approved particle respirator and nitrile gloves for personal protection among his most prized tools. Other essentials Kozey said his Raimondi grout washing machine has become a very useful tool in the commercial field. “In my opinion, it paid for itself the first couple of days,” he revealed. His other essential tool is his portable coffee maker. He brings it from job to job, making coffee with K-Cups. “It’s an excellent tool to have for the guys at 10 a.m. coffee break. It’s commercial-grade with a five year warranty,” he added, “plus it’s a lot cheaper brewing on that than sending somebody for coffee everyday to Tim Hortons.” Christopher McNeeley – a tile contractor for 19 years and now owner of King Pookie’s Diamond Blades – prizes his Montolit FPU Diamond Milling Dry Bit and STL Diamond Grinding Blade. “I never realized how necessary they were until I bit the bullet and bought them,” he said. Metin Gungor of Dekor Constructions in Bordentown, N.J., has a big list of essentials: wet saw; dressing stone; laser; cutting board; trowels of different sizes; sponges and towels; rolling knee pads; dust control; grinders; hole saws; drills; mixing paddles; pen- cils; measure and layout tools, per- sonal protection equipment – “and of course lippage tuning tools,” he said, naming Mechanical Lippage Tuning (MLT) as his favorite. For Matthew Williams of Excel Tile, Bel Air, Md., his margin trowel is his most favorite and essential tool. “Without it, no tile work would get done,” he said. “It does everything, from adding mud, scraping buckets and clean- ing joints to being a chisel, pry bar, and burger flipper for the really desperate!” He also calls the mud- mixing augur “amazing.” Michael Whistler, owner of Tile by Whistler, Grover Beach, Calif., credited his ProKnees knee pads for “making these old knees feel 10 years newer.” HOT TOPICS –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– 84 TileLetter | April 2017