June|July 2008 - BOWE Client.com

Transcription

IT’S NOT ONLY THE
QUALITY YOU TRUST.
It’s the reputation you leave behind.
Floor sanding professionals trust the quality of 3M™ Regalite™ Abrasives
to deliver superior results. Long-lasting Regalite abrasives start sharp,
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and performance that craftsmen can count on. It’s the reputation for
excellence that’s left behind with each smooth, beautiful finish.
Add 3M safety products and you can be confident that these
government certified products will help protect you while on
the job. For more information on the full line of Regalite
abrasives or 3M safety products, call 1-800-494-3552.
www.3M.com
Making your job a whole lot easier.
TM
3M, Regalite, the PURPLE color of these abrasives and the Plaid Design are trademarks of 3M.
© 3M 2006
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See your Bona distributor or go to
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*Bona Strong™ now also in Satin
Circle 1 on Reply Card
Bringing out the best in hardwood floors
Contents
June|July 2008
Vol. 21.3
Features
Florida’s Finest
The 2008 Wood Floor of
the Year winners are
showcased.
page 67
Strip Flooring
By Michelle Desnoyer
For our “A Day in the Life”
feature, Hardwood Floors
heads to Las Vegas.
page 85
67
Your Business
Live and Learn
By Dean Hultman
Sometimes the customer is not always right.
page 29
Legal Brief
By Mike Lund
Understand the basics of a good contract.
page 32
Money
By Dr. Albert Bates
Are you making the right financial decisions during
this economic downturn?
page 38
Management
By Jim Blasingame
Take these simple steps to create a business plan.
page 42
85
On the Cover:
Wood Floor of the Year winner Palembas
Hardwood Floors Inc. For more, see page 66.
Photo by Hewitt Garrison Architectural
Photography.
June|July 2008 ■ Hardwood Floors 5
Contents
On the Job
Ask the Expert
23
In Every Issue
Chairman’s Message
Answers on shiny spots after removing adhesive, rolling finishes
and wear from dog nails.
page 47
From the Field
By Mike Sundell
Confused about “urethane” finish terminology? Find answers here.
page 50
page 8
NWFA News
page 10
Troubleshooting
By Tony Robison
The cause for this cupped floor isn’t immediately obvious.
page 54
Woodworks
page 23
Step by Step
Ad Index
By Kim M. Wahlgren
See the steps to apply one of the many oil
finishes on today’s market.
page 107
page 56
Showcase
Techniques
page 118
By Kim M. Wahlgren
Know how to hook up power safely on
the job.
page 60
56
Product Focus
Tools + Supplies
page 93
Special Advertising Section:
Imported Wood
Flooring
page 105
6 Hardwood Floors ■ June|July 2008
Industry News
Notes
Product Report
page 111
page 114
People
Events
page 113
page 117
>>chairman’s message
NWFA
The magazine of the National Wood Flooring Association
NWFA Chairman
Ken Schumacher
NWFA Executive Director/CEO
Edward Korczak, CAE
NWFA Offices
111 Chesterfield Industrial Blvd.
Chesterfield, MO 63005
U.S.: 800/422-4556 • Canada: 800/848-8824
Local and Int’l: 636/519-9663 • Fax: 636/519-9664
E-mail: [email protected] • Web Site: www.nwfa.org
Editorial Advisory Committee
Genia Smith, Chair (Accent Hardwood Flooring Inc.)
Sprigg Lynn, Board Liaison (Universal Floors Inc.)
Angela Crowl (Dominic A. DiFebo & Sons)
Joe Boone Jr. (Wood Floors Online.com Inc.)
Robert Humphreys (Majestic Wood Floors Inc.)
Brenda Kubasta (Oshkosh Designs)
John Lessick (Apex Wood Floors Inc.)
Robert McNamara (Bostik Inc.)
Charles Peterson (The International Parquetry Historical Society)
Publication Staff
Kris Thimmesch
Publisher
Kim M. Wahlgren
Editor
Catherine Liewen
Managing Editor/Art Director
Michelle Desnoyer
Associate Editor
Bonnie Madison
Production Director
Marjorie Schultz
Electronic Production Manager
Scott Packel
Sadye Ring
Production Assistants
Gretchen Kelsey Brown
Peter Brown
Group Publishers
Sharon Siewert
Administration Director/Accountant
Kara Clark
Controller
Denise R. Thompson
Circulation & Database Director
Colleen Wenos
Circulation Assistant
Pam Walker
Sales Coordinator
Editorial and Advertising Offices:
Athletic Business Publications Inc.
4130 Lien Road • Madison, WI 53704
Phone: 608/249-0186 • 800/722-8764
Fax: 608/249-1153
E-mail: [email protected]
Web Site: www.nwfa.org
CHANGE OF ADDRESS: In order to ensure uninterrupted delivery of Hardwood Floors, notice of change should be made at
least five weeks in advance. Direct all subscription mail to Hardwood Floors, 4130 Lien Road, Madison, WI 53704-3602, call
800/722-8764 or fax 608/249-1153. For faster service, visit us online at www.nwfa.org/member/mag.aspx. Single copy price is
$8. Subscription price is $40 for seven issues in the U.S.A. and Canada. International subscriptions (via airmail) are $65.
Hardwood Floors is published bi-monthly, plus the annual industry resource book, and distributed without charge to those
active in the wood flooring industry.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Hardwood Floors, 4130 Lien Road, Madison, WI 53704-3602.
Publication Mail Agreement #40049791.
Canadian mail distribution information: International Mail
Express, Station A, P.O. Box 54, Windsor, ON N9A 6J5.
Printed in the U.S.A.
© 2008 Athletic Business Publications Inc.
and National Wood Flooring Association.
Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. (ISSN 0897-022X)
Periodicals Postage Paid at Madison, Wisconsin, and at additional mailing offices.
Winning
Examples
By Ken Schumacher
Chairman, NWFA
f you are a contractor installing wood floors for a living, this
issue of Hardwood Floors can be a useful marketing tool. It highlights the winners of the National Wood Flooring Association’s
2008 Wood Floor of the Year contest, and provides many examples
of how you can step up your installation game.
The Wood Floor of the Year contest was started in 1990 as a
way to encourage and recognize innovative craftsmanship and
design in wood flooring installations. Since the program began,
178 awards have been presented to NWFA-member companies
throughout the U.S. and Canada, as well as in Russia and Finland.
This year’s contest yielded a
record number of entries: 232
from 116 companies in five countries, including the U.S., Canada,
Austria, Ireland and Malaysia.
NWFA members from all 50 of
the United States, as well as 54
countries, voted for their favorite
floors based on technical difficulty, installation quality and overall
appearance.
The winning entries profiled in this magazine show you—and
your customers—all the possibilities wood floors offer. For example, the winning installation in the Best Kitchen/Dining Room NonCNC (hand-cut) category illustrates how an installation of solid
plank ash flooring can be improved with a simple aluminum feature
strip. Another example is the winner of the Best Engineered (nonCNC) and Members’ Choice awards, which was crafted using more
than 12,000 individual pieces of wood—something that can be
accomplished on a much smaller scale with scrap material from
other jobs. Not only are the floors beautiful, but the results can be
profitable as well.
Use this magazine to help your customers think outside the box.
The resulting floors could land you on the pages of Hardwood
Floors as one of next year’s Wood Floor of the Year winners. ■
I
This issue can
be a useful
marketing tool.
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EMAIL: [email protected] • WEBSITE: deanwood.com
Member: Architectural Woodwork Institute, International Wood Products Association, National Hardwood Lumber Association,
National Marine Manufacturers Association, National Wood Flooring Association, and the United States Chamber of Commerce.
>>executive director/ceo message
NWFAnews
news and information from the national wood flooring association | www.nwfa.org
Fabulous Wood Floors
By Ed Korczak, CAE
Executive Director/CEO
oday’s consumers are more educated than ever before. In fact, most people do a significant
amount of research before making a major purchase, and analysis of consumer spending
habits shows that the larger the ticket price for the purchase, the more research a consumer
does before buying. With this knowledge in mind, it is important that we, as an industry, provide
accurate, understandable and meaningful information to consumers about wood flooring.
That is why, for the first time, the National Wood Flooring Association is working to create a
consumer-based wood flooring magazine. The NWFA already has a magazine that has been educating the wood flooring professional for years—you hold the evidence of that in your hands
right now—but this is the first time the NWFA has reached out to a consumer audience on such
a large scale.
A recent MarketTools survey showed that 65 percent of U.S. consumers were willing to pay up to
5 percent more for products made using renewable resources. Since we know that wood flooring is
the only renewable flooring material, the NWFA’s Promotions and Public
Relations Committee has been working for several months with an outside
agency to produce a 100-page, one-time custom magazine called Fabulous
Wood Floors to help better educate consumers. This publication will provide consumers with detailed information about all aspects of wood floors—the different types of flooring available, style differences, species options, design alternatives, installation techniques, finish technologies, maintenance routines, environmental benefits and much, much more. What is even better is that the magazine will include hundreds of photos—many of them NWFA Wood Floor of the
Year winners and entries—so consumers can see the many options offered by
wood floors. If you have entered the Wood Floor of the Year contest in the past,
there is a very real possibility that your floor could be featured in this publication, giving you significant exposure to a large consumer audience.
Our members have told us for years that they need this kind of collateral to
help market their products and services, and now we are giving it to them.
NWFA members will have the opportunity to purchase bulk copies of this publication to use as a marketing tool for their business. For $1.50 per copy, the magazines will be available “as is” and can be customized simply by adding a label identifying your
company. For about $2 per copy, for a more professional and “finished” look, they can be custom
printed on the front cover to include your company name and logo. Currently, the production schedule for this magazine projects a newsstand distribution date of mid-September, which is just in time
for the fall buying season.
Think about it … where else can you get such a comprehensive marketing piece at such an
affordable price? It is just one more of the many benefits available to members of the NWFA.
Find out more about this program, and all the various programs the NWFA offers its members, at
800/422-4556 (U.S.), 800/848-8824 (Canada), 636/519-9663 (local and international) or at
www.nwfa.org. ■
T
Where else can
you get such a
comprehensive
marketing piece,
at such an
affordable price?
>>nwfa certified professionals
NWFACPnews
news and information from the nwfa certified professionals | www.nwfacp.org
Let Them Know
By Don Conner
President, NWFACP
n a tight economy like the one we are experiencing right now, many consumers are looking to
save money any way they can. With wood flooring companies popping up every day, and
cheap, noncertified labor becoming more and more abundant—and likely taking business away
from you—how can you justify the work and expense associated with becoming a certified wood
flooring professional?
The best way to differentiate yourself from your noncertified competition is to explain to your
customers how your services differ from the services offered by low-cost flooring providers.
Let them know that certification is a way of validating your industry knowledge and expertise—a
way of showing your customers that you are recognized as an expert in your field—and that they
can trust you to get the job done right the first time.
Let them know what you did to become a certified professional. Tell them about the tests you
have taken, the reports you have written and that have been reviewed
by a third-party board for accuracy, and, if you attended a trade school
to hone your wood flooring skills, tell them about that, too. Then
show your customers how this knowledge is applied to the work you
do. Explain how that knowledge will help you help them select the
best species, installation method and finish for their home or business, lifestyle and budget.
Let them know that no matter what, the materials they choose will
cost the same whether you provide them or the low-cost company
does. Explain that the only real difference will be in the installation,
sand and finish costs, and that your training and expertise means that
they will not be taking chances with the thousands of dollars in materials they will be putting into their home or business. Ask them if that
is a risk they are willing to take. Also let them know that your Code of
Conduct requires that you stand by your products and the work you
do, no matter what. Ask them if the other companies they have talked
to will do the same, and if so, if they will put it in writing.
The bottom line is that in a tough economy, it is hard to walk away
from work, but when it comes down to just doing the work, or doing
the work the right way, you have only one thing to remember: Your reputation is at stake. You
worked hard to earn that certification. Make sure you maintain its integrity.
For more information about the certification programs offered by NWFACP, visit the NWFACP
Web site at www.nwfacp.org, or contact NWFACP toll-free at 866/418-5408 (U.S.), toll-free at
800/848-8824 (Canada) or at 636/728-1922 (local and international). ■
I
Let them know that
certification is a way
of validating your
industry knowledge
and expertise and
that they can trust you
to get the job done
right the first time.
>>education and training
NWFAnews
A Complex Craft
Complex designs are
the norm at the
Custom Design
& Craftsmanship
School, which was
held in St. Louis
last February.
t was a busy spring for technical training from the NWFA. Classes and instructors
included:
I
Custom Design & Craftsmanship School >> February 27-29 in St. Louis
Director of Technical Training Steve Seabaugh led the instruction and was assisted by Technical Services
Advisor Frank Kroupa. Volunteer instructors included: Daniel Racareanu, American Woodcraft Inc.; Rob
Johnson, Basic Coatings; Mike Rocher, BonaKemi USA Inc.; Wayne Lee, Clarke American Sanders;
Jamie Lupresto, Diamond Flooring; Michael Dittmer, Michael Dittmer Wood Floors; Roland Ives and
Russell Ables, MicroGraphic Innovations Inc.; Tom Peotter, Oshkosh Designs; Daniel Boone, Powernail
Company Inc.; Brad Swindoll, Radical Floor Designs; Mark Scheller, Scheller Hardwood Floors Inc.; Chuck
Garvey, Timbermate USA Inc. and Lägler; and Tony Robison, Washington Wood Floors.
NWFA 2008 Technical School Schedule
August 26-29..................Advanced Intermediate Install. and Sand & Finish............Atlanta
September 9-12..............Advanced Intermediate Install. and Sand & Finish............St. Louis
September 16-19............Wood Flooring Basics ......................................................St. Louis
September 22-25............Wood Flooring Inspection ................................................St. Louis
October 7-11 ..................Expert Installations ..........................................................St. Louis
October 13-15 ................Expert Sand & Finish ........................................................St. Louis
October 22-24 ................Intermediate Install. and Sand & Finish ............................Phoenix
November 5-7 ................Wood Flooring Makeover-Basic to Advanced ..................St. Louis
November 12-14 ............Intermediate Install. and Sand & Finish ............................Minneapolis
For more information:
NWFA
111 Chesterfield Industrial Blvd.
Chesterfield, MO 63005
800/422-4556 (U.S.)
800/848-8824 (Canada)
636/519-9663 (local and intl.)
[email protected]
www.nwfa.org
Wood Flooring Inspection >> March 10-13 in St. Louis
Don Conner of Mullican Flooring led the school and was assisted by Glen
Miller, assistant technical training director of the NWFA. Volunteer instructors included: Drew Kern, Floor Works; Jon Namba, CFI; Tim Moore,
Moore & Neville Inspection & Consulting Services; Richard Kass, Master
Flooring Inspectors; Howard Brickman, Brickman Consulting; Cathy Duncan; and Ginna Kennedy, Ginna Kennedy Law Office.
Advanced Intermediate Installation and Sand & Finish
>> April 8-11 in San Francisco
Seabaugh led; volunteer instructors included: Dennis Plaut, 3M; Avi Hadad,
Avi's Hardwood Flooring; Rob Johnson, Basic Coatings; Pat Cooney and
Mathias Klein, BonaKemi USA Inc.; Sheldon Walker, Clarke American
Sanders; Craig McIntosh, Dura Seal; Mike Osborn, Glitsa American Inc.;
Don Smithson and Jean-Paul Pierre, Golden State Flooring; Brett Butler,
Lenmar Inc.; Greg Mihaich, Norton Abrasives; Donald Bouchard, Perfection Home Flooring; Gary Arnold, Powernail Company; Chuck Garvey, Timbermate USA Inc. and Lägler; Larry Subervi, UFloor Systems Inc.; and Todd
McDonald, W.D. Flooring. The lead distributor was Golden State Flooring
(South San Francisco, Calif.).
Intermediate Installation, Sand & Finish >> April 23-25 in St. Louis
Seabaugh led; volunteer instructors included: Jim Schumacher, 3M; Daniel
Racareanu, American Woodcraft Inc.; Sharon Smith and Rob Johnson,
Basic Coatings LLC; Matthew Thrane and Cameron DeMar, BonaKemi
USA Inc.; Brian Fussell, Clarke American Sanders; Roger H. Barker, Fortifiber Building Systems Group; Chris Pryjomski, Glitsa American Inc.; Mark
Mukosiej, Powernail Company Inc.; Mike Kearns, Primatech Inc.; Chuck
Garvey, Timbermate USA Inc. and Lägler; and Woody Hilscher, UFloor Systems Inc.
Advanced Installation, Sand & Finish >> May 6-9 in Hartford, Conn.
Seabaugh led; volunteers included: Jim Schumacher, 3M; Rob
Johnson, Basic Coatings; Gregg Bethune and David Darche,
BonaKemi USA Inc.; Jeff Marcum, Cherryhill Mfg. Corp.; Mike Farrell,
Clarke American Sanders; Steve Bewsher, Dura Seal; Dave Posey,
Floor Style Products; Charles Peterson, The Int’l. Parquetry Historical
Society; Craig Dupra, Lenmar; Greg Mihaich, Norton Abrasives; Tom
Peotter, Oshkosh Designs; Dick Ayers, Porta-Nails Inc.; Pat Donworth,
Powernail Company; Johannes Boonstra, Synteko Floor Finishes;
Augustine Trevor Langdon, T & J Flooring Plus; Chuck Garvey,
Timbermate USA and Lägler; and Woody Hilscher, UFloor Systems. The
lead distributor was Leese Flooring Supplies Inc. (Manchester, Conn.).
Circle 7
>>convention
NWFAnews
Sunshine State Welcomes NWFA
The wood flooring industry headed south to Fort
Lauderdale, Fla., the “Venice of the South,”
March 25-28 for the 23rd Annual NWFA
Conference and Wood Flooring Expo.
Photos by Kent Meireis
Attendees gathered at
the beach for the opening reception, which
included food, cocktails
and music, as well as
some more unusual
Floridian entertainment,
like crab races (below).
Former Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula kicked off
the show with his presentation, “How to Get
Maximum Performance From Your Team.”
The show featured a slate of
educational seminars aimed at
helping attendees improve their
businesses. The theme of this
year’s convention was
“Surviving in a Down Market.”
>>convention
NWFAnews
There were 3,411 wood flooring professionals at the show, 85 of which
attended the first-ever Inspector
Symposium, and 577 booths occupied
by 306 companies.
Technical demonstrations during the
Expo, such as this one on board
replacement, were a big draw.
Attendees could vote for both the Wood Floor of the Year
Members’ Choice award and the winners of the Xtreme
Makeover competition. For this year’s Xtreme Makeover, contractors sent in before-and-after shots of the projects prior to
the show. In the category for floors totaling less than $1,000,
first place went to Universal Floors Inc. (Washington, D.C.); second place to Washington Wood Floors (Manassas, Va.); and
third place to Universal Floors Inc. For floors totaling more than
$1,000, first place went to Universal Floors Inc.; second place
went to Modern Tech Floors LLC (Portland, Ore.); and third place
went to Washington Wood Floors.
At the awards dinner on March 27, Eugen Lägler was
posthumously inducted into the NWFA Hall of Fame; his
son Karl Lägler (at right in photo with NWFA Chairman Ken
Schumacher) accepted the award on his behalf. Eugen
Lägler developed his own drum sander in 1964, the ELF,
followed closely by the Hummel, which integrated belt
sanding technology into a floor sanding machine. In 1993,
he introduced the Trio, a three-disc sanding machine. He
passed away on December 1, 2007, at the age of 82.
Also at the dinner, an Honorary Vanguard Degree was awarded to
Daniel Boone of Powernail Company (in middle in photo at left, pictured with presenters Chris Coates and NWFA Executive Director/CEO
Ed Korczak). Additionally, an Industry Leadership Award was presented
to Neil Moss of Armstrong Hardwood Floors (Lancaster, Pa.); Moss’
good friend, Don Conner of Mullican Flooring (Johnson City, Tenn.),
accepted the award on Moss’ behalf.
Time to celebrate: Wood Floor of the Year winners
Steve Seabaugh of Seabaugh’s Custom Hardwood
Floors Inc., Chuck Crispin of Birger Juell Ltd. and John
Yarema of Johnson Yarema Hardwood Floors (left to
right) were among those who took home the coveted
trophies. To see all the winning floors, turn to page 67.
The final surprise at the end of the awards dinner was
an appearance by President George W. Bush ... or at
least, by his famous impersonator, Steve Bridges, who
had liberals and conservatives alike in stitches.
>>convention
NWFAnews
The NWFA officers were re-elected to
a second term. They include Ken
Schumacher of Schumacher &
Company Inc. (Newport, Ky.) as chairman; Rick Holden of Derr Flooring Co.
(Willow Grove, Pa.) as vice chairman;
Neil Poland of Mullican Flooring
(Johnson City, Tenn.) as treasurer; Don
Finkell of Anderson Hardwood Floors
(Clinton, S.C.) as secretary; and Joe
Audino of Rode Bros. Floors (Los
Angeles) as immediate past chairman.
New to the Board of Directors are
David Graf, Graf Brothers Flooring (South Shore, Ky.); Dewevai Buchanan, Mohawk Industries (Dalton, Ga.); and Sam Smith,
Koetter Woodworking (Borden, Ind.). Returning directors include Tom Anstett, Powernail Company (Lake Zurich, Ill.); Jeff
Fairbanks, Palo Duro Hardwoods (Denver); Jim Gray, Floor Style Products (Hastings, Mich.); Leonard Hall, Endurance Floor
Company (Miami); John Lessick, Apex Wood Floors (Downers Grove, Ill.); Sprigg Lynn, Universal Floors (Washington, D.C.); Glen
Miller, VBA-B America Canada (Etobicoke, Ontario); and Kevin Mullany, Benchmark Wood Floors (Albuquerque, N.M.). The ex-officio directors are John Castaldo, Clarke American Sanders (Springdale, Ark.); Jerry Coleman, Porta-Nails Inc. (Wilmington, N.C.);
Kim Holm, Mannington Wood Floors (Salem, N.J.); Mark Elwell, Bamboo Flooring Hawaii LLC (Honolulu); and John Wooten, CMH
Flooring Products (Wadesboro, N.C.). Members who have finished their terms on the Board of Directors include Bill Costello, Dura
Seal; and Terry O'Neill, TRC Distributing. Pictured are (back row, left to right): Holm, Castaldo, Lessick, Wooten, Lynn, Elwell,
Anstett, Graf and Miller; and (front row, left to right): Gray, Holden, Schumacher, Audino, Smith, Hall and Fairbanks.
At the end of the show, everyone
relaxed poolside at the closing
party, where carnival games,
caricature artists and henna tattoos provided entertainment.
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© Saint-Gobain Abrasives 2007
WOOD ■ works
i n si g h t s a nd in fo r m a tio n o n th e h a r d w o o d flo o r in g in d u s t ry
Floors from the Heart
Donated flooring improves Chinese orphanage
S
ince the Chinese people have helped his company manufacture
wood floors, Samuel Cobb of West Plains, Mo.-based Real Wood
Floors wanted to do something to give back. While in Beijing on
business, he became acquainted with an orphanage run by the Philip
Hayden Foundation in Tianjin, China. Since the orphanage needed to
construct three more buildings for 70 more children, Cobb offered to
In their free time, the contractors formed
supply the flooring, and he assembled a team of nine people: Corey
friendships with the orphans.
Jeter and Benjamin Chang from Real Wood
Floors; Josh and Shauna Hall from Josh Hall Flooring & Design; Eric Van Swearingen
of Van Swearingen Hardwoods; Richard Bentley of Rhoms Timberworld; Roger Poffen
of Affordable Flooors; Charlie Downs of Charlie Downs Hardwood Floors; and Greg
Fuller from The Master’s Craft Flooring Company. Everyone paid their own way and
donated their time to install the flooring over six days. The crew also received help
from Pak-Lite Inc., which donated the underlayment; Master’s Craft, which donated the
installation tools; and BonaKemi, which donated the maintenance and cleaning kits.
Chang, Cobb and Jeter (left to “Next year the orphanage is building a vocational school … and everyone from this
right) work to float the floors. trip has said they’ll come back and do it again,” Cobb says.
TREE ■ id
Guilt-Free Floors
What hardwood tree is this?
Turn the page to find out.
Company helps restore national forest
G
iving back to the environment has become a catchphrase for all types of
businesses, including those in the hardwood
flooring industry. Steve Merila, president of
Vadnais Heights, Minn.-based Lon Musolf
Distributing Inc., wanted to do something
that would have a lasting effect and would
appeal to his architect and design customers, so he teamed up with the Arbor Day
Foundation to start the Lon Plants Trees
Gallatin during the fires (top)
program. With this program, for every Lon’s and after tree replanting.
Own floor sold, the company plants a tree
in the Gallatin National Forest in Montana, which was hit hard by forest
fires in 2006. The program has already been in effect for a year, planting
more than 1,139 trees in the forest. Additionally, Lon’s Own Flooring has
a minimal carbon footprint, Merila says, since it is produced and shipped
in the Midwest. “We’re just trying to be environmentally friendly and make
good choices and still run our business,” Merila says. For more information,
visit www.lonsown.com.
WOOD ■ works
Going for the Gold
U.S. flooring sets platform for Olympic dreams
T
he U.S. is sending its best athletes to Beijing, China, for
the 2008 Olympic Games, and it’s also sending top-notch
hardwood flooring. Cincinnati-based Robbins Sport Surfaces
is providing 75,000 square feet of Northern maple flooring for
Capital Gym in Beijing, an arena seating 18,000 spectators that
will be used for several venues at the Olympics, including the
volleyball, badminton and elimination basketball courts. “The
Chinese heavily favor maple for sport flooring, particularly
basketball courts,” says Jairo Vargas, export manager at Robbins Sport Surfaces. Robbins sourced the wood from White
Lake, Wis., and manufactured the lumber into MFMA-certified, World-class athletes will be competing for gold on these
hardwood sports floors.
finger-jointed, 7-foot-long strip flooring. It took Vargas four
trips to China to bid and coordinate the project with the
International Olympic Committee, and then it took contractors hired through Robbins’ Chinese distributor more than a
year to complete the huge installation. The company is no stranger to working abroad and with high-profile venues,
having supplied the flooring for the China National Games in 2005 in Nanjing, China, in addition to providing the
flooring for 18 of the 35 NBA courts in the U.S., and several International Basketball Federation tournaments worldwide. Perhaps the golden tone of maple underfoot from their home country will help U.S. athletes earn gold this
August.
TREE ■ id answer
VINTAGE ■ moments
American Chestnut (Castanea dentata)
Flooring Attraction
Courtesy of Chestnut Specialists Inc.
A
Hardness as Wood Flooring: 540 on the Janka scale
At a Glance: At one time, it was said that chestnut
trees in bloom gave Appalachian mountain ridgetops
the appearance of being covered in snow. By the
1950s, however, a blight of Asian fungus had devastated the chestnut population in the U.S. (the photo
above is flooring from reclaimed chestnut). Today,
efforts are underway to breed the blight-resistant
quality of the Asian chestnut into the American
chestnut.
hardwood flooring
contractor knows nothing attracts the ladies more
than a tool belt and a 4x4
truck loaded down with a
hardwood flooring tools.
Or at least, one might think
so, looking at this vintage
ad from Nybro, Swedenbased Kährs International
Inc. circa 1967, in which a
woman lovingly looks on
as a handsome man installs
a state-of-the-art factoryfinished floor. But is it the
man she yearns for? Or is
she just thrilled with her
easy-to-maintain, stylish
“new floor in one day” (as Nothing creates a happy housewife
like a new hardwood floor.
the ad says in Swedish)?
french, aged.
18th century French White Oak, distressed and antiqued with
hand rubbed oils and waxes, is the purest expression of old world
charm. We provide the highest form of detailed craftsmanship
for fine homes, luxury hotels and high-end retail spaces.
Call or visit nikzadflooring.com to learn about our selection of
fine wood products available online or to request a brochure.
F
French White Oak
A fine hardwood, cultivated in Europe,
displaying a rich grain structure and
a rustic charm. Color: Provence
flooring/molding
bamboo
paneling/siding
hardwoods
hand finishing
rough lumber
A fine finish every time.
Los Angeles Showroom
538 North La Cienega Blvd.
Phone: 310.657.6662
nikzadflooring.com
WOOD ■ works
Green ■ speak
Your guide to green vocabulary
LCA: Life Cycle Assesment
T
he initals “LCA” stand for many things, but in the
world of the environment, LCA stands for “Life
Cycle Assessment” or “Life Cycle Analysis.” Often referred to as cradle-to-grave analysis, LCA examines all
the impacts of a product on the environment, from the
raw materials used to how it is ultimately disposed of
(or recycled).
Recently, the NWFA announced the results of an
LCA study it commissioned with the University of
Wisconsin. The study compared the LCA of solid wood
flooring in four categories (harmful emissions to air,
water consumption, total primary energy consumed
and product life expectancy) with those of four competing floor coverings (generic VCT, generic linoleum
flooring, generic nylon carpet tile and generic wool
carpet tile). The results of the study were consistent
with previous European studies concluding that wood
flooring has environmental advantages over other floor
coverings, including less air emissions, less primary
energy use and its renewable nature, among others.
For more information, visit nwfa.org.
© Mark Parisi, reprinted with permission
HARDWOOD FLOORING ■ mini-quiz
1. Match the finish mistake with a likely result:
1) Coating a hot floor
a) early wear
2) Applying the finish
b) peeling
too thin
3) Coating too soon
c) uneven
over stain
sheen
4) Not mixing finish
d) bubbles
5. The following finish problem could result from …
(more than one answer possible)
a. finish drying too quickly
b. not cleaning the floor well before applying
finish
c. using the wrong applicator
d. the finish being too cold
2. True or False? Having equal diagonal measurements in a room means the room is
perfectly square.
3. You should do all your edger cuts …
a. before the big machine
b. as you do your cuts with the big machine
c. after you’re done with the big machine
d. whatever works best for you
4. True or False? You test your voltage, and it’s
running at 250 volts. You don’t need to use
your power booster, since you have at least
220.
Answers: 1. 1) d 2) a 3) b 4) c 2. False (only true if the opposite walls are equal in length) 3. d 4. False 5. b
MACHINES THAT PERFORM
MACHINES THAT LAST
MACHINES THAT MAKE SENSE
In an ever competitive and demanding industry, floor-sanding professionals recognize that
performance and longevity are the major deciding factors in their next machine purchase.
It just makes sense.
Galaxy’s track record in these areas is second to none.
From the 8 and 12-inch dual drum/belt sanders to the
continuous 7.5 HP motor, Galaxy machine operators
are able to complete the job ahead of schedule with
less operating costs.
Galaxy owners know that
best. Over three decades
ago when they asked for
a better machine, we
delivered.
From more efficiency,
more productivity to
more savings – Galaxy gives
you 20% more.
It is these and many other
features that set Galaxy apart
from others in the industry.
We are confident the Galaxy advantage
is measurable – in fact at least 20% – and we
believe we’re being modest.
Visit us online to see how we give back up to 20%
Your Business
Live and Learn
The Customer is Always …
Sometimes firing your client is the best business decision
By Dean Hultman
’ve been in the flooring trade for over 30 years, starting
with my enrollment in an apprentice program at Washburn Trade School in Chicago. I learned many different aspects of the trade working for contractors in the
metro area, and for the past 16 years I have run my own
business. Since I was a trainee, I have been taught and I
believed that the customer is always right. And that makes
I
sense; I wouldn’t have work if I didn’t have any customers. One of the lessons that has taken me the longest to
learn, however, is that sometimes the customer is not
right: Sometimes you have to fire the client.
The lesson is so challenging because it goes against
the basic concept of being in business. It’s saying “you’re
fired” to someone who wants to give you money in ex-
SHARPER IMAGE
Making it Clear
Hardwood Floors asked its contractor and dealer readers to send in a marketing piece for a redesign, and our expert picked
this one:
Image: The image used to depict the work of the company is
substandard, and it fails to capture the feel of the entire job.
Layout: The text is haphazardly placed with no regard to
light and dark spots in the photo, making it difficult to read.
In such a small ad, a designer should not mix vertical and
horizontal logos and copy.
Logo: The logo itself is weak. Although
the concentric circles attract the eye,
the rest of the logo is so spaced out that
it greatly reduces its weight, rendering it
much less effective.
Message: It’s good: It speaks to the experience and services offered and has
a call to action with hours and contact
info. The association logos add credibility to the company and its services.
BEFORE
Image: The new photograph shows a
complete room scene. (This is for demonstrative purposes; a stock photo
of product or installation should never
be used in an actual published ad.)
Layout: Using a darker tone allows
the ad to really pop. The copy is
white against a darker background to
make it clear and legible. A graphic
element was used on the left side of
the ad to imply high-end work and
give the ad a more upscale feel.
AFTER
Logo: The logo was reworked slightly
using crisp white lines to make the logo’s mark. The rest of
the logo was tightened up to give it more visual weight and
reversed against the darkest part of the background.
Jim Groff is president of York, Pa.-based Baublitz Advertising, a marketing firm that focuses on the building materials and construction
industry. Groff has authored numerous columns and industry white papers on branding, research, marketing along the distribution channel
and emerging market trends, among others. For more information, visit www.baublitz.com. Note that for the ads designed for this feature,
the Baublitz creative team uses stock photography to which no single party holds exclusive rights.
Accent Hardwood Flooring receives a Hardwood Floors T-shirt for being selected. To enter your marketing piece for a professional
redesign in this column, hardwood flooring contractors and dealers should send in their Yellow Pages ad, newspaper ads, magazine ads or
brochures to: Sharper Image, Hardwood Floors, 4130 Lien Road, Madison, WI 53704.
June|July 2008 Q Hardwood Floors 29
Your Business | Live and Learn
of nail-down strip in maple, red oak
or white oak in a natural grade with
a clear-coat finish. The jobs provided
regular work for us, and we all know
how repeat work is valuable for any
business. I justified it as regular lowprofit-margin work. As my business
©2008 OWENS FLOORING COMPANY, A DIVISION OF OWENS, INC.
change for what you love to do. But
sometimes, it’s the smartest business
decision you can make.
For example, my shop did work
for an area builder and developer. It
was straightforward new construction involving 500 to 800 square feet
SPLIT
PERSONALITY
Your Mood. Your Style. Your Home.
Nothing enhances it like hardwood flooring.
But Owens goes beyond look and design to give
you a floor that is truly unique. Our engineered
hardwood flooring boards are up to twice as
long as our top competitor’s. We also offer the
same sanding surface as a 3/4” solid wood
floor while consuming less than half the
number of trees. This makes the Owens choice
good for your home and the environment.
Available in factory-finished and unfinished
for whatever statement you’d like to make.
View your possibilities at www.teamowensinc.com
Circle 13
30 Hardwood Floors Q June|July 2008
grew, I became more aware of the
business side of my company. I began to realize this “regular low-profitmargin work” was actually costing my
company money. Instead of lining our
pockets with extra cash, we were losing dollars. But I was still very hesitant to turn this client away—it was
regular work! But, trying to make the
best business decision, I knew that I
was better off having the crew stay at
home than working for less than my
actual costs. Actually, by freeing our
schedule of this regular, straight-lay,
nail-down work, we were then free
to accept higher-end work with better
profit margins.
Recently we got involved with
another general contractor. We did
I began to realize
this “regular
low-profit-margin
work” was actually
costing my
company money.
the first job at a negotiated rate. With
the prospect of repeat work, we
agreed to a second job at a negotiated rate. It was another standard strip
maple floor installed in a rectangular remodeled kitchen. Simple. We
were told that the job site would be
“broom ready.” When we delivered
our maple so it would have time for
acclimation, we were reassured that
the job site would be ready for us in
the coming days.
When we arrived to start the installation, however, there was construction adhesive running the length of
our new install. There were underlayment staples left behind, and at
one end of the space the subfloor
dropped more than 1½ inch over 5
feet. The contractor said that since we
Your Business | Live and Learn
were the flooring contractor, this was
our problem, not his responsibility.
In business, I believe all things are
negotiable and that when in disagreement, you keep the discussion
going until all parties are informed
and in agreement. I explained that if
we went over the irregular subfloor
he left, the flooring we laid wouldn’t
fit properly. The floor would not
be flat and it would create a faulty
finished product. The general contractor responded by saying if he
had known we were going to be
“that particular” about the subfloor,
he would have used “that presealed
flooring” and put it down himself. He
went on to say that if we knew our
work well enough, we could sand
the high spots on the new floor and
fake a flat surface. Standing there in
the home, I discussed our options
with the contractor. He dared me to
walk off the job as he himself walked
out the front door—of his own job.
Obstructions and challenges are
placed in front of us so we have the
opportunity to become more experienced and wiser. The contractor left
me with two choices that day: one, to
walk off the job site, or two, absorb
the cost of the prep work needed to
deliver a quality floor and live with
my bruised ego. If I walked off the
job, I would have to load the flooring
back into the truck and return it to
the vendor at a restock charge of 20
percent. The homeowner would have
to live with this delay in her kitchen
remodeling project—only 10 days
before Christmas—while the GC and
I worked out our disagreement. If
I absorbed the cost, I knew I could
deliver the high-quality work associated with my company’s name.
The project was completed, with
a few more minor obstacles. My
crew held their heads high. I know
that we delivered a professionally
installed, sanded and finished wood
floor the homeowner will appreciate
for many years. I also know that we
will never do work for that general
contractor again.
As I continue to learn my way
through this business, I try to monitor
my emotions, allowing clear-headed
thinking to direct my decisions. The
customer is not always right, but he
is always the customer. As a busi-
nessperson, value your customers;
as a professional craftsman, enjoy
your work and earn the money you
deserve. ■
Dean Hultman is owner at Porter,
Ind.-based Hultman Flooring Inc.
Circle 14
Your Business | Legal Brief
Contractor Contracts
Know the basics of your business contracts
By Mike Lund
W
INDUSTRY TRENDS
NWFA Economic Trends Survey:
Solid Unfinished Flooring
In this survey, responses from 10 top wood flooring manufacturers are used to identify current wood flooring sales trends. Below are results for solid unfinished flooring.
Solid prefinished flooring and engineered flooring results are on the following pages.
Results for this issue were compiled in the middle of April.
1. Over the past two months, has the cost of lumber for your company’s
solid unfinished hardwood flooring …
-3
-2
-1
0
+1
ith the money that is at
stake with every job you
sell, you can’t risk conducting business the way your father or
grandfather did. Namely, you need to
replace the old-fashioned handshake
with a written contract.
A written contract leaves less possibility for misunderstandings—resulting in fewer disputes. And if the other
contracting party breaches the terms
and conditions of the contract, a written contract gives you a better chance
of covering your losses. Although
many oral agreements are enforceable, they may come into question in
court.
+2
+3
2. In the past two months, have the prices you charge for your company’s
solid unfinished hardwood flooring …
Elements of a Contract
-3
-2
-1
0
+1
+2
+3
3. Over the past two months, has your company’s sales of solid unfinished
hardwood flooring …
-3
-2
-1
0
+1
+2
+3
4. Over the past two months, has your company’s profits from solid unfinished hardwood flooring …
* -3
-2
-1
0
+1
+2
+3
5. What is the projection for your company’s solid unfinished hardwood
flooring sales in the coming quarter …
-3
-2
-1
0
+1
+2
+3
key:
-1 = dropped slightly
-2 = dropped significantly
-3 = dropped drastically
0 = had no change
+1 = risen slightly
+2 = risen significantly
+3 = risen drastically
(continued on page 34)
There are three key parts of a contract: offer, consideration and acceptance. An offer is a proposal to make
a deal, while consideration is what
both sides stand to gain from the
deal. For instance, the homeowner
will have a newly installed floor while
your consideration is the payment
you receive for installing the floor.
Accepance occurs when both parties
agree.
When the party responding to an
offer rejects or amends the offer, it
becomes a counteroffer. This starts
a process of negotiation where each
party submits counteroffers to one
another until they reach an agreement. Once an offer has been accepted in an agreement, then both
parties have made a formal contract.
The process of negotiating a contract
provides each party with the opportunity to:
• Set the terms of a sale
• Describe all the obligations
accepted by each party of the
contract
• Establish payment terms
• Set parameters such as a timeframe
• Clearly establish all risks and
responsibilities
• Limit any liabilities.
Additional terms can include conditions on how parties can negotiate
the contract, what counts as acceptance, how disputes arising under
the contract are resolved (such as by
arbitration or mediation), a provision awarding attorney’s fees to the
prevailing party if one party breaches
the contract, provisions for sending
notices under the contract (such as an
address or fax number) and a state-
INDUSTRY TRENDS (CONTINUED)
Solid Prefinished Flooring
solid prefinished hardwood flooring …
-3
-2
-1
0
+1
+2
+3
2. In the past two months, have the prices you charge for your company’s solid prefinished hardwood flooring …
-3
-2
-1
0
+1
+2
+3
3. Over the past two months, has your company’s sales of solid prefinished hardwood flooring …
-3
-2
-1
0
+1
+2
+3
4. Over the past two months, has your company’s profits from solid
prefinished hardwood flooring …
-3
-2
-1
0
+1
+2
+3
5. What is the projection for your company’s solid prefinished hardwood
flooring sales in the coming quarter …
-3
-2
-1
0
+1
+2
+3
key:
0 = had no change
+1 = risen slightly
This month, we also asked solid unfinished, solid prefinished and engineered
wood flooring manufacturers:
Do you think consolidation among manufacturers will continue?
10% said no.
90% said yes.
Reviewing a Contract
In situations where you are asked
to sign a contract, these steps can
minimize the risk of a bad deal. First,
read the contract carefully. In most
states, the fact that you did not read
a contract before you signed it is not
a valid excuse. When reading the
contract, highlight anything that is
ambiguous or vaguely worded for
possible deletion or clarification. List
any additional provisions you feel
are necessary, and identify provisions
you think should be deleted. Discuss
all of your proposed changes and
questions about the contract with the
other party and make sure requested
changes were made prior to signing.
It may be difficult to enforce oral
agreements not included in writing
once the contract has been signed.
Consider consulting an attorney, especially if the agreement is complicated.
Finally, keep a signed copy of every
contract you sign.
Standardized Contracts
(continued on page 36)
ment as to which state’s law applies if
questions about the contract occur.
Some vital things to remember
about acceptance includes:
Execution. Make sure both parties
sign the contract and, if one of the
parties of the contract is a company,
make sure the person signing on behalf of the company has the authority
to sign.
Delivery. Make sure each party to
the contract receives a copy of the
final signed agreement.
Date. The contract should state the
date on which the contract becomes
effective, usually the date when the
contract is signed.
While the task of drafting a contract
may seem daunting, remember that
you almost always want to produce
the contract’s first draft. This gives
you a greater advantage because you
can structure the transaction in a way
favorable to your business.
If you repeatedly enter into agree-
THE SHAMROCK DIFFERENCE
Start-to-finish quality control. Accurate, timely shipments. True consistency.
Recognized as the industry’s premier plank flooring manufacturer, Shamrock Plank Flooring
is affiliated with a century-old timber and sawmilling company that provides us with the best
North American hardwoods available. Our expert teams manufacture, package and store
Shamrock Plank Flooring in our own warehouse facilities, so that we can deliver the best
product without costly delays. In fact, we stake our reputation on it.
PRODUCERS OF FINE QUALITY SOLID, ENGINEERED AND PREFINISHED HARDWOOD FLOORING
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ments with your customers and the
basic terms of the agreements rarely
change, you should consider using
standardized terms and conditions.
Rather than having every contract spell out all of the terms and
conditions of contracting with your
company, your individual contracts
with customers can be short and
could incorporate a reference to
your general terms and conditions
(a uniform sheet that accompanies
every contract). The terms and conditions could contain all the terms of
the business relationship that rarely
change. These include:
• The general nature of your
goods and services.
• The representations and warran-
ties you do or do not provide for the
quality of your product or services.
• When you expect payment
• Any elements of the pricing of
your goods and services that never
change
• The “boiler plate” or miscellaneous clauses (standard clauses
usually found at the end of the
contract). These typically include
an arbitration clause, notice clause,
force-majeure clause (a clause in
contracts that excuses parties from
not performing their obligations
due to unforeseen events beyond
their control), and entire agreement clauses, also known as merger
clauses (clauses declaring that the
contract represents the complete
INDUSTRY TRENDS (CONTINUED)
Engineered Flooring
engineered wood flooring …
-3
-2
-1
0
+1
+2
+3
2. In the past two months, have the prices you charge for your company’s engineered wood flooring …
-3
-2
-1
0
+1
+2
+3
3. Over the past two months, has your company’s sales of engineered
wood flooring …
-3
-2
-1
0
+1
+2
+3
4. Over the past two months, has your company’s profits from engineered wood flooring …
-3
-2
-1
0
+1
+2
+3
5. What is the projection for your company’s engineered wood flooring
sales in the coming quarter …
-3
-2
-1
0
+1
+2
+3
key:
0 = had no change
+1 = risen slightly
and final agreement between the
parties; usually this eliminates any
ability to rely on oral agreements
that preceded the written contract).
An attorneys’ fees clause can be
tremendously useful; it says that the
legal fees and costs of the prevailing
party will be paid by the nonprevailing party. This can amount to a
lot of money.
By using general terms and
conditions, you standardize a large
part of every customer relationship. Individual contracts become
much shorter and easier to draft
and execute. However, you need to
ensure every contract specifically
incorporates the general terms and
conditions. Include in your written (and signed) contract language
stating that “Terms and Conditions
dated ___ are incorporated into this
agreement by reference and are part
of this agreement as if fully stated
herein;” make sure you fill in the
blank with the date of your terms.
You may also want each customer
to acknowledge receipt of your general terms and conditions, eliminating any doubt or uncertainty as to
the terms of the business relationship.
Although a written contract may
seem more impersonal than a
handshake, it may help to preserve
relationships and prevent a messy
legal battle. ■
Michael J. Lund is a shareholder at
Milwaukee-based Cook & Franke.
His practice focuses on real estate, real estate finance and commercial transactions. He can be
reached at [email protected] or
414/227-1228.
Legal Notice: Readers should not act
on this information without first
consulting a licensed lawyer who is
knowledgeable about the area of law
in question. Similarly, your review of
this material is not intended to create an attorney/client relationship.
Your Business | Money
Bear Market
Make money in a tough market
By Dr. Albert D. Bates
t appears we have stumbled into a recession. Since the worst of the economy’s problems are occurring in the housing market, many hardwood flooring contractors have been hit hard. However, whether this creates a profit crisis or simply a profit problem for contractors depends in
large part on how they react to the downturn. A recession impacts sales at various levels, and many
owners take actions that actually cause more harm than good to their businesses. But there are some
actions you can take to come through a recession unscathed.
I
The Impact of a Recession
The actual impact of a recession on sales is almost always exaggerated. While there are always a few
businesses for which sales fall dramatically, most only experience a loss of between 5 to 10 percent.
The problem is that most businesses aren’t flexible enough to adjust to a sales decline. Consequently, a small decline is enough to wipe out a significant portion of a company’s profits.
The table in “Comparing Cutbacks” on page 40 looks at a typical NWFA dealer/contractor-member
business. According to the most recent Dealer/Contractor Profit report, this company has $1,500,000
in sales volume, a gross margin of 40 percent of sales and a pre-tax profit of $45,000, or 3 percent
of sales. It may seem that 3 percent is somewhat insignificant, but even small changes in sales or
margin could lower profits dramatically.
In order to fully understand how changes in sales impact profits, it is necessary to break your
expenses down into either fixed or variable. Fixed expenses are expenses the business has an obligation to pay regardless of sales volume. In contrast, variable expenses are those that result from sales.
Commissions are the classic variable expense. For most companies, fixed expenses are by far the
largest component of total expenses. For the typical company in the table on page 40, $450,000 of the
expenses are fixed. In contrast, variable expenses are assumed to be 7 percent of sales, or $105,000.
The second column of numbers shows the impact of a 10 percent sales decline. Because of the inability of the business to shed any of its fixed expenses, profit falls
from the current $45,000 to a loss of $4,500, a decline of 110 percent.
Hurting or Helping?
There are a number of actions companies can take to try to counter the
sales decline associated with a recession, but some may be misguided. They
usually make a somewhat bad situation terrible. Two of the worst courses
are:
Price Reductions. When sales fall, you may instinctively cut
prices in order to increase sales. It is difficult, if not impossible, to
argue with the logic of “some sales volume is better than none at all.”
At the same time, you should be fully aware of the negative impact that
price reductions have on profits.
The last column of numbers in the table displays the company’s results if it
reduced its prices by 5 percent in an attempt to drive additional sales. In most
e
d M. Lingl
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ll
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F
n
o
n
B. Shan
wards,
s Lane Ed
ors.com
1245 Adam www.bakerscreekflo
30
31
6601-32
Who stands behind it is just as important as who stands on it.
Richard and Shannon proved that their way works when they turned Capella around. Now they’re pushing it even
further – and higher – with Baker’s Creek. With an aversion to bureaucracy and a passion for artisan flooring, they
deliver exactly what you need, when you need it. Pecan, heart of pine, walnut. Baker’s Creek uses only the finest
woods available. And they demonstrate character in each and every plank.
Your Business | Money
Comparing Cutbacks
The impact of a 10% sales decrease with and without a price reduction
Dollar Income Statement
g
n
i
h
earc
S
Top Quality
Exotics
Prefinished
at our factory
h
Unfinished
containers direct
from Brazil
Very
Competitive
Prices
Progressive
Finishing
906-760-1198
E-mail: bdixon@progressiveÀnishing.ca
For more information
www.progressiveÀnishing.ca
Circle 19
Net Sales
Cost of Goods Sold
Gross Margin
Expenses
Fixed Expenses
Variable Expenses
Total Expenses
Profit Before Taxes
Change in Profit
Percentage Income Statement (%)
Net Sales
Cost of Goods Sold
Gross Margin
Expenses
Fixed Expenses
Variable Expenses
Total Expenses
Profit Before Taxes
Current
Results
$1,500,000
900,000
600,000
450,000
105,000
555,000
45,000
100.0
60.0
40.0
30.0
7.0
37.0
3.0%
No Price
Decrease
$1,350,000
810,000
540,000
450,000
94,000
544,500
-4,500
-110%
100.0
60.0
40.0
33.3
7.0
40.3
-0.3%
5% Price
Decrease
$1,282,500
810,000
472,500
450,000
89,775
539,775
-67,275
-249.5%
100.0
63.2
36.8
35.1
7.0
42.1
-5.2%
cases, this doesn’t really produce additional sales; it simply results in the sales that
would have been generated anyway, but at a lower gross margin.
The price reduction doesn’t just lower profits further, it decimates them.
Instead of reducing profit to a loss of $4,500, the company ends the year with a
loss of $67,275.
Reducing Marketing Efforts. A second common reaction to a recession
is for a company to cut its marketing. The logic is that if people are not buying, there is no use promoting your company to them. This undoubtedly has a
positive impact in the short run. Cutting any cost that was always present will
automatically make your profits look better. However, failing to promote your
business tends to cause sales to remain sluggish well after the recession has
ended. The business is put into a position of having to catch up with regard to
visibility. Only when demand again becomes universally strong and all businesses benefit do companies that nixed their marketing begin to enjoy the sales
increases that those with greater name awareness have already experienced.
The two areas where your business should take steps to counter the downturn are discretionary expenses and sales effectiveness.
Discretionary Expenses. During good times, every company gets looser
on cost control than it should. This is nothing more than human nature. During
the downturn, modestly trimming a long list of small expense items can reduce
total expenses enough to offset part of the sales decline.
Sales Effectiveness. This is another topic that should be—but typically
isn’t—addressed when times are good. Most companies have both great salespeople and terrible ones. In good economic times, poor salespeople hold back
profits somewhat. In bad times, poor salespeople are a threat to the company’s
viability. It may seem brutal, but they need to improve or move on.
Moving Forward
Nothing is going to make an economic recession pleasant. However, companies need to understand the size of the sales volume decline they can weather
without panic. They also need to take actions that make things better rather
than worse. ■
Dr. Albert D. Bates is founder and president of Profit Planning Group, a distribution research firm headquartered in Boulder, Colo.
Your Business | Management
Plan to Succeed
What you need to know about a business plan
By Jim Blasingame
know what you’re thinking when you read the headline of this article—easier said than done,
right? I hear you. But if you are starting a contracting business or are already running one, you
are actually “saying” your business plan, or at least components of it, every day. Check this out:
I
The Conversation
Me: “Hi Joe. Heard you are starting a new business. What kind?”
You: “Oh, hi, Jim. John and I are going to start up our own contracting business that appeals
to the green consumer. We’re going to use very low-VOC adhesives and finishes, and sustainably
harvested wood, and we’re going to use the latest dust containment systems.”
Me: “Sounds good. Where are you going to get the wood?”
You: “There’s a guy just outside of town who has a small mill with wood from a sustainably managed property. The price is pretty comparable, but we’re going to charge a premium. My father-inlaw is going to front us the money so I won’t have any interest on a loan to worry about, either.”
Me: “Sounds like you found a niche. How many jobs can you get in a year?”
You: “We’ve already found six homeowners who want a ‘green’ floor, and I think if we get our
name out there and the economy rebounds, we have a really good chance of making some money.”
Let’s look at what was said. You identified your:
1) business, 2) management team, 3) industry, 4) business’s focus (your niche), 5) customer profile, 6) vendor profile, 7) pricing strategy, 8) market research, 9) growth plans.
You probably “say” your business plan every day, you just might not be getting it down on paper.
Meat on the Bone
With the addition of a few other elements, you’ve got yourself a
basic business plan. A basic business plan should have at least
seven major categories; in our brief conversation, you identified
components of all of them: 1) Executive Summary, 2) The Company, 3) Products and Services, 4) The Market, 5) The Strategic
Plan, 6) Management Team, 6) Financial Plan.
Let’s Get Started
OK. You know you need to get a plan done because: a) You
want to borrow some money from a bank; b) you’re talking to
an investor; c) you know it’s just good business. But, for some
reason, you are stuck. Don’t worry, try this: Write each one of
the components down at the top of a separate piece of paper,
or at the top of seven pages on your computer. Then have “the
conversation” with yourself. Yes, out loud. As you do, write
your answers down in the appropriate section—even just one
sentence. Don’t worry about quality right now. Congratulations!
Your Business | Management
You’ve started your business plan.
Planting Seeds
Think of the first words as seeds.
As dumb as you may think they are
at first, you are going to grow your
finished business plan.
Write something down in each section as often as you can—even if it’s
just a little bit every day. Don’t worry
if what you feel like writing doesn’t
seem to “flow” with what you have
already written. One of the most interesting things is that sometimes the
last thing you write will go at the very
beginning, and you may put the first
thing you ever wrote in the conclusion. So don’t worry about order at
first. Just start writing.
Don’t Make These Mistakes
There are three common mistakes
when forming a business plan:
1. Waiting until you need it. You
know your banker is going to ask for
it eventually. And the loan officer will
ask for it at the precise time you need
the money. Which means that you
won’t have the time, or cash flow, to
wait until you can create a business
plan from scratch.
2. Waiting until you have the time.
If you are like most people, you are
already wearing eight hats at the
same time. When are you going to
have the time to just sit down and
produce a plan? If you start now, using the incremental method, before
long your business plan will be done.
3. Making it harder than it has to
be. Determine whether the problem is
the issue at hand (the business plan),
or the process (getting it on paper).
Identify where your business plan is
stuck. You might find you are making
it harder than it has to be.
Write this on a rock ... You know
the plan. You’re the expert. Focus
on the process: The way you organize, focus and attribute the time
to producing your dream on paper.
Here’s the payoff: When your plan is
done and on paper, others, including
your banker, your partners and your
employees, can use it to help you.
Sounds like a plan to me. ■
Jim Blasingame is the creator and
award-winning host of the nationally
syndicated radio/Internet talk show,
“The Small Business Advocate,” and
author of Small Business is Like a
Bunch of Bananas and Three Minutes
to Success. Find Jim’s show and more
at www.SmallBusinessAdvocate.com,
plus instant answers to your questions
at his small business knowledge base,
AskJim.biz.
Circle 22
DURABLE. TOUGH. RESISTANT.
On the Job
Ask the Expert
Residue, Rolling and More
Shiny Spots
I recently installed a wood floor
using a moisture-cure urethane
adhesive and when I finished,
the homeowner discovered
adhesive residue on the surface
of the wood. The adhesive was
very difficult to remove and now
there are cloudy and shiny spots
on the wood. What happened?
Larry Scott, technical director at
Carlstadt, N.J.-based DriTac Flooring
Products LLC, answers:
The adhesive began to cure on the
surface of the wood flooring. Moisture-cure urethane adhesives must
be cleaned while they are wet. Once
cured, moisture-cure urethane adhesives become very hard to remove.
The cloudy and shiny spots are the
result of burnishing or rubbing too
vigorously on the surface of a lowgloss finish.
If you find cured moisture-cure urethane adhesive on the surface of the
wood, apply a generous amount of a
urethane adhesive remover/cleaner to
the affected area and be patient. Allow the cleaner to work on the spot.
Wipe or blot the area and repeat, if
necessary, to remove the adhesive.
Do not aggressively rub or scrape the
finish, as this will polish the area to
a higher gloss level. If the gloss level
of the finish is affected, contact the
flooring manufacturer for recoating
information.
On a Roll?
It seems like most finish manufacturers are recommending
rolling on their finishes these
days. Can I assume today’s finishes can be rolled?
Cassandra Hope, development
chemist at Baltimore-based Lenmar,
answers:
The quick answer is “read the directions.” Many of today’s finishes can
be rolled, but others cannot. Rolling
creates more turbulence in the finish,
forming and (depending on the finish) possibly entrapping bubbles.
Often it depends on the type of
finish. Solvent-based finishes tend to
be more “rollable,” because they have
a lower surface tension, making them
much less likely to form bubbles and
more likely to flow together to form a
good-looking film.
That said, many of today’s waterborne finishes roll well. Since they do
have a higher surface tension, they
roll a bit better if they are thicker and
have a proper “bubble-breaker”—or,
chemically speaking, a defoamer. Defoamers work in opposition to flow
agents; you need a balance of both to
roll successfully.
Regardless, all finishes need a
bit of time for the bubbles to break
and a smooth, uniform film to form.
Bubbles are reduced or eliminated
when:
1. The bubbles break before the
film begins to set. Open time has a
lot to do with this. Heat, air flow and
wet film thickness all affect this.
2. The viscosity of the finish allows
it to flow out quickly.
3. The proper roller is used so that
the recommended application rate
is maintained. Some manufacturers
TRICK OF THE TRADE
Keeping it Clean
O
nce you’re done sanding and you’ve carefully cleaned every bit of dust off the
floor, the last thing you want is to track dust from your shoes back onto the
floor or leave black marks from the soles. Some contractors always wear booties
over their shoes, but if you’ve forgotten them or run out, a few strips of blue tape
stuck together and under your shoes work in a pinch.
Steve Seabaugh, director of technical training for the NWFA, receives a Hardwood
Floors T-shirt for his tip. Do you have a Trick of the Trade? Send in your idea, and if we
use it, we’ll send you a Hardwood Floors T-shirt.
On the Job | Ask the Expert
add training wheels to their rollers to
ensure this. Generally, the recommendation is 3⁄8-inch for poly and ¼-inch
for waterbornes. Splurge and buy a
decent roller cover.
4. You don’t overwork the finish
(that just makes more bubbles).
Nasty Nails
My customer is complaining
about her dog’s nails scratching the finish. Isn’t that normal
wear on the floor?
Rusty Swindoll, assistant techni-
cal training manager at the NWFA,
answers:
I once went to a customer’s home
because she was concerned about her
dog wearing out her existing floor.
As I rang the doorbell, I could hear a
giant woof in the back of the house
and the sound of huge feet running
followed by the sound almost like an
airplane landing in the front hallway.
When the customer opened the door,
I saw a giant dog, along with two
tracks in the floor where the dog running to the door had worn through
the finish and two layers of the existing engineered floor. Obviously, that
floor had to be torn out and replaced.
While that case was extreme,
scratches in a wood floor from pet
Keeping the pets’
nails trimmed and
filed does help
protect the floor.
nails are a common complaint. Keeping the pets’ nails trimmed and filed
does help protect the floor. If the dog
is walking normally, that shouldn’t
typically damage the floor. But if
you’re playing with your dog and
throwing a ball, for example, and he’s
running back and forth, that could
scratch concrete, much less a wood
floor. Eventually the dog’s nails will
wear through the finish down to the
bare wood. I always recommend that
in high-wear areas, such as by the
front door, where dogs tend to get excited and jump around a lot, customers cover the floor with a throw rug.
For minor scratches, a pad and recoat
can restore the floor’s appearance. A
regular recoat schedule helps prevent
the wear from going through to bare
wood (and requiring a total resand or
even replacement). Always check with
the flooring manufacturer for the recommended maintenance schedule. ■
Circle 25
On the Job | From the Field
What’s in a Name?
Sort through the confusion of urethane finish names
By Mike Sundell
MU, P/U, poly, polyurethane,
urethane, water-base, waterbased polyurethane ... there
are so many ways to call finish by
another name that it gets confusing,
even for experienced contractors. The
following should help make sense of
the many similar terms used for types
of wood flooring finish.
O
Oil-Modified Polyurethane
OMU is the most commonly used
urethane today. It is called “poly” by
many, and just “urethane” by about
an equal number of people. Technically, the description is backwards—
it is actually a polyurethane-modified oil.
Polyurethane is a harder, more
wear-resistant compound than the
linseed oil and soya oil varnish
bases that were used many years
ago. Coatings companies reacted
some of the polyurethane onto the
TALES FROM THE FRONT
Mistaken Identity
Contractor gets royal treatment
G
reg Fish of Portland, Ore.-based Ryerson Hardwood
Floors Inc. recalls an unusual experience during an unusual job. His company works on the wood floors on Holland
America cruise ships when they’re docked in Portland, but in
this case, the company wanted him to fly to Alaska to look at
floors on the ships after they came into port there. Fish flew to Alaska and arrived
at the dock, only to see a line of 1,200 people waiting to get on the ship. Camera
around his neck, he walked right past the queue and tried to explain to the people
running the dinghies back and forth why he was there. They didn’t speak very
good English, but they suddenly appeared to be nervous and immediately put
Fish on a dinghy all by himself for quick transport to the ship. When he arrived on
board, he was taken to see the executive officer, and Fish again explained why he
was there. The befuddled executive officer asked him to explain once more, then
told Fish the staff had thought he was the Coast Guard inspector. “I had the royal
treatment that day, but the next day when I went to look at another ship, I had to
wait in line with everybody else,” Fish recalls.
If you have a true (and printable) story to share, e-mail it with your name and phone
number to [email protected]. If we use your story, we’ll send you a
Hardwood Floors T-shirt.
oil base and formed what we know
as oil-modified polyurethane. They
are slow-drying but very forgiving
and easy to use. They are usually
targeted at residential use in today’s
market.
Traditionally, the carrier for OMU
was mineral spirits or a close derivative, so sometimes these products
are referred to as solvent-based
products. More recently, there have
been versions of this product that
are using water as the carrier rather
than mineral spirits: The OMU is
emulsified into water. These dry
faster and generally have higher
molecular weights (making them
tougher) than traditional OMU. They
are not quite as forgiving during application as traditional OMU, but are
more forgiving than most water-based
systems.
Moisture-Cure Urethane
M/C finishes are the oldest of the
true urethanes. They react with
moisture in the air to cure, which is
why they are called moisture-cure
urethanes. The higher the humidity,
the faster they react.
The byproduct of the reaction is carbon dioxide gas. In very humid areas,
heavy films can be an issue, as they
will skin over and trap gas, leaving the
film with a foam-like appearance. In
very dry climates, these finishes are too
slow, as there is not enough humidity
to react with them before they soak
into the surface of the wood.
I would recommend the FA-8 any time you
need to do a re-coat. Its usage is unique in the
industry. There’s no other thing like it out there.
Don Conner
Mullican Flooring
Director, Product Development
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M/C urethanes are very tough and clear. They have a
light color and are one of the most wear-resistant products.
These M/C systems generally have strong solvents and
cannot be used in some regions with VOC restrictions or
where the customer has sensitivity to solvents.
Water-Based Finishes
For the last 20 years or so, these have been lumped together into a single category against solvent-based coatings.
The market and the coatings have become so sophisticated
that they need to be broken up into several new categories:
Acrylic: Acrylics are the base for most water-based
sealers other than the OMU emulsions mentioned above.
They are clear, light coatings with very fast dry times and
a forgiving nature for the contractor. They are not particularly tough unless catalyzed/hardened/co-reacted. They
have good sealing properties and add to film build for the
appearance of depth.
Acrylic polyurethane: These systems are a blend of
easy-to-use acrylics with some tougher polyurethane to
add more wear-resistance. They come both catalyzed and
uncatalyzed. These finishes are typically used in low-wear
situations such as residential applications. When catalyzed,
an aziridine catalyst is typically used.
Polyurethane acrylic: These finishes are blends as
well, but smaller amounts of the easy-to-use acrylics are
blended with more of the tougher but harder-to-use polyurethanes to improve the application properties. Most of
these formulas are catalyzed with an aziridine catalyst and
cost more. They are very tough and are often used in highwear situations. They are easy to mix and use and, when
catalyzed, generally have a pot life of 24 hours or more.
Polyurethane: There are very few products in this
category, as it is difficult to make their application easy
and forgiving.
Polyurethane/Isocyanate: These have been evolving:
Early ones were difficult to mix and apply evenly, and they
A: The red oak floor has been repaired with
two white oak boards.
WHAT’S WRONG
WITH THIS PICTURE?
Circle 28
had a short working pot life of two to
three hours, depending on temperature. Over the last couple of years,
they have improved considerably.
They are easier to mix, and have longer working life of about 3 to 5 hours
(some even say overnight in cool
conditions). If properly mixed, they
are very forgiving and easy to apply.
They take a few days to come to 90
percent hardness. These ultimately are
long-wearing, tough systems.
results in a stable, easy-to-use, highwear version of the nano coating.
In our business of installing and
coating wood floors, we must stay
abreast of the changes available to us
both for practical and environmental
reasons. It’s important that you under-
stand the finishes on today’s market
and find the ones that will work the
best for your business. ■
Mike Sundell is VP & general manager of Columbia, S.C.-based RM
Design Inc.
Aluminum Oxide
In prefinished flooring, the most common form of coating is the aluminum
oxide boosted coatings. Manufacturers have added a long-wearing
particle to the finish to prolong
the life of the coating. These have
improved considerably over the last
few years: the particles have gotten
smaller and smaller, and the marand scuff-resistance has improved
measurably. Smaller particles equate
to more clarity in the film. The coatings also have become more flexible
to eliminate checking as the wood
expands and contracts. Recoating is
still a challenge, but it can be done
when necessary.
Nano Technology
The newest buzzword in finishes
is nano technology. “Nano” means
“small.” As with the aluminum
oxide prefinished systems, smaller
particles are being added to many
coatings to increase the wear- and
mar-resistance. Older coatings with
particles had larger particles that
would sink in the systems upon rest
and become difficult to stir, resulting
in uneven looks, sheens and spotty
wear resistance. The new nano
systems have such small particles
that they are lighter and stay bettersuspended in the system, making
stirring no more difficult than mixing a satin finish.
There is a second form of nano
coating in which the raw material suppliers attach the particle directly to the
polymer chain in the coatings. This
Circle 29
On the Job | Troubleshooting
Nailing it Down
Shoddy installation practices result in cupped floor
By Tony Robison
The Problem
Early last spring I received a call from a homeowner who
needed an inspection because her interior designer told
her the hardwood on the second level of the house was
cupped and she needed to discover the cause prior to
having additional hardwood flooring installed on the main
level of the home.
The Procedure
The flooring was 3¼-inch prefinished plainsawn red oak
with eased edges and ends. It was installed in three bedrooms, a sitting room and the hallway on the second level
of the home. The homeowner said the floor had been installed the previous spring, and since she had thought the
cupping was normal, she could not say when it started.
I was beginning to
scratch my head
when I noticed the
cupping actually was
not occurring
on every board
The Cause
I did a site survey
before entering the
home. There appeared
to be proper drainage
away from the house
and no obvious areas
of moisture. Upon
entering the home, my
initial visual inspection
confirmed the floor
was cupped. The interior temperature was 71 degrees Fahrenheit with a relative
humidity (RH) reading of 57 percent. Outside readings
were 48 degrees and a RH of 40 percent. The home had
a humidifier on the heating system, and the homeowners
said they kept the environment around 72 degrees yearround with a RH between 50 and 60 percent. I began taking moisture content readings, which were normal for our
area at this time of year, ranging from 6.9 to 8.5 percent.
I removed quarter round in several areas and observed
spacing of ¼ to ½ inch. Several individual board measurements were taken and found to be within the tolerance of
the product. Ten- and 20-board measurements were also
taken throughout the installation and were within antici-
pated measurements.
The cupping measurements ranged from 0.012 to 0.017
inches. Inspection with a magnifying scope did not reveal
any edge crushing or fractured finish. I used rare earth
magnets in several areas; they showed fasteners were
placed 8 to 12 inches apart. I was beginning to scratch my
head when I noticed the cupping actually was not occurring on every board, but every other board. I got the rare
earth magnets out again to do a more thorough survey
and found that in the areas with the worst cupping, the
installation contractor had done what is sometimes called
“skip-nailing,” i.e., nailing every other board. I found this
to be prevalent throughout 60 percent of the installation.
The majority of what looked like cupping was actually
peaking where two unnailed sides came together.
The cupping/peaking was coming from a combination
of factors. The higher relative humidity the home was kept
at during the colder months helped maintain the stability
of the floor so that it was not subject to seasonal movement, but in doing so it prevented the floor from shrinking, which would have helped minimize the cupping/
peaking. Further surveying of the floor with a heavier person revealed slight up-and-down movement of the boards
due to not being nailed.
How to Fix the Floor
Unfortunately, because the nailing pattern was so erratic
and haphazard, the entire floor had to be replaced. Fortunately, the retailer finally recognized that the installation
did not meet minimum standards and agreed to replace
the floor without the homeowner pursuing legal remedies.
.
In the Future
Maintaining the proper fastening schedule and installation practices as well as knowing what the environmental conditions will be in the home can all help ensure a
successful installation. ■
Tony Robison is managing partner of Manassas, Va.-based
Washington Wood Floors and is an NWFACP-certified
wood flooring inspector.
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On the Job | Step by Step
Au Naturel
Oil finishes offer a natural look and easy application
By Kim M. Wahlgren
t one time, glossy finishes were all the rage, but now
super-low-sheen finishes are where it’s at, and along with
this trend has come increased interest in oil-based finishes
(not to be confused with oil-modified polyurethane finishes).
These finishes replicate the more natural look of many historical
floors, making oil finishes especially suitable for today’s popular
hand-scraped and distressed floors. That isn’t the only factor causing interest in these finishes. Some oil finishes are very low-VOC
or even no-VOC, catching the attention of consumers searching for
environmental products.
That said, these finishes are not for everyone. Requirements vary
depending on the traffic and the finish, but oil-finished floors do
require (in addition to routine maintenance) re-oiling, typically
every two to three years for a residential job.
Application for these finishes varies. Following are steps for a
hardening oil finish. (Make sure you always follow the manufacturer’s directions for the specific oil finish you’re using.)
Photo courtesy of Woodcare USA
A
SUPPLY LIST
Step 1
Step 2
For your final sanding, don’t pick a
grit that’s too fine, which would close
off the grain; you want the oil to be
able to soak down into the grain. In
fact, some contractors find that when
using a penetrating oil finish, they
can stop at a lower grit than they normally do with surface-type finishes.
As always, make sure the floor is
cleaned well after sanding.
Mop the floor with the recommended
wood floor cleaner and allow the
floor to dry completely (typically one
to three hours). Use a high-quality
mop and have a bucket of clean
water available to clean the mop as
you go. For exotics such as Brazilian
cherry, you may want to repeat this
step.
• Buffer
• Vacuum
• Recommended wood
floor cleaner
• Mop
• Water
• Bucket
• Moisture meter
• Oil finish
• Paint roller (3⁄8-inch nap)
• Red or tan pad
• Squeegee, or cloth and
white pad
• White pad
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Step 3
Step 4
Step 5
It’s best to check the floor with a
moisture meter to confirm the floor is
dry before proceeding.
If you wanted to stain the floor,
you could do that instead of steps
2 and 3. However, some oil finishes
have colored oils available, making
staining unnecessary.
This product is applied liberally with
a paint roller with a 3⁄8-inch nap. You
don’t need to worry about being
careful with the application as you do
with many finishes. Work in sections
of 250 square feet or less. Once it’s
on, allow the oil to sit for 15 minutes,
giving it time to penetrate and saturate the floor.
Next the floor is buffed with a
colorfast pad such as a red or tan
pad. Those pads are coarse enough
to knock down the grain while also
driving in the finish.
Step 6
Step 7
Step 8
Now the excess oil is removed. On
a flat floor, a squeegee can be used
on most of the floor, with rags where
necessary around the floor edges.
On a distressed floor, rags are used
over the entire floor. Make sure you
have a way to safely dispose of the
oil-soaked rags.
A cloth under a buffer with a white
pad (inset photo) could also be used
to remove the excess oil.
Then a white pad is used to polish
the floor until the finish has an even
sheen. Now the oil needs to harden,
which typically takes about six hours.
Many contractors wait overnight before applying the next coat.
The next day, a thin coat of either the
same oil or a paste version is applied.
This step evens out the floor and provides some extra buildup. If the same
oil is applied, a small amount can
be poured into the center of a white
buffing pad and buffed in.
If the paste is used (shown), a line
of it can be squeezed out about 2
feet from the wall line and buffed in
with a white pad. As it’s buffed, it will
liquefy and spread. Look at the floor
from different angles to find dry spots.
Oil Basics
T
Step 9
Step 10
For a slightly lower sheen, the floor
may be buffed once more using a
white pad with a polishing cloth
underneath.
The floor is ready for traffic in six to
seven hours. ■
Shawn Gorman and David Gribben
of Washington, D.C.-based Universal
Floors demonstrated the steps in this
article. John Thafvelin of Atlantabased Woodcare USA contributed to
this article.
he many types of oil finishes on
today’s market can cause confusion, especially as they become more
popular. Here are a few facts:
• The “oil” used as a base varies
greatly. Some manufacturers use
petroleum-based oil, while others use
tung oil, linseed oil or vegetable-based
oils. In Europe, petroleum-based products are referred to as “synthetic.”
• Oils penetrate down into the wood
instead of creating a film over the top
like a polyurethane or waterborne
finish does.
• Some oil finishes, in addition to
penetrating into the wood, also have
ingredients such as waxes or certain
oils that harden as they dry.
• Oil finishes tend to bring out the
grain of the wood and give it depth.
Patented Innovation From:
EkoShield is the patented process and technology for pre-oiled wood using all natural organic oils
to create easy to maintain, highly resistant wood floors. Ancestral has developed and patented a
unique new technology to pre-oil wood that is environmentally friendly, enhances the appearance and
character of the wood, increases stability and reduces maintenance and renovation costs.
The EkoShield process naturally crystallizes (cures) the oils without the influence of harsh chemicals
or artificial methods. EkoShield enables Ancestral to produce a floor that will not affect indoor air
quality. Ancestral pre-oiled floors contributes no harmful VOCs.
As the leading manufacturer of pre-oiled wood flooring, Ancestral Floors is dedicated to maintaining
the highest environmental standards while encouraging others in the industry to do the same.
Ancestral Floors
875 98 St., Saint-Georges (Québec) G5Y 8G2 CANADA
swww.ancestralfloors.com
Circle 32
On the Job | Techniques
Power Up
Hook up power safely on the job
By Kim M. Wahlgren
ood flooring experts who train contractors about sanding equipment see lots of strange
things in their daily lives, from scary sanding techniques to the scariest of all: dangerous
electrical hookup. Their stories are numerous; one trainer recalls a contractor who took
the bare wires straight to the main lines feeding the box. The contractor had his helper turn the big
machine on and off, on and off, until the wire melted to the main leads feeding the home. Essentially, they arc-welded the cable ends to the main leads in the box. The trainer stopped them and
asked the contractor who taught him to do that. Not surprisingly, it was a familiar refrain to many
in this industry: “My granddad did it that way, and he never had a problem.” The job was an old
home and had twist-out fuses; the next day an electrician installed a sub box with breakers and a
three-wire plug.
Fortunately, what someone’s grandfather or father did decades ago isn’t acceptable on today’s
job site. You need to understand the safe way to hook up power and what the codes are for where
you live. It isn’t an exaggeration to say your life or someone else’s could depend on it.
W
Cord Basics
Big machines run on 220 volts with an average
range (depending on the machine) of about 210 to
235 volts. The cord is a 10/3 cable (10-gauge wire
with three wires) with a white wire, black wire and
green wire. When hooked up, the black wire and
white wire are the hot leads, and the green wire is
the ground (see “Cord Basics” sidebar on page 62).
The hot leads (black and white) are the only wires
that have voltage going through them during use.
The green wire only has voltage if there is a short
(or “fault”). Older homes have only 3-wire 220-volt
outlets, and power boosters without 110-volt outlets
are 3-wire.
Newer homes have 4-wire 220-volt outlets, and
power boosters that have 110-volt outlets are
4-wire. A 10/4 cable has four wires: black, white,
green and red. The black and red wires are the hot
leads, the white wire is the neutral and the green is
the ground.
The demands on a power cable change with the
length of the cable: As the cable gets longer, the
resistance increases and the voltage can drop, so
the voltage should always be checked with a volt
meter after each 100 feet of cable. Volt meters are
46 on Reply Card
Circle 46
Cord Basics
T
he big machine cord is 3-wire; power boosters with 110-volt outlets are 4-wire.
Older homes have 3-wire 220 outlets, while newer ones have 4-wire outlets.
10/4 Cable
10/3 Cable
Ground
Hot
leads
Ground
cheap insurance (prices start as little as $10) to protect
your machine from the wrong voltage, and they can also
protect your health. Use them to check any wires sticking out from the walls on the job site—never assume that
exposed wires aren’t live. Unfortunately, wood flooring
contractors have been badly hurt by accidentally walking
into exposed wires while sanding.
If you need to correct the voltage, a power booster
can be placed in line, but keep in mind that most power
boosters only increase or decrease the voltage by 10
percent. Power boosters have other advantages besides
correcting voltage: they protect the sanding equipment
against power spikes, they have a built-in volt meter, and
some give you dedicated 110-volt outlets for your buffers
and edgers so you don’t trip the breakers in the house.
You can buy standard boosters or have power boosters
custom-built for your specific needs.
Hooking Up
In some houses, there are 220-volt stoves, dryers and window AC units that—with the right pigtail—can be easily
plugged into. In homes without that convenience, contractors must hire an electrician to install the correct outlet or
they must find a power supply in the box. In some states,
it is illegal for anyone but a licensed electrician to open
the panel box. Many wood flooring companies include
the power hookup by a licensed electrician as part of
their job estimates, although others hook up the power
themselves after being taught the correct method.
In some cases 220-volt power is not available. Sometimes the power source in the grid is simply not enough,
and some older homes only have 110-volt power. In these
cases, a generator may be necessary, but make sure it’s
big enough to run all the sanding equipment you need.
In some areas of the country, there is no power in the
house during new-home construction, so there is a common pole with electrical outlets for the contractors during
construction. Never hook up power from a pole unless it’s
legal and specifically for that purpose.
Excluding those special situations,
there are typically three ways to hook
up your big machine:
1) Use pigtails into a 220-volt
outlet.
If there are electric ranges, stoves
Neutral
or window AC units with 220-volt
outlets in the home, an easy way to
hook up is to create pigtails so you
can plug right into the outlet. You’ll
Hot
need the correct male plug for the
appliance outlet (there are differleads
ent plug configurations for ranges
and dryers and the 3-wire or 4-wire
plugs). Put on the correct twist-lock plug for the outlet
and connect to your power booster or into your machine lead.
The complication can be dealing with 3-wire versus
4-wire: for example, when you have a 4-wire power
booster but you’re in a house with only a 3-wire plug.
Keep in mind that per code you must not tie the earth
ground and neutral wire together in the leads (see the
“4-Wire Code Compliance” sidebar on page 64). If you do
not have a power need for 110 volts to be used on the
cable, you can put on the correct plug but not hook up
the neutral wire. Use the black wire and white wire as hot
leads and the green as the ground.
2) Pay the Electrician.
Many contractors build the estimate including the price
of an electrician doing the in-box hook-up or adding a
220-volt outlet next to the main panel. If it is a new home,
you can work with the builder and request that a 220-volt,
4-wire outlet be installed as part of the new home. With
existing homes, many contractors sell this as a safety con-
TECHNIQUES HIGHLIGHTS
■ If you aren’t sure about anything regarding
hooking up power, ask an electrician.
■ Figure out where you’ll get 220-volt power
when bidding the job, not when you need to
start sanding.
■ In many cases, hooking up directly to the
electrical panel is illegal.
■ Always check the power supply with a volt
meter.
■ A power booster has many uses besides
correcting voltage.
Rift and quarter sawn Sapele
cern for the homeowner: They can get the extra money
because the homeowner has peace of mind knowing
that it is done safely and correctly, and the correct plug
is there if 220-volt power is needed again in the future.
In the many homes that have twist-out fuses rather than
breakers, this is a must.
3) Tie Into the Electrical Panel
Tying into the electrical panel is illegal in many states.
It is the hardest method and is one you must be trained
to do. If you feel comfortable doing so, have been trained
to do it and it’s legal where you live, keep these things in
mind:
• The power must be turned off before you tie in.
• Always use a volt meter to check the voltage of the
leads.
• If the power box is set out and the knockouts can
be removed easily, then remove the correct size, place
the wire with the clamp or other strain relief on the cable
and place the wires into the breaker. Once the job is
completed, a plug or cap must be installed so the hole is
covered.
• Make sure the cover of the box will close and cover
the wires during operation. Letting the wires hang out
with the cover open can be extremely dangerous.
• If the power box is set into the studs, it is difficult to
tap out a knockout and feed the lead into the box. The
drywall may need to be cut away and then replaced and
repaired after the job is done.
• Make sure the wires are not just hanging free. A
clamp around the wires or some other strain relief needs
to be in place to prevent the wire from pulling loose and
shorting out the box.
• The breaker size is important, because a breaker that
is too large (such as 60 amps) will not trip when needed.
If the breaker is too small, then it will trip too soon. Most
of the big machines on today’s market run well on a 20- to
30-amp breaker. The startup amp draw is high, but that is
only for a brief moment; after that it drops to a safe level.
Terrible Tricks
There are vast numbers of bad “tricks” that contractors
use to avoid legitimate power hookup. For many years,
contractors have been taught to use quick clips for
direct hookup to the main leads in the
box, but this is both illegal and unsafe—
the weakest link in your hookup is the
plugs or quick-disconnect clips. The
hat some people call
weight of the cord can pull the clips
the “new” code for the
out, shorting out the box, causing spark4-wire hookup has been in
ing and possibly a fire. Another trick is
place since the early ’80s. What
to use a booster to pull one 110-volt leg
it says is simple: At no time can
from one room and a 110-volt leg from
the earth ground and neutral
another room. That does add up to 220
wire be joined together. When
volts, but if only one of the breakers
they aren’t joined and the earth
trip, there is still a hot lead feeding the
ground is used for a fault, the
big machine. Some contractors avoid
short will be safely discharged.
This pigtail for connecting the 3-wire to a
having to deal with the correct plug
However, if the white wire is
4-wire outlet might be illegal—it depends if
configurations by simply stripping the
joined to the green wire, then
the white and green wires are joined togethwires and sticking them directly into the
the short is sent back through
er inside the cord (joining them is illegal).
outlet—an incredibly dangerous practice
the neutral wire.
with a high risk of electrocution.
If your power booster has
The bottom line is: Be smart, be safe
four wires feeding into it, it
and follow the codes for your area. If
is because of the 110-volt
you aren’t sure about the right practices,
supply. If the white wire is
ask an electrician. Don’t put yourself,
not hooked up, the 110-volt
your workers or your customers at
outlets will not work. If you try
risk by taking chances with electrical
to make the 110-outlets work
hookup. ■
without having the 4-wire in
by making up a wire lead that
Sources for this article included: Frank
bypasses the 4-wire in and
If you’re connecting your big machine
Kroupa, NWFA; D. Wayne Lee, Clarke
joins the earth ground with
(3-wire) to a 4-wire outlet, the easiest way
American Sanders; Eric Nolin, Palo Duro
the neutral, that is a violation
is to use a power booster with a 4-wire conCompanies; and Don Smithson, Golden
of code.
nection.
State Flooring.
4-Wire Code Compliance
W
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2008 NWFA
Wood Floor of the Year Awards
Florida’s
Finest
•
08
Wood
Floor of
the Year
Winners
M e m b e r s
Choice and
Best Restoration
(non-
CNC) Universal
Floors
Best
Inc.
•
Engineered
(non-CNC) and Best
Entry/Foyer
(CNC)
Universal Floors Inc.
•
Best
Engineered
(CNC) Johnson Yarema
Hardwood Floors • Best
Bedroom (CNC) Johnson
Yarema Hardwood Floors •
Best Limited Species (CNC
Design/Cut) Johnson Yarema
Hardwood Floors • Best Factory Finished (non-CNC) and Best
Entry/Foyer (non-CNC) DM Hardwood Designs • Best Entry/Foyer
(non-CNC) DM Hardwood Designs
• Best Kitchen/Dining Room (nonCNC) Seabaugh Custom Hardwood
Floors Inc. • Best Living Room/Family
Room (non-CNC) Seabaugh Custom
Hardwood Floors Inc. • Best Kitchen/
Dining Room (CNC) Floor Man Company
Inc. • Best Bedroom (non-CNC) Floor Man
Company Inc. • Best Limited Species (nonCNC) Palembras Hardwood Floors Inc. •
Best Commercial/Showroom (non-CNC) Birger Juell Ltd. • Best Commercial/Showroom
T
his year’s Wood Floor of the Year contest expanded to include
winners in each category for CNC (computer-designed and
cut) and non-CNC (hand-cut) floors. Winners were chosen by
NWFA members in online voting before the NWFA convention; voting for the Members’ Choice award took place online as well as in
Ft. Lauderdale. To see the winning floors, turn the page.
Because of the large number of entries and winners, this year all
the non-winning floors in each category can be seen by
going to www.nwfa.org, clicking on the “Floor of the Year” link and
then clicking on the link for the 2008 Rest of the Best.
(CNC) Maximum Hardwood Floors • Best
Library/Office (non-CNC) Rode Bros. • Best
Library/Office (CNC) Ralph’s Hardwood Floor
Company Inc. • Best Reclaimed (non-CNC)
Goodwin Heart Pine Co. • Best Reclaimed
(CNC) Enmar Hardwood Floors Inc. • Best
Living Room/Family Room (CNC) Czar Floors Inc. •
Best Restoration (CNC) Pasadena Wood Floors • Members Choice and Best Restoration (non-CNC) Universal
Floors Inc. • Best Engineered (non-CNC) and Best Entry/
Members’ Choice & Best Engineered (non-CNC)
Winning Creations
Universal Floors Inc. (Washington, D.C.)
N
estled in Virginia’s horse country is a new
equestrian estate anchored by a 25,000-squarefoot mansion. Although work on the home and
its floors is still in progress, two of its floors have already
garnered Wood Floor of the Year awards.
While most of the home features textured, handscraped plank floors, Universal’s President Sprigg Lynn
wanted to steer clear of them in the dining room. Not
only is that floor over radiant heat, it also has a stone
perimeter, and the wood floors had to be scribed to
the stone. Lynn called in John Yarema of Johnson
Yarema Hardwood Floors for the design meeting with
the owners and builder. Lynn suggested a parquet
floor for the dining room, but the wife replied that she
“hated parquet.” Not to be deterred, Lynn and Yarema
suggested looking through various books and pictures,
and a photo of an antique captain’s sea chest created
with American folk art marquetry caught her eye. The
design was perfect for the turn of the century American
design planned throughout the home.
Shortly thereafter, Yarema produced a parquet floor
based on that marquetry pattern; the floor is engineered
so there is minimal stress against the stone perimeter. The Universal crew worked around the clock to get all 12,000
pieces installed within the time constraints. After machine-sanding, stain, dye and tung oil finish were applied to lend the
floor an aged appearance.
“It’s a complex pattern, but it doesn’t come across as complex; it’s easy to the eye,” Lynn says. The pattern ended
up winning over the NWFA membership as well as the client: “She went from disliking parquet to this being one of her
favorite rooms in the house,” Lynn says.
Best Entry/Foyer (CNC)
M
eanwhile, the client felt that the entry to her library was lacking. She repeatedly told the pair of wood floor men that
she wanted “creation.” They repeatedly agreed, but they honestly weren’t sure what she meant. As it turns out,
she had recently been to the Vatican,
and she envisioned a recreation of the hands from
Michelangelo’s famous “The Creation of Adam” on
the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Because she also
wanted to emphasize fertility at the entrance of the
library (as in, fertilizing the mind), the pair suggested
an egg and dart pattern—the egg being an ancient
symbol of fertility—surrounding the inlay.
The inlay was installed late at night, and the client
happened to stop by as it was completed. She said
she loved the inlay, but she disagreed with the
orientation of the hands. So, with the narrowest
router bit possible, Lynn and Yarema cut out a thin
circumference around the inlay, enabling them to
release it and rotate it to her liking. They disguised
the routed area with a thin piece of bent walnut.
While that complication may be over, there are
more floors to come from this estate. Lynn says
that the library floor, in progress now, could be a
serious contender for the Wood Floor of the Year
awards in 2009.—K.M.W.
Members’ Choice and Best Engineered (non-CNC):
Abrasive: 3M ~ Adhesive: Bostik Inc. ~ Buffer, Edger: Clarke American Sanders ~ Distributors: Cherokee Wholesalers, Derr
Flooring Company, Long Floor ~ Dye: Industrial Finishes ~ Filler: Timbermate USA ~ Finish: Waterlox ~ Nailer: Powernail
Company ~ Router: Porter-Cable ~ Sander: Hummel (Palo Duro) ~ Saws: Festool ~ Wood Flooring: Yarema Marquetry
Best Entry/Foyer (CNC):
Abrasive: 3M ~ Adhesive: Bostik Inc. ~ Distributors: Cherokee Wholesalers, Derr Flooring Company ~ Dye: Industrial
Finishes ~ Edger: Clarke American Sanders ~ Filler: Timbermate USA ~ Finish: Waterlox ~ Nailer: Powernail Company
~ Router: Porter-Cable ~ Saws: Festool ~ Wood Flooring: Allegheny Mountain Hardwood Flooring, Yarema Marquetry
Best Restoration (non-CNC)
History Revealed
Universal Floors Inc. (Washington, D.C.)
W
hile this home blends perfectly well
with its surroundings near D.C.’s famous
Embassy Row, it isn’t from D.C. at all; it
was originally built in the mid-1700s in Boston. In
1930, it was deconstructed, piece by piece, and
rebuilt at its present site. Much of the home had
been updated, but the floors, which are Eastern
white pine in widths up to 19 inches, were in dire
need of restoration.
“The floors had multiple layers—seven or eight
layers of paint, varnish, wax, you name it,” says
Sprigg Lynn, president at Universal Floors. “They
were literally black.” Universal’s Vice President
of Operations Shawn Gorman was the lead man
in making sure the complicated restoration was
handled to perfection. The process involved first
hand-scraping every inch of the 5,500 square feet
of the flooring. For two months straight, at least
10 men hand-scraped the floor every day, with two
men whose job it was to just sharpen hand-scraper
blades all day long. Lynn says the company uses
a technique they call “restoration scrape”—not
a distressed scrape and not a flat scrape, but
something in between that carefully follows the
contour and maintains the patina of the antique
floor. The company uses an array of all shapes,
sizes and weights of hand-scrapers, some handed
down in Lynn’s family and some new versions collected from industry friends such
as Daniel Boone and Wayne Lee.
Next the floor was scrubbed by hand with potash lye, an old-fashioned mild
detergent that slightly bleaches the floor. Then the floor was hand-rubbed with a
fine-grit abrasive, after which a proprietary dye was used. Finally, the floor was
finished with several thin layers of wax.
“It had to be hand-rubbed,” Lynn says. “That slight flow from board to board, the
undulations of the wood—machines would have taken that out.”
Fortunately, Universal Floors does so many restorations that it has built a sizeable inventory of salvaged antique flooring.
In this case, wood flooring the company had previously bought from an auction at the Johns estate (of Johns Hopkins
fame) happened to match this home’s flooring perfectly for repairs.
Once complete, “The light just shimmers off the wood; it literally makes you want to get on your knees and run your
hands across the floor,” Lynn says, explaining that although the materials used were simple, it was a complex job. “We’ve
restored a lot of floors from the White House on down, but this was the most physically challenging and professionally
challenging,” Lynn says.—K.M.W.
Abrasive: 3M ~ Adhesive: 3M (epoxy) ~ Buffer: Clarke American Sanders ~ Distributors: Cherokee Wholesalers, Derr
Flooring Company ~ Dye: Industrial Finishes ~ Filler: Timbermate USA ~ Finish: Dura Seal (wax) ~ Router: Porter-Cable
Best Engineered (CNC)
Pushing the Limits
Johnson Yarema Hardwood Floors
( Troy, Mich.)
W
ith this year’s winning floors,
Johnson Yarema Hardwood Floors
continues to push the boundaries of
hardwood flooring design. These three award
winners from three different projects show
the depth of style that John Yarema, president
of Johnson Yarema Hardwood Floors, is able
to create.
The Best Engineered winner is an intricate
inlay that contains more than 12,000 pieces
of wood and 48 species. The design, which
depicts the battle between good and evil
with a lion, angel and the Lamb of God, was
inspired by the Moroccan-themed décor and
original wood carvings in the massive summer
estate. Originally slated to be a pinwheel
medallion, Yarema suggested something more grandiose. “I did a sketch on a piece of paper, and they loved the idea of
taking all the carvings and putting it in one place,” Yarema says. The catch was that the owner wanted it done in eight weeks.
The rough sketch, which was drawn on a piece of loose-leaf paper, came to life after it was created at the shop and
assembled into 12 panels. Once the panels were assembled on-site, the wood was bleached and scraped three times in order
to create an Old World painterly style. “We were trying to take out the ‘bright’ and make it look like it had been there for 200
years,” Yarema says. The white oak around the perimeter was darkened with a chemical stain to also give it an aged look. The
new “old” medallion met the owner’s timeframe while exceeding his expectations.
Best Bedroom (CNC)
T
he floor that earned Yarema the Best Bedroom
Wood Floor of the Year award started out as a
simple basketweave pattern that the interior
designer originally had in mind. Again, Yarema suggested
something a little more intricate, and the end result was
a three-dimensional basketweave-inspired design with
iroko, wenge and walnut. The designers specialized in
working with fabrics, so they were drawn to Yarema’s
textile-like pattern. The rich, colorful floor offset the clean,
black-and-white, modern lines found in the rest of the
home. “All the cabinetry in this room was flat panels,
and so they really wanted the floor to pop,” Yarema says.
“They view this as an art piece.” And with 30,000 pieces
that needed to be glued down piece by piece, it truly was
a work of art.
Best Limited Species (CNC)
T
he floor that proved the most unusual in this
year’s contest was the Best Limited Species
winner, which Yarema created for a client’s library.
Although the floor consists of only two species—wenge
and maple—the snake-like design makes the floor
anything but simple. The design was inspired by a photo
Yarema saw of a white-tiled, black-grouted herringbone
floor that continued up the wall. “It’s almost like a selfstanding art piece where the floor becomes the art
piece,” Yarema says.
Creating it was no easy task. The 40-foot structure
starts out 12 feet wide on the floor, shrinks down to 4 feet
wide as it curves up the wall and ends up 8 feet wide on
the ceiling. The logistics of such a massive structure meant
reframing the back wall and installing cables in the ceiling
for support. All the pieces were engineered ahead of time
in the shop using a vacuum process to bend the wood, but
the curves still had to be tweaked on-site to get just the
right bend. This involved lightly wetting the wood and using
a drum-like contraption with straps to bend the wood into
position. It was a tedious process to get the wood to bend
without breaking. “If you cranked it too hard, it would break,
and you would have to start all over again,” Yarema says.
This meant two to three trips per day to the job site just to
crank the straps.
Yarema says he wanted to prove that there were no
limits as to what could be done with wood. Look for more
unique floors from Johnson Yarema Hardwood Floors in
the future. “Unless we’re over our head, it doesn’t feel
comfortable,” Yarema says.—C.L.
Best Engineered:
Adhesive: Stauf-USA Adhesive ~ Distributors: Professional
Hardwood Distributors/Schafer Hardwood Flooring Co. ~
Wood Flooring: Yarema Marquetry
Best Bedroom, Best Limited Species:
Abrasive: 3M ~ Adhesive: Stauf-USA Adhesive ~ Buffer,
Edger: Clarke American Sanders ~ Distributors:
Professional Hardwood Distributors/Schafer Hardwood Flooring Co. ~ Filler: Timbermate USA Inc. ~ Finish: Glitsa
American ~ Nailer: Stanley-Bostitch ~ Sander: Hummel (Palo Duro) ~ Saws: DeWalt ~ Wood Flooring: Yarema Marquetry
You choose wood finish accessories for their beauty and
quality look. Don’t ruin the effect by skimping on durability, or settling for unsatisfactory customer service.
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Circle 49
Best Factory Finished (non-CNC)
Desert Oasis
DM Hardwood Designs (Farmington, N.M.)
N
orthern New Mexico probably isn’t where
most people would expect to find a
lighthouse, but that’s the setting for this floor,
which won the Wood Floor of the Year award in the
Best Factory Finished category. The Animas River
flows through the backyard of this 10,000-square-foot
home, topped with a lighthouse overlooking the river.
The job involved not only the circular floor but 56
curved steps leading up to it.
In the design meeting, as the client perused
the photos from Dave Marzalek of DM Hardwood
Designs, his San Clemente compass medallion
caught her eye, and she asked if he could reproduce it again. That wasn’t a problem—Marzalek has made the medallion by
hand at least 35 times after it was published in Better Homes & Gardens in 1997—but Marzalek stressed to the client that
the surrounding floor would have to create the right setting for the medallion.
Although the resulting sunburst design would intimidate many contractors, Marzalek says it was business as usual. The
complicated part of the job was creating the curved bullnose under the railing and the 56 curved steps, all of which had
to be scraped, stained and finished to match the factory-finished white oak flooring, putting the finishing touch on this
nautical desert oasis.
Abrasive: 3M ~ Adhesive: Sika Corporation ~ Filler: Timbermate USA ~ Finish: Dura Seal (on inlay and staircase)
~ Nailer: Powernail Company, Senco ~ Saws: Hegner (scroll), Hitachi (laser slide), Makita (table) ~ Wood Flooring:
HomerWood Hardwood Flooring Company (field) ~ Rare Earth Hardwoods (inlay exotics), Allegheny Mountain Hardwood
Flooring (steps)
Best Entry/Foyer (non-CNC)
M
arzalek’s second Wood Floor of the Year trophy from this
year (bringing his total to 14) is typical Marzalek style. “I own
two sanding machines, and they never go out,” he says. In
the Southern California market where his company was based until
recently, Marzalek was known for his hand-scraping style. When he
relocated to northern New Mexico last year, Marzalek found that
although the market is dominated by factory-finished flooring, his handscraping style was quickly embraced. The only change is that his new
clients seem to prefer a “deep and gnarly looking” scrape, he says.
This floor, which Marzalek did for the home of his good friend
Brett Elliott, is evidence of that. The focal point is a wood and stone
medallion. Elliott and his wife had found a marble medallion on the
Internet, “But it was too simple; it didn’t have anything really going for
it,” Marzalek says. As he often does, he took the basic design and ran
with it, combining elements from his previous medallions and using
granite, as requested by the couple’s designer. All pieces were cut
with a scroll saw; for the thin granite pieces, Marzalek used a diamond
blade on the scroll saw.
To tie the floor together, granite squares were integrated into the
basketweave parquet pattern with walnut flooring. To achieve a heavy
scrape, Marzalek first used a hand-planer with a round head, then
hand-scraped the floor. The final result garnered lots of attention
in this prefinished market. “The decorators and the person who
photographed the floors were quite amazed,” Marzalek says.—K.M.W.
Abrasive: 3M ~ Adhesive: Sika Corporation ~ Buffer: Clarke
American Sanders ~ Filler: Timbermate USA ~ Finish: Dura Seal
~ Hand planer: Festool ~ Nailer: ET&F, Powernail Company, Senco
~ Saws: Hegner (scroll), Hitachi (laser slide), Makita (table) ~ Wood
Flooring: Allegheny Mountain Hardwood Flooring
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Best Kitchen/Dining Room (non-CNC)
Best Living Room/Family Room (non-CNC)
The Right Angle
Seabaugh Custom Hardwood Floors Inc.
(Cape Girardeau, Mo.)
A
s NWFA’s director of technical training, Steve Seabaugh, who
is also president of Seabaugh Custom Hardwood Floors,
teaches contractors how to install even the most technically
challenging wood floors. But on this highly technical custom floor, it
was Seabaugh who found himself being the student. In the process,
Seabaugh produced two Wood Floor of the Year-winning floors, which
are both part of an elegant contemporary home in Glenco, Ill.
Both the kitchen and living room floors were riftsawn ash with
aluminum strips. The architect had the idea of creating an abstract
nondirectional floor to match the lines of the modern home.
Seabaugh worked with the architect and homeowner to make the
floor a reality. While the simple, clean lines may make the floor look
basic, it was anything but—everything needed to be precise and line
up perfectly.
Seabaugh started by tearing out the old terrazzo floor and creating
a new subfloor onto which he drew the templates for the wood and
aluminum. “The decorator actually made an actual-sized rug and
Styrofoam cutout of the table, chairs and couch where everything
was going to be placed,” Seabaugh says. He traced the entire layout
on the subfloor until the client approved it. “She was real specific
that she wanted things a certain way, so we kept doing it until we
both liked the way it hit the wall and places where it was going to be
seen,” Seabaugh explains.
With the layout approved, Seabaugh began the arduous task of
cutting everything on-site to fit precisely, including the aluminum
strips, which he routed for a tongue and groove.
The kitchen, which had a granite border around the ash and aluminum, was installed first. The tile contractor made
replicas of the granite tiles from OSB as a template for Seabaugh to follow as he was installing, and the actual granite
was installed after the wood and aluminum were completed.
The kitchen floor flowed directly into the living room, where Seabaugh began work on the multidirectional floor.
The odd angles of the living room meant cutting 58- to 60-degree miters, and Seabaugh found it challenging to get
everything to align. He was surprised to learn that being off by as little as 1⁄64 of an inch meant the miters would start to
grow or shrink after three or four rows.
“I learned as I was doing it,” Seabaugh
says.
After several cuts and a couple of
tear-outs, Seabaugh got everything to
align exactly. “Every point in there lines
up. I’d take any floor guy in the world
in there and say ‘find a flaw.’ There
isn’t one,” Seabaugh says. And best of
all, it met the homeowner’s exacting
standards.—C.L.
Abrasive: 3M ~ Adhesive: Bostik Inc. ~
Buffer: Clarke American Sanders, Lägler
(Palo Duro) ~ Distributor: Greer Company
Inc. ~ Edger: Clarke American Sanders
~ Filler: Timbermate USA Inc. ~ Finish:
Poloplaz ~ Nailer: Powernail Company
Inc. ~ Sander: Galaxy Floor Sanding
Machines, Clarke American Sanders
~ Saws: Festool ~ Stain: Dura Seal ~
Wood Flooring: Taylor Lumber Inc.
Best Kitchen/Dining Room (CNC)
Destined for Greatness
Floor Man Company Inc. (Toledo, Ohio)
S
ome things are just meant to be, and it seems
this floor was fated to earn Rick Wilson, president
of Floor Man Company Inc., his first Wood Floor
of the Year award. The project was for a high-end home
overlooking the Maumee River in Ohio, where the
homeowner had specified a marble and wood floor to
match a photo she had seen of a European parquet.
Wilson was easily able to design the parquet, but he
suggested she go with a black wood rather than marble.
So, switching out the marble for African wenge, Wilson
sent the design to Winneconne, Wis.-based Oshkosh
Designs to manufacture 2-foot-square paper-face parquet
blocks. “Tom Peotter [of Oshkosh Designs] told me that
when he saw it come off the line, he said it was a Floor
of the Year if he ever saw one,” Wilson recalls. As it turns
out, it was. Even though the parquet came manufactured,
Wilson still had his work cut out for him. The bricklayer for
the dining room had installed the curved brick wall before
Wilson could install the floor, so after gluing down the
field of the flooring, “I just got down on my knees with a
bandsaw and took my time,” Wilson says. It took Wilson more time to install the small area by the wall than it took him to
install the rest of the floor, but in the end, it looked like the flooring had been installed first. “The owners are just tickled to
death with it,” Wilson says. “It’s their favorite room!”
Best Bedroom (non-CNC)
O
hio is known for many things—including
poisonous buckeyes and a winning
football team—but unique wood flooring
isn’t one of them. “We don’t get the L.A., New
York or Chicago kind of jobs often, but this was
one,” says Rick Wilson, president of Floor Man
Company, about this high-end project. Wilson
loaned the homeowners the past 10 years of
Hardwood Floors’ Wood Floor of the Year issues
for inspiration and eventually designed flooring
in seven rooms for these clients. To continue the
patriotic theme of this house, the homeowners
requested a five-point Brazilian cherry star be
produced for the space in front of the floorto-ceiling windows in their bedroom. Wilson
wanted to create a floor to accent the star
that would also call attention to the amount of
sunlight coming into the room, so he fashioned
a starburst out of Brazilian cherry and white oak.
“The biggest challenge was keeping the boards
in proper alignment,” Wilson says of how he designed a ray of the burst to come off each point of the star. Cutting was
done on-site and was tedious because Wilson works on his own; he used to have eight employees until he realized
he was spending more time running his business than doing the work he loved. As a one-man operation, he has the
freedom to work on the projects he enjoys most, and as his two Wood Floor of the Year trophies show, it’s obviously
been time well-spent.—M.D.
Abrasive: Norton Abrasives ~ Adhesive: Bostik Inc. ~ Buffer, Edger: Clarke American Sanders ~ Distributors: Floor
Style Products, Erickson’s Flooring and Supply (kitchen/dining room only) ~ Filler: Woodwise/Design Hardwood
Products ~ Finish: Basic Coatings ~ Nailer: Primatech ~ Sander: Hummel/Trio (Palo Duro) ~ Saws: Festool ~ Wood
Flooring (kitchen/dining room): Oshkosh Designs ~ Wood Flooring (bedroom): Allegheny Mountain Products, Brazilian
Direct
Best Commercial/Showroom (non-CNC)
Sweet Home Chicago
Birger Juell Ltd. (Chicago)
Photo: Meagan Lloyd
T
his may be a new showroom, but Birger Juell Ltd. is hardly new to the wood
flooring industry. The legendary company is a fixture in both the wood flooring
business and Chicago’s Merchandise Mart, where the company has had a
showroom for two decades. When the opportunity came to move into this more
centrally located space on the Mart’s main floor, the company took it.
The new space features the company’s custom flooring as well as its architectural
millwork (the company’s namesake tells the story that one night he had three
martinis and dreamed the flooring went up the walls, thus the millwork). Featured
is a Versailles parquet with wenge feature strips as well as a popular parquet that
Juell designed based on a floor from an 18th century chateau in France’s Loire Valley,
Chateau Montgeoffroy. Between the two parquets is a large starburst pattern in
which all eight points of the star are purposely slightly distorted to highlight different
areas in the showroom.
The green aspects of the products suit both the Merchandise Mart and Birger Juell
Ltd.’s clientele. The Merchandise Mart is the largest LEED (Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design)-certified building in the country, and Birger Juell Ltd. President
Chuck Crispin estimates customers’ interest in green products has tripled in the last year alone, making Birger Juell Ltd.’s wood
flooring—much of which is reclaimed or manufactured from Chicago city trees that have died naturally—a perfect fit.—K.M.W.
Adhesive: Bostik Inc. ~ Buffer: Clarke American Sanders ~ Filler: Timbermate USA ~ Finish: Dura Seal ~ Nailer:
Powernail Company ~ Router, Saws: Festool ~ Crotch Walnut: Kent MacPherson ~ Fabricators: Sam Garcia and Francisco
Valenzia ~ Scraping & Finishing: Lyman Gaines, Eric Wermager, Bill Arnold and Steve Merritt ~ Special Projects Manager:
Don Morrison ~ Scheduling/Production Management: David Guido, Quentin Grayst
Best Commercial/Showroom (CNC)
Last-Minute Artistry
Maximum Hardwood Floors (Coral Springs, Fla.)
S
ome masterpieces take years, even a lifetime to perfect.
This Wood Floor of the Year winner and luxury showroom,
however, took only a week. Brothers and business partners
Evandro and Alisson Carvalho of Maximum Hardwood Floors
were moving into their new showroom in a hurry. “There was
nothing fancy about designing it,” says Evandro Carvalho. “We
had some leftover material lying around and it was like, this is
what we have to work with.” So, with scraps remaining from
previous jobs, including several high-end CNC-designed borders
and medallions, the two installed myriad flooring options for
customers to peruse. Carvalho’s favorite area of the showroom features hand-scraped, fumed 5-inch American walnut.
Such product displays are usually the deal-closers for Carvalho. “If they’re hesitating on making a purchase or closing the
contract, once they see the showroom they say, ‘OK, we’re comfortable with you,’” Carvalho says.
This is the first Wood Floor of the Year Award for Maximum Hardwood Floors, and even though the Carvalhos have
always taken pride in their work, they have often felt intimidated by the craftsmanship of the beautiful floors entered
into the contest. “You see how some of these people are working for billionaires, and you think maybe we don’t have
a chance. The whole thing is you have to keep trying,” Carvalho says. With this award backing his own craftsmanship,
Carvalho now feels motivated to enter at least three of his floors in the contest each year.—M.D.
Abrasives: 3M, Cumi Canada Inc., Norton Abrasives ~ Adhesive: Sika Corporation ~ Borders/Medallions: Oshkosh Designs
~ Buffer, Edger: Clarke American Sanders ~ Distributors: Custom Wholesale Floors, Design Flooring Distributors Inc., Floor
Style Products ~ Filler: Woodwise/Design Hardwood Products ~ Finish: Basic Coatings, McGrevor Coatings ~ Nailer:
Porter Cable, Powernail Company, Stanley-Bostitch ~ Sander: Hummel (Palo Duro) ~ Saws: Bosch, DeWalt, Fein, Festool ~
Wood Flooring: BR-111 Imports & Exports, Foreverwood, Mullican Flooring, Owens Flooring Co., Virginia Vintage
Best Limited Species (non-CNC)
All Hands on Deck
Palembas Hardwood Floors Inc. (Escondido, Calif.)
B
Photo: Hewitt Garrison Architectural Photography
rothers Michael and Christopher Palembas always make the most out of
their annual trip to the NWFA Convention, sourcing both information and
products for upcoming jobs, but the 2006 convention in Baltimore proved
to be especially useful. A client had requested a nautical design for a billiards room
shaped like a boat. While in Baltimore, the brothers were able to meet the master
shipwright of the USS Constellation, a U.S. Navy ship originally built in 1854 that is
now a tourist attraction in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Since 1991, the shipwright has
been leading a team of carpenters who have been rebuilding the ship, and he ended
up giving the Palembas brothers a private tour of the Constellation and divulging the
techniques involved in its restoration.
Armed with that knowledge, as well as research on the Internet, they felt ready
to tackle this unusual job, which was further complicated by the fact that it’s in a
radiant-heated basement 75 feet from San Diego Bay. Teak boat decking 2¼-inch
wide (with a ½-inch rabbet), ½ inch thick and 6 to 12 feet long was used, as well as
a marine epoxy resin that would stick to the oily wood. Although teak boat decks are typically screwed down, this client didn’t
want that, so the brothers devised a system of using torque screws and washers to hold the boards against each other in
tension while being bent and set into the epoxy. The boards were not ripped and relaminated together as most “bent” wood
flooring is, nor were they steamed or wetted to aid in bending. Once the bent strips on each half of the room were done (a
process that took two men 5½ weeks), a template of the space for the middle board or “king plank” was created, cut at the
shop and installed. Next came 4,400 linear feet of ¼-by-¼-inch wenge, which was hand-set in epoxy resin. Finally the floor
was coated with neutral stain and waterborne finish. “It was interesting to go through all the issues and come up with a floor
that is probably bulletproof,” Michael Palembas says of this unique job.—K.M.W.
Abrasive: 3M ~ Adhesive: West System Inc. ~ Buffer: U.S. Sander ~ Edger, Sander: Clarke American Sanders ~ Finish:
BonaKemi USA ~ Saws: Hitachi, Makita ~ Stain: Dura Seal ~ Subfloor Prep: Bostik Inc. ~ Wood Flooring: TRB Flooring Co.
Circle 45
Best Library/Office (non-CNC)
Legends of the Floor
Rode Bros. (Los Angeles)
T
his floor is fit for a king—or a duke, as in
“The Duke.” The Orange County branch of
Rode Bros. Floors worked tirelessly with
designers from Los Angeles-based Barry Design
Associates to produce this library floor for the
renovation of John Wayne’s former residence. The
homeowners of the Newport Beach, Calif., mansion
desired a focal point to break up the straight-lay
flooring of the adjacent rooms, so Rode Bros.
went above and beyond with this distinct creation
using walnut, wenge, santos mahogany, Brazilian
cherry and maple. According to Mark Lehner, who
handles West Coast sales, the multiple species
gave the floor “a range of colors that fit … for a
distinguishing color movement,” that moves the
eye along the floor to take in its detail. The solid
glue-down parquet is only the tip of the iceberg in
terms of the amount of wood flooring and the number of intricate designs throughout the home. Although the area is only
200 square feet, the floor took installers more than two years to complete. “That was due to some fine changes and arm
wrestling for areas to work in,” Lehner says. But succeeding with such a floor is enough to give Rode Bros. a ride-off-intothe-sunset hero status.—M.D.
Abrasive: 3M ~ Adhesive: Sika Corporation ~ Buffer: Clarke American Sanders ~ Distributor: Galleher Inc., Pacific
Hardwood ~ Filler: Woodwise/Design Hardwood Products ~ Finish: Basic Coatings ~ Saws, Router: Bosch, DeWalt,
Fein ~ Wood Flooring: Pacific Hardwood/Engineered Flooring Manufacturers
Best Library/Office (CNC)
Mapping Success
Ralph’s Hardwood Floor Company Inc.
(Black Creek, Wis.)
C
ontractors often find that the
projects that seem the easiest and
most straightforward can often
end up being the most challenging. This
was the case for Rod Lorenz, president of
Ralph’s Hardwood Floors, with this highend home in Wisconsin. Most of the library
was easily taken care of by laying randomwidth, ¾-inch-thick walnut flooring on a 45.
However, in the center of the room, the
homeowner wanted an antique-looking
map. He sent five of his own drawings to
Lorenz, who passed them on to Troy, Mich.based Yarema Marquetry. It turned out the company had previously done a similar design, which was a map of the world
as people envisioned it in the 1500s, with a strong nautical theme. The homeowner liked it, but wanted to make several
changes. “Most of the work was upfront, trying to get things the way he wanted it,” Lorenz says. Yarema and Lorenz
worked together to add a sea creature border and Latin writing within the map. Although the homeowner requested 15
ships, the number was limited to eight in order to retain detail, and the homeowner’s explicit directions were carefully
followed to perfect the look of each wave and fish in the border. The extra attention to detail proved worth it—the resulting
floor is the highlight of the home.—M.D.
Border, Medallion: Yarema Marquetry ~ Edger: Clarke American Sanders ~ Finish: Glitsa American ~ Sander: Hummel
(Palo Duro) ~ Wood: Schmidt Lumber of Shawano
Best Living Room/Family Room (CNC)
For Good
Measure
Czar Floors Inc. (Newtown, Pa.)
A
good contractor measures
twice and cuts once. But what
if no cuts are allowed? Then
the floor relies almost entirely on
measurement, as it was with this Czar
Floors Inc. project in New York City.
The customer had already purchased
high-end furniture and wanted flooring
to match it. The species and pattern
were easy enough to select, but the
homeowners didn’t want any part
of the 600-square-foot floor to have
awkward cuts, and the room was a
difficult shape. “We had to rescale every detail of our design using AutoCAD to have it match perfectly to the shape of the
room,” says Edward Tsvilik, president of Czar Floors. Once the design was flawless, the pattern was manufactured into
¾-inch solid parquet at Czar’s facility, using white oak for the main body of the parquet, and merbau and maple for the grid.
“We actually had to change our standard sizes for this parquet; they had to be perfectly fit,” Tsvilik says. All that attention
to detail resulted in accolades from the clients and a new product for future clients: Designers from Disney loved the
parquet so much, they put it in the presidential suite of a new hotel built at Disneyland.—M.D.
Adhesive: Bostik Inc. ~ Filler: Woodwise/Design Hardwood Products ~ Finish: BonaKemi USA ~ Sander: Lägler
(Palo Duro) ~ Wood Flooring: Czar Floors Inc.
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Circle 43
Circle 44
Best Reclaimed (non-CNC)
Forest Floor
Goodwin Heart Pine Co. (Micanopy, Fla.)
O
ne might think the best part about owning a
hardwood flooring manufacturing company is having
access to all the great products you could put in
your own home, and that was exactly the case for this
Wood Floor of the Year winner. Carol and George Goodwin,
owners of Goodwin Heart Pine Co., installed their company’s
century-old, recovered long leaf heart pine and cypress
flooring in their Florida vacation home. This alone would
be enough to constitute a grand floor, but the crowning
piece is the 83-by-72-inch center inlay featuring an antique
topographical map depicting the locations of Florida’s original
forests. Each forest is represented by a different species,
and within the inlay is a compass rose. “It’s an original
design based on traditional themes,” says Andrew St.
James, COO of Goodwin. The compass borrows elements
from antique sea charts as well as a cabin compass in a
museum in Cluster, Mass. The compass also features scallop
shells, a tribute to the Goodwins’ hobby of scalloping in
the Gulf of Mexico. All the pieces were hand-cut on a scroll
saw. “Some of the cutting is on a fairly small scale, and it was a little bit of a challenge,” St. James says. The result is a
winning floor that combines business and pleasure.—M.D.
Buffer: Ceno Group ~ Edger: Clarke American Sanders ~ Finish: Loba Wakol ~ Saws: Advanced Machinery ~ Wood
Flooring: Goodwin Heart Pine Co.
Best Reclaimed (CNC)
Rustic Rehab
Enmar Hardwood Floors Inc. (Mesa, Ariz.)
T
his is the second consecutive year that Enmar Hardwood Floors has won in the
Best Reclaimed category. Not surprisingly, creating custom rustic-looking floors
is where this Phoenix-area floor company has found its niche.
This year’s winning floor is in a remodeled 6,000-square-foot ranch in Queen Creek,
Ariz., a booming rural community in the East Valley of Phoenix. The clients have horses
on the property and a lot of acreage, so the floors needed to convey an Old West
cowboy style. At first, the clients only wanted a 100-square-foot area of wood flooring,
but the longer they worked with Enmar, the more confidence they gained in the
company’s skill and the wood flooring—so much that the project grew to 3,500 square
feet of wide-plank reclaimed red and white oak throughout the home.
“The clients said, ‘The more rustic, the better,’” says Tricia Thompson, co-owner/
treasurer of Enmar Hardwood Floors. They chose 6- to 10-inch planks with a light
chestnut stain. In the dining room, Enmar installed the material in a basketweave
pattern and inset stone. After installation, the floors were lightly buffed to preserve
the character of the saw marks, worms holes and nail holes and finished with satin polyurethane.
The installation, sanding and finishing process went along smoothly until Enmar’s crew went in to finish up the trim
and smelled smoke. An electrical fire had started in the upstairs loft, and fire crews doused the blaze with water that
eventually ended up on the newly installed wood floors. Enmar’s crew had to wet-vacuum the floor and let it dry for
10 days. “Nothing cupped, which to this day I don’t understand,” Thompson says. Luckily, the floors withstood the fire,
allowing the clients to move in on time and earning Enmar its third Wood Floor of the Year award.—C.L.
Abrasive: Virginia Abrasives ~ Buffer, Edger: Clarke American Sanders ~ Distributor: Galleher Inc. ~ Filler: Woodwise/
Design Hardwood Products ~ Finish: Absolute Coatings Inc. ~ Nailer: Stanley-Bostitch ~ Sander: Lägler (Palo Duro) ~
Saws: DeWalt ~ Wood Flooring: Pioneer Millworks
Best Restoration (CNC)
Educational Reform
Pasadena Wood Floors (Pasadena, Calif.)
I
t takes a big heart and a lot of patience to give as often as
Marla Jakovljevic, the owner of Pasadena Wood Floors, does.
She takes on one charitable project a year, usually for an
area school. “I have children, and education is very important
to me,” Jakovljevic says. This particular restoration project,
an observatory at a Monrovia, Calif., high school, required
extra patience. The first challenge was leveling the incredibly
damaged subfloor in the 120-year-old building. After receiving the
necessary materials donated by Bostik Inc., Jakovljevic then had
to figure out how to creatively use the small space to be most
appealing to teenagers. She glued down sustainable 5-inch-wide
maple flooring donated by Mullican Flooring in the 300-squarefoot first floor of the observatory, then used the maple on the
staircase up to the second floor. “At night, when the staircase
is illuminated, it looks like a waterfall,” Jakovljevic says. For
the 120-square-foot upper level of the observatory, she glued
down cork donated by Nova Cork and called Oshkosh Designs
to donate a star medallion. “The kids were asking, ‘Why are
you designing a floor, just put in carpet!’” Marla laughs. “But I
know that floor will be there for so long, and other students will
appreciate it.”—M.D.
Adhesive: Bostik Inc. ~ Medallion: Oshkosh Designs ~ Nailer: Powernail Company ~ Wood Flooring: Mullican
Flooring, Nova Cork
Circle 41
Circle 42
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ADay intheLife
Strip
Flooring
By Michelle Desnoyer
n a city known for its tourism, burgeoning nightlife and
glitzy casinos, it’s easy to forget that behind the neon
lights many people are hard at work in Las Vegas. One
such company is Los Angeles-based Rode Bros. Floors,
where Ted Van Blaricom, the company’s supervisor, continually deals with big names and even bigger casinos. Earlier
this year, Hardwood Floors spent a day with Van Blaricom
to observe how a large contracting company is run in such
a unique market.
I
5 a.m.
Van Blaricom wakes up to walk his yellow lab, Lilly, and lift
weights in his gated-community home in Henderson, Nev.,
about 10 minutes south of Las Vegas.
6:30 a.m.
Rode Bros. Floors
Las Vegas
Van Blaricom arrives at the office and opens the shop for
the other Rode Bros. employees. While there, he places a
call to the Palms Casino and Hotel to get clearance for the
work his crews will be doing that day. He calls the supervisors of the four projects Rode Bros. currently has in the Las
Vegas area, and the on-site supervisors report back to him
who has arrived for work, who won’t be there and what
they plan to work on. Van Blaricom then makes last-minute
changes to the schedule he created the previous night. He
also answers an urgent message he received at 7 a.m.: The
MGM Grand wants to refinish the floors of two suites in
the Skylofts luxury hotel at the top of the MGM Grand. Van
Blaricom assigns two guys to this project.
ADayintheLife
the morning, go home for a couple more hours of sleep,
and then be back in a casino around 6:30 that night. “But I
would rather put in long hours and stay on top of things so
I never get blindsided,” Van Blaricom says.
Another interesting aspect of working in Sin City, of
course, is the “sinners.” Van Blaricom says no matter how
many black curtains are placed around a job site, nor how
many signs and barriers the hotel puts up, there’s always
one drunk who manages to stumble onto a freshly coated
floor and proceed to do the “moose-on-ice dance.” Van Blaricom even recalls a time when a drunk vomited on him.
In the two suites Van Blaricom’s men will be recoating in
the MGM Grand, he inspects the floors to make sure they
don’t need to be resanded.
Van Blaricom inspects flooring in a multimillion dollar house
in Olympia Hills.
8 a.m.
Van Blaricom helps his crews load the equipment they’ll
need for each job.
9:57 a.m.
Van Blaricom travels to his first walkthrough. He stops at
the gated community, Olympia Hills, a couple of miles
south of the Strip. In this high-end house, Rode Bros. just
installed a rhombus parquet floor in the library, located next
to the house’s elevator.
10:05 a.m.
Van Blaricom’s next stop is next door, where a white oak
floor has been installed in a similar adobe and stucco house.
Van Blaricom decides the floor is ready for its final coat of
finish and asks the general contractor’s on-site supervisor
when he would like it done.
10:37 a.m.
Van Blaricom leaves the tranquility of the gated community
and drives to the Las Vegas Strip, where he says he easily
spends 50 percent of his day, and much of that time is spent
going up and down the stairs of the huge casinos and hotels. Rode Bros. has installed the flooring in just about every
notable hotel on the Strip. His first stop today is at the MGM
Grand, where Rode Bros. has spent the past year refinishing
the Skylofts in the hotel. The project has taken an unusually
long time because the hotel’s restrictions require that both
the floor above and the floor below the one being refinished be vacant, so it takes a great deal of coordination to
schedule the jobs. The Skylofts feature more than 40 units,
including some vertical flooring surfaces.
One of the unique things about working on the Strip is
the hours. It isn’t unusual for Van Blaricom to work in a
casino until 2 a.m., sleep until 5 a.m., work in the office in
10:50 a.m.
While in the MGM Grand, Van Blaricom makes a quick stop
at the showroom of the City Center, the new condo highrise being built. The MGM Grand had asked Rode Bros. to
do the job, but the timeframe was impossible for Rode Bros.
to maintain its quality standards. “Everything in Las Vegas is
a ‘hurry up I want it today’ job,” Van Blaricom says. Since
the showroom is supposed to open in a couple of days and
the other contracting company hasn’t even been able to start
yet, Van Blaricom is happy Rode Bros. turned the job down.
11:08 a.m.
Van Blaricom arrives at the Palms, which is building a new
condominium tower. Since it’s a new construction site, Van
Blaricom changes from his dress shoes to hard-toe boots
and puts on the construction hat and safety glasses he
always keeps in his truck. Rode Bros. is currently installing
prefinished Brazilian ebony in every room of the tower.
11:14 a.m.
While walking up several flights of stairs at the Palms, Van
Blaricom receives a call from a restaurant owner who wants
to do a walkthrough of a recently completed job. Van Blaricom agrees to meet the owner at 2:30 p.m.
11:18 a.m.
Van Blaricom inspects the Brazilian ebony in some of the
condos; everything looks great. One of the studio apartments has a single closet and a dorm-sized refrigerator, but
it sells for more than $1 million. Even though Van Blaricom
comes from a small town in rural Indiana, he finds nothing
in Las Vegas surprises him anymore. He moved to the city
four years earlier with a spot in the Las Vegas Police Academy. While in school, he started working part-time for Rode
Bros. as an installer until he was promoted to supervisor,
and then to his current job managing crews and estimates.
As his start-date as a police officer neared, Van Blaricom
called the force to let them know he was no longer interest-
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ADayintheLife
the project. On the way, he stops at one of the hardwood
flooring octagons and does a scratch test to see how the
commercial finish is holding up.
12:55 p.m.
Van Blaricom stops by a building site for the Lou Ruvo
Brain Institute, which will be a research and treatment center for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases.
He greets an employee he sees often as he picks up drawings that dictated a major change for the project.
1:30 p.m.
Safety first: Van Blaricom changes into appropriate
commercial job-site gear.
ed in that career path. Instead, he was going to be a career
hardwood floor man.
11:35 a.m.
The supervisor of the Palms project finds Van Blaricom and
takes him to a condo where there is a complaint. Apparently, while installing the flooring, some Rode Bros. workers
accidentally spilled adhesive on the concrete patio, and the
supervisor wants to have the patio recoated tomorrow. Van
Blaricom inspects the spill and calls one of the workers in
the building to clean it up right away so there’s no slowdown to the supervisor’s schedule.
11:45 a.m.
While leaving the project, Van Blaricom notices a container
of finish sitting in the hallway. Even though Rode Bros. is
installing prefinished flooring, the owner wanted an additional topcoat of commercial-grade finish. Originally, the GC
asked Van Blaricom how much it would cost for Rode to do
both the installation and the topcoat. When the contractor
deemed the cost too high, he decided to hire Rode just for
the installation, and have the owner of the Palms hire nonunion workers direct to apply the topcoat (in Las Vegas,
union contractors are required to use union workers). So as
Rode completes the installation, another company’s workers
are applying more finish, and Van Blaricom doesn’t want
Rode Bros. to be responsible if there are errors. So he takes
pictures of the room numbers and some finish errors in several suites, as well as a worker who is finishing the flooring.
Noon
Van Blaricom travels down the Strip to the Miracle Mile
shops, which are a recent addition to the Planet Hollywood
Resort and Casino. Here, Rode Bros. installed large octagons
of ipé amid the expanse of tile and stone used for walkways to the shops. Van Blaricom has to drop off a notarized
copy of the bill for the construction company in charge of
Usually, Van Blaricom doesn’t eat lunch or grabs something
from an In-n-Out burger joint, but today he slows down in
a restaurant in the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino where—not
surprisingly—Rode Bros. has installed flooring. While at the
Hard Rock, Van Blaricom points
out the city’s newest nightclub,
Wasted Space, owned by motocross superstar Carey Hart. Rode
Bros. and crews will start work
there soon. Van Blaricom is helping
the director of operations of the hotel select the perfect flooring for the
club. Van Blaricom works on the
newest hotspots in Las Vegas, and
oftentimes, clients offer to throw
in extra perks like VIP tickets. “But
I don’t want anyone to ever think
Rode is in it for anything other than
the work,” Van Blaricom says of
how he never takes advantage of
these perks, much to the chagrin of
his friends. “Just last week I turned Van Blaricom documents
down tickets to the Miss America
another company’s finish
pageant,” he says.
errors.
2:20 p.m.
Van Blaricom arrives early for his walkthrough appointment
at Ago restaurant with the owner (a partner in the business
with Robert DeNiro) in the Hard Rock. The flooring is a custom-colored Brazilian cherry herringbone floor. Rode Bros.
worked around the clock to complete the 2,500-square-foot
floor in 70 hours, including sanding and finishing. Van Blaricom sketches a diagram of the restaurant and looks over
anything he thinks should be touched up. The owner arrives with two other contractors and they tour the restaurant.
The owner is concerned about slight dents in the floor; Van
Blaricom suggests spot-repairing them by sanding out the
dents and refinishing them, but the owner doesn’t like that
idea because he’s afraid the repairs will stick out. So Van
Blaricom suggests resanding and recoating the whole room,
but the owner doesn’t like that idea either, fearing it might
interrupt business. Van Blaricom compromises by offering
HARDWOOD
FLOORING
AVAILABLE FROM
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is a registered trademark of Weyerhaeuser © 2007 Weyerhaeuser Company. All rights reserved.
ADayintheLife
to fix easier repairs and one of the dents to show the owner
how it will look.
2:59 p.m.
Van Blaricom gets a call from the Rode Bros. job-site supervisor at the Trump International Hotel and Tower. The team
is expecting an order of wood, and the supervisor asks if
he could pick it up today. The first of the two towers of the
hotel is in its final phase of construction, and Van Blaricom
needs to go over the punch list of trade damage.
3:05 p.m.
Van Blaricom stops by the headquarters of a prominent Las
Vegas area builder to look at plans for a condo high-rise on
Lake Las Vegas. The plans are incomplete, so rather than
submitting a bid, he’ll have to submit Requests For Information—RFIs.
4:30 p.m.
Van Blaricom arrives at the Rode Bros. office, located near
the airport, south of the Strip. At this time of day, just as
first thing in the morning, he is the only one in the office.
The job-site supervisor for each crew calls in to report on
the day’s progress.
The first thing he
does is read the
plans and iron
out details for the
Lou Ruvo Brain
Institute.
4:45 p.m.
Van Blaricom
Van Blaricom inspects the plans for a job.
sands and stains
some samples to show the owners of Wasted Space in the
Hard Rock. They want a custom color on white oak, so he
creates 12 options.
5:30 p.m.
Van Blaricom goes over what each crew completed and
what needs to be done tomorrow. Based on that, he makes
up the schedule for the next day.
6 p.m.
Van Blaricom locks up the office and heads home to spend
a relaxing evening with Lilly. ■
Circle 37
Peers who share my interests
from Seattle to Sydney.
That’s what the NWFA does for me.
NWFA
Where do wood flooring professionals turn for answers?
The National Wood Flooring Association, of course. The NWFA is the
industry's leading resource for technical information, educational
training, and networking opportunities. In fact, we wrote the industry
guidelines for quality wood flooring installations. But our expertise doesn't
stop there. We also help our members learn to manage their businesses more
efficiently and effectively, and increase their profits. So what can the
NWFA do for you? Call today to find out how the NWFA can help your
business grow and prosper.
Steve Seabaugh
Cape Girardeau, Missouri
800-422-4556 USA
800-848-8824 Canada
636-519-9663 International
www.woodfloors.org
[email protected]
Excellence Through Membership TM
R
Since 1987
American 8
American 12
Clarke American CAV 26
Check out our website at
www.mrhardwoods.com
Updated Daily
Weekly Specials
Demos And Used Equipment
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Private Email Specials
Super 7R
Primatech
Clarke RS-16
Sander with
or w/o dust
collection
Exit 87A 1-95 1 Hour North of Ft. Lauderdale
American B-2
Just 1 Hour North of Ft. Lauderdale Exit 87A 1-95. Showroom open 8 a.m.–5 p.m. Mon.–Fri.
Come and see our selection of new and used equipment. Serving the industry for 20 years.
MR. HARDWOODS, INC.
210 Commerce Way, Jupiter, FL 33458 • 800-226-9664 • 561-746-9663 • Fax 561-743-0447
E-mail: [email protected] • [email protected] • [email protected] • [email protected]
www.mrhardwoods.com
Product Focus | Tools & Supplies
Abrasives
I
nnovative tools produce innovative flooring results. The manufacturers listed in these pages
have singled out their newest or best-selling products to help contractors create high-quality
work. For more information on the following companies, use the reply cards located next to
pages 10 and 106.
3M
3M features its Easy
Change Sanding System,
which sands specialty inlays, borders and patterned
hardwood floors. It removes
edger scratches and drum chatter
marks. Its new disc eliminates centerhole tearout, making the system an excellent alternative to bolt-on discs, the company says.
Circle 150
Cherryhill Manufacturing
Corporation
Cherryhill now offers
three grades of zirconium
6-inch hook-and-loop
sandpaper along with
one grade of aluminum
oxide, 6-inch hook-andloop sandpaper for the
Super Bee and U-Sand
floor sanders.
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Festool
Festool has abrasives
for every hardwood and
hard surface flooring
application and offers a
line of seven types and
grits ranging from 24 to
4,000. With their hightech coatings, Festool
abrasives provide maximum resistance to clogging and smearing, which
means longer-lasting abrasives and less rework, the
company says.
Circle 154
BonaKemi USA
BonaKemi
USA’s Bona
Blue Anti-Static
abrasive line,
featuring sanding belts and
edger discs,
consists of a
combination
of grit materials and antistatic properties
that help prevent dust from clinging to the
belt, leading to a more consistent cut, the
company says.
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Cumi Canada Inc.
Cumi Canada Inc. (CCI)
produces cutting-edge
coated abrasives in cloth
and paper, the company
says, as well as bonded
abrasive products. CCI
has a wide selection of
rolls, belts, discs, sheets
and screens available in aluminum oxide, silicon carbide, zirconia and its ceramic Supreme Orange.
Circle 153
Mercer Abrasives
Mercer offers a variety of
abrasives for sanding applications. Its Premium Zirconia
Floor Sanding Belts feature
Zirconia grain, a resin-on-resin bond and a butt-tape joint
for bidirectional sanding.
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Abrasives
National Hardwood Flooring
and Moulding
Norton Abrasives
National Hardwood carries the
Sand Castle abrasives line of steel
wool pads and sanding discs,
which are made of the highest
quality material to outlast the
competition, the company says.
The company offers everything
from small square pads to jumbo
pads and rolls.
Norton’s Seeded Gel (SG) ceramic abrasive grain is used
in the company’s new discs
to provide an unmatched cut
rate and product life, Norton
says. The edger discs can be
used on harder species of
wood. The sharp SG grain
cuts fast but doesn’t cut into
the flooring any deeper than needed, the company adds.
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Circle 157
Virginia Abrasives
Designed for use in between-coat finish
preparation, Blue Magic pads feature
hard, sharp abrasive grains. Blue Magic
has been tested and approved by top
finish manufacturers, the company says,
adding that the nonwoven material
allows for a more consistent abrasion
without removing too much finish.
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CHESS FLOORING
MAKE THE RIGHT MOVE...!
BRAZILIAN CHERRY • BRAZILIAN TEAK
BRAZILIAN WALNUT • S.MAHOGANY
ROSEWOOD • AND MANY MORE…
SOLID PREFINISHED OR UNFINISHED
⁄ ” or 12⁄ ” x 3”- 4”- 5” x random length.
3
4
FREE SAMPLES AVAILABLE
Office and Warehouse
630 NW 113 Street
Miami, FL 33168
Tel: 305.757.9400 Fax: 305.751.1302
Free # 1.800.966.3352
WWW.CHESSFLOORING.COM
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S
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Applicators
Duratool Inc.
BonaKemi USA
Duratool manufactures
premium applicators for
the professional hardwood floor finisher. The
Tapered End T-Bar Refill
allows for one-step application and trimming right
up to the baseboard, the
company says. In addition, Duratool offers a Genuine Lambskin T-Bar Refill made from only premium
grades of domestic lambskin.
BonaKemi offers a European
nap roller for waterborne
finishes. It features a candy stripe
that shows if the roller is dragging.
The specially designed roller is for
use with Bona finishes.
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Glitsa American Inc.
Glitsa Roller Covers are
hand-treated, woven
lambswool with a ½-inch
nap. Glitsa Brushes feature long, tapered bristles
with a secured staple set
and wide handle. The
company’s instructional
DVD shows how to use
the brush, roller, lambswool applicators and T-bar to
apply its Glitsa Gold Seal Swedish finishes.
Mercer Abrasives
Mercer’s applicators
come in premium
lambskin pads with a
wood block or synthetic
water-base pads with a
wood block. Both are available in sizes ranging from 10 to
18 inches and have refills.
Circle 163
Circle 162
Padco Inc.
T.C. Dunham Paint Co.
Padco offers 18-inch
lightweight and heavyweight T-bar applicators
for floor finishes. The
handles accept standard
extension poles and
can be used with Padco 18-inch Nylfoam and 18-inch
Woven Refills for lint and bubble-free application, the
company says.
Dunham Paint manufactures 100
percent lambswool applicators that
provide a lint-free, smooth finish.
They are available as complete
block and pad or refill pads in 10,
12 and 18 inches. The company
also offers applicators for waterbased finishes.
Circle 165
Circle 164
Woodwise/Design
Hardwood Products
The Woodwise Nap Saver suspends an applicator pad
inside a polycarbonate housing so the nap doesn’t get
crushed. Since the nap never touches the sides, it keeps
applicator pads like new, so they can be used again and
again without compromising quality, the company says.
The product is available in three sizes: 12½, 18½ and
24½ inches.
Circle 166
MOISTURE METERS
Dependable
Affordable
Lignomat offers
single function meters and
all-in-one multi-purpose meters
W Pin meters with depth electrode
W Dual depth scan meters for wood
W Dual depth scan meter for concrete
W Thermo-Hygrometer
W RH measurements in concrete
Floor Manufacturing Equipment
Great Lakes Custom Tool Mfg. Inc.
The Helicarb cutter from Great Lakes Custom Tool offers
cutters that feature a continuous, twisted carbide blade
that produces a smoother cutting action, the company
says. The cutters are available in straight bore, hydro bore
and powerlock with various cutting widths and various
numbers of wings.
Circle 168
Lico Machinerie Inc.
Running at a feed speed of 450 feet per minute, the
Lico Double Arbor Ripsaw features five independently movable blades for extreme versatility. This
feature allows different product widths to be produced at the same time in the machine. The Double
Arbor Ripsaw increases versatility even more, since
its second arbor can be used to install two movable
hogging heads or standard blades.
Circle 169
W Pin meters: for checking
floors and subfloors
OSI Machinerie
W Dual depth scan. Increased
accuracy with built-in corrections
for different wood species and
separate scale for concrete.
OSI Machinerie has developed SmartSwitch, the optimal production line, which uses vision for scanning
in manufacturing in a completely different way, the
company says. OSI Machinerie also offers customized
state-of-the-art equipment for flooring lines such as:
side-matcher infeed systems, end-matchers, grading,
nesting & packaging systems, self-centering planers,
vacuum board distributors and custom machines.
Circle 170
Super Thin Saws
IntegralFlange splitting saws from Super Thin Saws
are designed for double-vertical, arbor-splitting
units. These saws permit faster feed rates (to 30m/
mm), thinner kerfs (to 0.95 mm) and excellent slat
size tolerances (0.05 mm), the company says.
Circle 171
Wintersteiger
W RH measurements in concrete
W Thermo-Hygrometer
Lignomat 1-800-227-2105
PO Box 30145, Portland, OR 97294
www.lignomat.com
E-Mail: [email protected]
Circle 54
Kontakt 220 is a fully automated continuous
pressing line for two-ply engineered flooring.
The machine is designed to handle randomlength production. It works with PUR hot melt,
which is formaldehyde-free and, bebecause it is not
based on water, it is less sensitive to moisture during
production or once the flooring is installed in homes.
Circle 172
Product Focus | Tools
Moisture Meters
C O M P E T E N C E PUR
KLEBSTOFFE • ADHESIVES
Delmhorst Instrument Co.
Delmhorst’s Total Check features
pin and pinless moisture measurement and a thermo-hygrometer
attachment that conforms to the
ASTM F-2170 standard. Advanced
features include corrections for 69
wood species, a calibrated drywall scale and a reference scale
for non-wood materials. Stored
readings can be downloaded to a
spreadsheet, providing clear, complete documentation of every job.
HotCoating
®
Revolutionary Finishing Technology for
Flooring Manufacturers
• Durable AC3 Finish
• Extraordinary Flexibility &
Shock Resistance
• Excellent Transparency
Circle 173
• One step finishing process
• No sanding/no filling
Lignomat USA Ltd.
...the alternative
to lacquering!
KLEIBERIT©HotCoating
für Echtholzfurniere
Powr-Flite
Powr-Flite carries a full line
of quality Extech meters
needed in the floor care
industry, including its ultrasonic distance meter, dual
measurement moisture
meter, refillable pH meter
and a humidity/temperature pen.
Kleiberit Adhesives USA
(704)843-3339
[email protected]
Produ
Kleiberit Adhesives Canada
(416)256-5842
[email protected]
Barberan North America
(336)991-7881
[email protected]
TreCo Tech and Supply
(336)886-2401
[email protected]
e Demo
ction Lin
SYMPO
nstration
s
SIUM
NC
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i
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i
Tech
at TreCo
31, 2008
July 29 -
www.kleiberit.com
Circle 174
• Small machine footprint
www.kleiberit.com
Lignomat introduces the Ligno
DuoTec BW with RH BluePeg
for relative humidity analysis in
concrete. This probe conforms
to the ASTM F 2170 test for
determining the relative humidity in concrete floor slabs using
in-situ probes. The RH BluePeg
can stay in the concrete during
testing and be reused for further
tests.
ils!
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Circle 175
Circle 55
Nailers
NOTHING
ET&F Fastening Systems Inc.
ET&F’s Aerico 90 pneumatic fastening tool is manufactured for
attaching plywood, OSB or 2X sleepers to concrete substrates.
Aerico 90 is ergonomically designed for greater operator
comfort and ease of handling, the company says, adding that
the straight-line tool design simplifies tool positioning and
fits into tight corners. Fasteners are collated in 25-pin strips
and are applied up to three times faster than powder-actuated
systems, the company says.
POINTS
TO
PERFECTION
Circle 176
LIKE THE L-NAIL FROM
PORTA-NAILS
HighPro Tools
HighPro has a full line of tongue-and-groove
cleat nailers, staplers, prefinish staplers, 5⁄16-inch
top-nailers and finish nailers. The tools are
designed specifically for hardwood flooring
installers who need professional quality and
durability in a lightweight, fast and reliable tool,
the company says.
PORTA-NAILS,
Your One Source
Hammerhead Quarters
For the ultimate in heavy duty,
faster setting, dependable
performance PNI’s new L-shaped
Nail, with well-defined barbs
does the job right the first time.
Your one source for PNI’s famous
serrated “shark-tooth” nails
that keep floors put.
• Pro-Grade for Faster, Tighter, Longer Holds
• Serrated Shark-Tooth Like Design
• Available in 2" and 1-1/2"
• Wide Range of Applications
• Available in Stainless Steel
Circle 177
National Hardwood Flooring and
Moulding
National Hardwood has partnered with Target Tools to
offer PNE flooring nailers and staplers and accompanying nails and staples in 1½-, 1¾- and 2-inch sizes. The
concrete nailer can accommodate 9⁄16- to 2¼-inch Tnails. The company also carries 15- and 18-gauge brad
nailers along with Target Tools-brand brads.
Circle 178
Porta-Nails Inc.
Porta-Nails introduces the Portamatic
Twin Trigger 20, its latest design for
installing ¼- to ½-inch engineered and
laminate tongue-and-groove flooring. This
20-gauge flooring stapler offers a dual
trigger for optimum comfort and precision, the company says.
Model 470 Portamatic ® Hammerhead® TL
Circle 179
Your Pro Grade One Source for all
your flooring cleats, staples and
Hammerhead ® hardwood floor nailers.
1.800.634.9281
www.porta-nails.com
Circle 56
Powernail Company
Whether pneumatic, manual or manual ratchet, the
Powernail Company manufactures the proper tool for
almost all types of wood flooring products, it says. Solid
wood floors in the standard ¾- to 33⁄32-inch thicknesses
utilize the 45 (manual), 45R (manual ratchet) or the
445 (pneumatic) wood flooring nailers. Powernail’s
Powercleats in lengths of 2, 1¾ and 1½ inches work
to eliminate squeaks, the company adds.
Circle 180
Sanding Equipment
BonaKemi USA Inc.
BonaKemi USA now
features its Bona
Atomic PDC (portable dust containment) and Bona
Edge, which offers
a reduced sanding
arm but maintains the ergonomics and feel of a
traditional edger. Both are Greenguard-certified
for indoor air quality.
Circle 181
Cherryhill Manufacturing
Corporation
The U-Sand Pro weighs 40 pounds
less than the original U-Sand and is
more aggressive. Utilizing Cherryhill
Manufacturing Corporation’s patented
four-pad, random-orbital design, the
U-Sand Pro will not damage the floor,
the company says. Working as a sander,
edger and buffer, it provides a single,
user-friendly machine. The internal vacuum system allows for a virtually dust-free
environment, the company adds.
Ceno Group
The Ceno Group’s Satellite discs fit any
buffer, counter-rotate at 4 percent and
turn at 600 rpm. They remove chatter and edger marks and flatten the
floor three times faster than hardplating, all while sanding the floor to
a piano-top finish, the company says.
Satellite discs reduce edging time by
50 to 70 percent, and they won’t remove spring wood, the company adds.
Circle 182
Clarke American Sanders
The Floor Abrader is designed to microabrade factory-finished and site-installed floors. Its cylindrical brushes allow
abrasion with or against the pattern grain
of the floor, making it ideal for parquet,
herringbone, distressed and hand-scraped
flooring. The multiple brush grits allow
for various applications, including abrading between coats during site-finished
applications.
Circle 184
Circle 183
Galaxy Sanding Machines
CDCLarue
Industries Inc.
CDCLarue Industries’
Pulse-Bac is designed
to never clog. Its fully
automatic vacuum filtration system prevents filters
from clogging by flushing
them clear of dust and
debris, using only ambient air and vacuum. There
are no blowers, shakers or buttons to push.
Breaking the traditional mold of a belt
sander being only a finishing machine,
Galaxy’s Omega 8 combines power and
refinement, the company says. With an
optimum balance of drum speed and
pressure plus the company’s patented belt-tension mechanism,
Omega 8 delivers optimum
performance every time, the
company adds.
Circle 185
Circle 167
National Hardwood Flooring
and Moulding
National Hardwood carries
sanding machines and supplies
for a wide range of sanding
jobs. Its Target Tools 3.5-hp
high-speed sanding machine
gets the job done quickly and
efficiently, the company says,
adding that its built-in vacuum
system traps shavings to ensure
a safe and clean work environment.
Circle 186
Oneida Vac Systems
The Oneida Vortex DCS
Dust Containment Systems capture dust at the
source for the cleanest
dustless sanding possible, the company says.
Its patented cyclone
technology captures the
dust at the sander and
eliminates blowout, and
the included HEPA filters further capture the fine
particles.
Circle 187
Sanding Equipment
Palo Duro Hardwood Floors
Palo Duro offers the Lägler Hummel,
one of the best known machines in
the world with long-life technology
for sanding quality, the company says,
adding that the machine is economical. The belt can be changed in
seconds, and Hummel has a safe and
sturdy design, the company adds.
Circle 188
Powr-Flite
The all new Powr-Flite BlackMax floor machine
is an easy-to-use and durable floor machine,
the company says. The one-piece roto-molded
polyethylene housing is virtually indestructible,
and the “no-riser” design features a low
center of gravity for improved control and
maneuverability.
Circle 189
US Sander
US Sander’s Diamond Jet dust
vacuum system utilizes four
300-cfm, 220-volt vacuum motors
to create over 400 cfm at 110
inches of waterlift at its 4-inch
output, the company says, adding
that it can be hooked up to three
machines and outdraw them all
with 50 feet of hose. The vacuum
goes inside, with sanding dust being caught in the 30-gallon plastic
bag inside the cyclone.
Circle 190
Woodwise/Design
Hardwood Products
Woodwise Dust Collection Bags are made from
12-ounce brushed denim
for maximum durability,
the company says. All sewn
edges are finished for added
strength and to prevent
raveling. The bags open
wide for easy emptying, and
hemmed drawstrings ensure complete closure. The bags
are available in large-sander, large-edger and doublebottom-edger sizes.
Circle 191
Circle 57
Other
3M
3M 7500 Series respirators are designed to maximize user comfort. The
advanced silicon material
in the face piece provides
a soft, comfortable fit,
the company says, adding that the patented 3M
Cool Flow valve helps
make breathing easier and
reduces heat and moisture buildup.
Circle 192
BonaKemi USA Inc.
BonaKemi offers the Bona
Microfiber Mop for cleaning the
job site. When used dry it picks
up loose dust particles before
sealing or staining a sanded
floor. It can also be used to wettack between coats of finish.
The Bona Microfiber Cleaning
Pad is washable for more than
300 uses.
Circle 193
Covermaster Inc.
Covermate II by Covermaster is engineered to
provide floor protection
and safety in floor cover
handling. Fitted with six
offset, nonmarking main
casters, Covermate II
reduces point loads by as
much as 33 percent compared with other models, the
company says.
Circle 194
Circle 58
Other
Easy Groove Tooling
Festool
Easy Groove router bits have
become standard for job-sitecreated tongue-and-groove floor
joints, the company says. The
top-bearing design allows users to
rout grooves in flooring that has
already been laid. The bits feature C-2 carbide tips, heattreated shanks, replaceable cutter heads and a tough
plastic container.
The Festool TS 75 and TS 55
plunge-cut saws have cabinet-saw
precision, panel-saw functionality
and portable-saw versatility for a
single job-site solution, the company says. The included guide rail
system and splinterguard make
straight, splinter-free, glue-ready
cuts, and the plunge action with precision depth adjustment facilitates installation and repairs.
Circle 195
Circle 196
Glitsa American Inc.
Hardwood Industry Products
Glitsa’s Tack Mop, designed for
professional flooring contractors, features a telescopic, stainless steel pole
with locking mechanism and grip.
Wet and dry reusable, microfiber
pads attach to the angled, swivelmotion head. Tacking floors provides
a flawless finish. Safeglides floor protectors, featuring a
tap-in nickel-plated rivet, prevent furniture from scratching floors.
Hardwood Industry Products offers hand-scrapers
that are heavy duty and
made to last a lifetime,
the company says. The
scrapers are designed for
hand-distressing solid or engineered flooring and feature a specially designed hook blade that cuts scraping
time in half, the company adds.
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Circle 198
Exotic Stair-Parts & Flooring
Treads Risers Nosing Moldings
Unfinished Solid Flooring
Eng./ Prefinished Flooring
Eng./ Unfinished Plank Flooring
Angelim Pedra
Cumaru
Garapa/Garapeira
Tamarindo (Br. Rosew.)
Tigerwood
Jatoba (Braz. Cherry)
Ipé (Braz. Walnut)
Moabi
Tatajuba
Timborana
Chestnut
Specialists Inc.
Wideboard/Plank Antique
Flooring Remilled From
Reclaimed Antique Lumber
Hand Hewn Barn Beams
Weathered Barnsiding
Chestnut-Oak-Pine
Dave Wasley
860-283-4209
(Additional species available - please inquire)
“Your Source for Antique Floors of Distinction”
Most items are in stock for next-day shipment!
Very competitive prices High-quality products
Please inquire for details & species availability
chestnutspec.com
Ph: 1-866-605-7271 (toll free)
Fx: 253-437-4065
email: [email protected]
www.franwoodfloors.com
Circle 59
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Other
Micrographic Innovations
Jungle Jim Tools
Jungle Jim Tools has reintroduced its 9-by-2½-inch Cobra
Scraper in bamboo. This
version has the same quality
features as the original Cobra
with a new look and feel.
Circle 199
Mercer Abrasives
Mercer’s hand-scrapers add the
finishing touch to hardwood
flooring jobs. Available in 11
inches with either rubber-molded
or premium hardwood handles,
these scrapers feature blades in
1, 1½ and 2 inches, with refills.
Circle 201
MicroGraphic Innovations provides a system for addressing dings
and gouges in hardwoods and
laminates. Putty Buddy is a colorant
system for achieving background
matches. PBShade and PBGrain balance the background color and add
fine-line graphics.
Circle 200
National Hardwood
Flooring and Moulding
National Hardwood stocks the Target
Tools brand of miter and table saws,
which cut down on clutter by combining two saws into one. National
also carries 8¼-, 10- and 12-inch miter
saws with laser guides for precise
cutting.
Circle 202
EXCELLENT GREEN WOOD CARE
HAS A NEW NAME...WOCA!
“For a hard wearing natural
looking floor, WOCA Oil Finish
is the answer. Many colors can
be achieved using this very green
floor finish and I will stake my
company and reputation on
this product.”
Sprigg Lynn, President
Universal Floors
Washington, DC
The leader in organic hardening oil finishes
introduces its VOC-free oil and polishing pads
for single coat application. DISTRIBUTORS WANTED!
WoodCareUSA LLC
800-242-8160
www.woodcareusa.com
Circle 61
Circle 62
Other
Powr-Flite
Porta-Nails Inc.
Porta-Nails offers its PortaJackPro floor tightening jack. The
PortaJack-Pro is designed to
hold flooring strips and keep
them in place for nailing. It
can also straighten crooked or
bowed flooring strips. The jack
provides more than a ton of force
and gives the hold necessary to free the
installer’s hands for nailing.
All of Powr-Flite’s safety
glasses meet ANSI “high
impact” standards and are
designed for a long wearing, comfortable fit. Options
include sunglasses, highstyle or economically priced
glasses.
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Circle 203
Woodwise/Design
Hardwood Products
ProKnee Corp.
ProKnee is an original design
that combines weight distribution, correct strap placement,
knee pocket shape and fulllength custom laminated foam
inserts into four layers of lightweight, heavy-duty, custom-fitted
construction, the company says.
Circle 205
While Design Hardwood Products
is known for its wood fillers and
cleaners, it also carries tools and
supplies developed specifically
for hardwood flooring professionals. They include the V-Groove
Scraper, Nosing Scraper, Sharpening File, Nail Set, Paper Retention
Bolt, Smooth-Edge Finishing Trowels and more.
Circle 206
A healthier floor…
Hardwood flooring reduces dust and other
allergens promoting a healthier living environment.
At Taylor Lumber, we produce all of our lumber from the
highest grade Appalachian forest logs, which are known
for their clarity and excellent grain. These logs allow us to
produce the highly sought after Rift & Quarter Sawn
lumber. Flooring is available in the following species:
• White Oak • Red Oak • Maple
• Walnut • Cherry • Ash • Hickory (Plain Sawn only)
800.296.6223 • www.taylorlumberinc.com
Circle 63
HARDWOOD
FLOORING
Any length,
any width,
any specie
Milled to spec for...
• Floors
• Feature Strips
• Transitions
• Nosing
• Stair Parts
FREE • Bases
Lumber
• Mouldings
Catalog!
Call for a FAST,
FREE QUOTE
232 Ferris Avenue, White Plains, NY 10603
Phone: (914) 946-4111 • Fax: (914) 946-3779
Circle 64
Product Focus | Imported Wood Flooring
Special Advertising Section
I
mported wood flooring is hot, and it’s available in more species and types of products than
ever before. Take a look at the following pages for a snapshot of what’s offered by these companies—all 1⁄2-page or larger advertisers in this issue. For more information, use the reply cards
located next to pages 10 and 106.
Ancestral Floors
BR-111 Imports & Exports Inc.
Using its “Eko-Shield” process, Ancestral Floors offers
durable, designer-inspired,
high-quality, organic, preoiled hardwood flooring
in multiple species that are
eco-friendly and easy to
maintain and restore, the
company says. Ancestral
floors are warranted for application over radiant heat,
can be directly glued to
concrete slabs and are appropriate for commercial and residential applications.
BR-111 says
it is the largest supplier of
exotic hardwood
flooring, offering
25 exotic species
in seven product
lines. Ranging
from prefinished solids to
engineered flooring, BR-111 says it can meet the
demands and budget of any homeowner looking
to make the floor a focal point while adding an
ultimate sense of fashion.
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Circle 231
Brazilian Direct Ltd.
Canterbury Flooring
Brazilian Direct specializes in solid ¾-inch
clear-grade hardwood
flooring from Brazil.
The company’s products feature matte
finishes and randomlength boards from 1 to
7 feet. Species include
Brazilian cherry (jatoba), santos mahogany (cabreuva),
Brazilian walnut (ipé), Brazilian teak (cumaru), Brazilian
koa (tigerwood), Bolivian rosewood (tiete), amendoim
and Patagonian rosewood (curupay).
Circle 232
D & M Flooring LLC
D & M’s EcoWood bamboo flooring is a green,
renewable and sustainable
material, the company says.
The classic solid bamboo
series includes prefinished,
unfinished and stained
bamboo, and together with
the extremely durable stranded bamboo, this series offers
different grains, sizes and colors to fit any décor, either
residential or commercial, the company adds.
Circle 234
Canterbury says
it takes a different approach to
imported flooring:
The company imports raw lumber
and mills it to
custom specifications. Rather than
offering the typical dimensions such as 3-, 4- and
5-inch widths and 1- to 7-foot lengths, Canterbury
routinely mills imported species up to 8 inches
wide and up to 12 feet long.
Circle 233
Dean Hardwoods Inc.
Dean Hardwoods’ flooring
features a wide range of colors,
interesting exotic figure patterns, and exceptional hardness and stability, the company
says. Afrormosia (pictured) is
the flagship of Dean’s Prestige
Hardwood Flooring line; it is 20
percent harder than oak, with
50 percent less movement once
installed, the company notes.
Circle 235
Elegance Exotic Wood Flooring
Elegance Exotic Wood
Flooring offers a large
variety of exotic solid and
engineered hardwood
flooring in a broad range
of widths and finishes. The
company recently expanded its line to include five
colors of rustic distressed
products in both solid and
engineered.
Circle 236
The Garrison Collection
The Garrison Collection engineered hardwood flooring offers a
variety of exotics prefinished and, now, unfinished. Available are
Garrison II distressed
and prefinished Brazilian cherry and santos
mahogany, and Contractor’s Choice unfinished
Brazilian cherry, tigerwood, santos mahogany and
wenge. The floors feature 4- to 5-mm wear layers.
Circle 237
Johnson Premium
Hardwood Flooring
Johnson Premium manufactures premiumquality solid
and engineered
exotic species,
the company
says, including
Brazilian cherry,
Brazilian maple,
Brazilian oak, Brazilian walnut, Brazilian teak,
Chinese maple, grapia, kempas, merbau, Patagonian rosewood, santos mahogany, lavawood and sapele.
Mercier Wood Flooring Inc.
Mercier offers a wide
variety of exotic species
from Brazil in various
widths, including up to
5 inches for Brazilian
cherry and santos mahogany. The collection
also includes Brazilian
hickory, Brazilian oak,
Brazilian teak, purpleheart, tamarindo, royal mahogany, tigerwood, bloodwood and Brazilian maple.
Circle 239
Circle 238
Owens Flooring Company
Nikzad Flooring
Owens is announcing the
return of Monogram XL Continuous Strip flooring from
Prolinea. Industry veterans will
remember prefinished Monogram for its custom, sandedon-site appearance, the company says. Owens now offers
this product to its distributors
alongside its own engineered
brands of Plankfloor and Owens Select.
Nikzad Flooring provides premium handcrafted wood flooring
for luxury homes,
hotels and retail spaces,
it says. The company
imports fine-quality
French white oak,
which is distressed and
antiqued by hand with
custom oils and waxes to provide a timeless aged patina. Several grains and finishes are available.
Circle 240
Circle 241
AdIndex
For more information on an advertiser, use the reply cards next to page 10 and this page.
Company
Page
Company
Page
3M .......................................................................................2
M.L. Condon Co. Inc. ..................................Circle 64 ......104
Ace Hardwood Flooring Inc. ........................Circle 20 ........41
Mercer Abrasives, div. of Mercer Tool Corp.....Circle 5 ..........11
All American Wood Register Co. ...................Circle 49 ........71
Mercier Wood Flooring Inc...........................Circle 36 ........66
Allwoods Hardwood Flooring/
Chess Floors ............................................Circle 52 ........94
Mr. Hardwoods Inc.......................................Circle 67 ........92
Ancestral Floors...........................................Circle 32 ........59
Anderson Hardwood Floors .........................Circle 9 ..........22
Appalachian Lumber Co. Inc. .......................Circle 57 ......100
Baker’s Creek Wood Floors...........................Circle 18 ........39
Murphy Oil Soap ........................................Circle 17 ........37
National Hardwood Flooring & Moulding ....Circle 70 ......110
Nikzad Hardwood ......................................Circle 10 ........25
Norton Abrasives ........................................Circle 8 ..........21
NWFA ........................................................Circle 21 ........43
BASF Construction Chemicals LLCBuilding Systems......................................Circle 30 ........55
NWFA ........................................................Circle 50 ........91
BonaKemi USA Inc. .....................................Circle 1 ............3
NWFA ........................................................Circle 65 ......115
Bostik Inc....................................................Circle 73 ......119
Oneida Air Systems ......................................Circle 58 ......101
BR-111 Imports & Exports Inc......................Circle 11 ........27
Brazilian Direct Ltd. .....................................Circle 37 ........90
Canterbury Flooring ....................................Circle 34 ........63
Chestnut Specialists Inc. ..............................Circle 60 ......102
Clarke American Sanders..............................Circle 27 ........51
Clear Lake Lumber.......................................Circle 25 ........48
D & M Flooring LLC.....................................Circle 46 ........61
Dean Hardwoods Inc. ..................................Circle 4 ............9
Delmhorst Instrument Co. ...........................Circle 42 ........83
Dura Seal.....................................................Circle 2 ............4
Elegance Exotic Wood Flooring ....................Circle 47 ........87
Engineered Flooring Manufacturers LLC .......Circle 51 ........84
Owens Flooring Company ..........................Circle 13 ........30
Palo Duro Hardwoods Inc. ..........................Circle 6 ..........13
Panel Town & Floors....................................Circle 71 ......116
Porta-Nails Inc. ............................................Circle 56 ........98
Powr-Flite, A Tacony Company ....................Circle 43 ........81
Premiere Finishing & Coating LLC ................Circle 45 ........79
Progressive Finishing ..................................Circle 19 ........40
ProKnee Corp. ............................................Circle 53 ........94
ProTeam Inc. ..............................................Circle 28 ........52
Real Wood Floors ........................................Circle 35 ........65
Robinson Lumber & Flooring ......................Circle 22 ........44
Shamrock Plank Flooring ............................Circle 16 ........35
Festool ........................................................Circle 31 ........57
Sheoga Hardwood Flooring &
Paneling Inc.............................................Circle 7 ..........15
Floor Style Products Inc. ..............................Circle 66 ......108
Sika Corporation..........................................Circle 38 ........73
Franwood International Inc..........................Circle 59 ......102
Super Thin Saws Inc.....................................Circle 80 ......114
Galaxy Floor Sanding Machines....................Circle 24 ........28
Synthetic Surfaces Inc. ................................Circle 14 ........31
Garrison Collection, The..............................Circle 15 ........33
Taylor Lumber Inc./Sunshine Flooring ..........Circle 63 ......104
Glitsa American Inc......................................Circle 3 ............7
Timbermate USA Inc. ..................................Circle 39 ........75
Grizzly Forest Products ................................Circle 44 ........81
U.S. Sander LLC............................................Circle 72 ......117
Hardwood Flooring Center ..........................Circle 69 ......112
VerMeister ..................................................Circle 33 ........46
Hardwood Flooring Summit.........................Circle 29 ........53
W.D. Flooring ..............................................Circle 74 ......120
Horizon Forest Products ..............................Circle 68 ......109
Waterlox Coatings Corp...............................Circle 26 ........49
Johnson Premium Hardwood Flooring .........Circle 23 ........45
Weyerhaeuser Company ..............................Circle 48 ........89
Kleiberit Adhesives ......................................Circle 55 ........97
WoodCareUSA LLC ......................................Circle 62 ......103
L & L Hardwoods.........................................Circle 61 ......103
Woods Company Inc., The ..........................Circle 41 ........83
Lignomat USA Ltd........................................Circle 54 ........96
Woodwise/Design Hardwood Products ........Circle 40 ........77
Real Wood Floors
Real Wood Floors manufactures engineered unfinished
flooring in santos mahogany,
tigerwood and jatoba. The
products are 5⁄8 inch thick
with a 3⁄16-inch wear layer
and come packaged in 1- to
7-foot random lengths with a
4-foot average length.
Circle 242
Robinson Lumber & Flooring
Robinson G5 Sure-Loc is a precisionengineered hardwood flooring
system made with the same premium
hardwoods as the company’s solid
hardwood flooring. The versatile G5
Sure-Loc System allows installation
by floating, gluing or stapling; the
installer can simply “Loc” the planks
together, the company says. The
flooring has lengths up to 7 feet and longer.
Circle 243
Sheoga Hardwood Flooring &
Paneling Inc.
Weyerhaeuser Company
Jatoba, also known as
Brazilian cherry, is native
to Brazil and is the most
dense hardwood flooring offered by Sheoga.
Sheoga offers the species in widths of 2¼, 3¼,
4¼ and 5¼ inches and
wider upon request. The thickness is ¾-inch solid, with
random lengths up to 8 feet and longer by request. It is
available prefinished or unfinished.
Lyptus solid and engineered flooring is harder than oak and less expensive than cherry, Weyerhaeuser
says, adding that it is also elegant,
durable and eco-friendly. The flooring is available in six unfinished or
prefinished colors. It has tongueand-groove construction and
natural hardness, and its low VOCs
make it a healthy choice, as well, the company notes.
Circle 244
Circle 245
™
More than 1,000 items for
hardwood flooring can be
ordered online at
www.floorstyle.com
FLOOR STYLE®
1-800-767-8953
Nevada/California
Home Show
Oct. 6, 2008
12 pm to 8 pm
Sparks, NV
Stop spending money
on gas when you can
get it at Floor Style
Michigan-area
Home Show
Sept. 15, 2008
12 pm to 8 pm
Hastings, MI
in at your nearest home show!
Florida Home Show
Sept. 22, 2008
12 pm to 8 pm
Dania Beach, FL
Circle 66
Baltimore-area
Home Show
Sept. 29, 2008
12 pm to 8 pm
Rosedale, MD
QUALITY DOESN’T COST
QUALITY PAYS
RAW MATERIAL
LUMBER PLANK
MILLING MACHINE
WE CONTROL THE
ENTIRE PROCESS
FROM START TO FINISH
FINISHED FLOORING
14937 CALVERT ST. • VAN NUYS, CA • 91411 • 818-988-9663 • 818-988-4955
VISIT US ON THE WEB AT: WWW.NATIONALHARDWOOD.COM
IndustryNews
Notes
Anderson Enters
Chinese Market
nderson Hardwood Floors
(Clinton, S.C.) has signed a
licensing and partnership agreement
with one of its former suppliers,
Power Dekor (Shanghai, China),
which has nearly 2,000 floor covering stores across China. Together the
companies will offer a “good, better,
best” program. The “good” will be the
traditional Chinese-styled flooring that
Power Dekor currently produces, the
“better” will be products Anderson
will help Power Dekor design and
manufacture, and the “best” products
will be 20 styles Anderson will import
into China and sell through the Power Dekor stores. “We had an interest
in the Chinese market because there’s
quite a growing market over there.
We actually came close to building a
plant, and decided we would not do
that,” said Don Finkell, president and
CEO of Anderson Floors, adding that
Anderson has stringent quality control
at the Power Dekor plants as well as
personnel monitoring raw materials
to make sure they aren’t from illegal
sources. Finkell said the 500 stores
carrying the brands should be fully
stocked by the middle of the summer.
A
H.I.G. Capital
Buys Linden
rivate equity firm H.I.G. Capital
(Miami) acquired Linden Lumber Company Ltd. (Linden, Ala.) on
April 9 for an undisclosed price. Linden manufactures red oak, white oak
and ash flooring under its Red Crown
brand. This acquisition of Linden
is the fourth such move for H.I.G.,
which has also acquired Rossi American Hardwoods, Hardwood Lumber
Manufacturing and Augusta Lumber,
forming American Hardwood Industries. Linden Lumber’s day-to-day
operations will continue to be run by
its president, Hugh Overmyer.
P
Manufacturer News
Armstrong World Industries Inc. (Lancaster, Pa.) wood flooring net sales in
the first quarter of 2008 declined 20 percent compared with the same quarter
in 2007, from $199.2 million in 2007 to $160.3 million in 2008. The company
attributed the decrease to the slump in residential housing. Overall, Armstrong
World Industries Inc. reported first quarter 2008 net sales of $828.2 million, down
4 percent from $863.4 million in the same period for 2007.
Lumber Liquidators’ (Toano, Va.) net sales increased 24.5 percent to $114.5
million in the first quarter of 2008 from $92.0 million in the first quarter of 2007.
The company opened nine new stores during the first quarter of 2008. Comparable store net sales increased 7 percent for the quarter.
Wolfgang Stauf, president of Stauf Adhesives (Siegen, Germany), has moved
to the U.S. to expand the Stauf-USA Adhesive LLC (Memphis, Tenn.) division.
The U.S. division has reported the greatest growth of all of Stauf’s business units
within the past five years, the company says.
A new company, From the Forest LLC (Weston, Wis.), has opened. It produces
private-label prefinished and unfinished engineered wood flooring. Founder of
Award Flooring, Tryggvi Magnusson, serves as president of the company. For
more information, contact [email protected] or call 715/359-2627.
Arte Flooring (Ripon, Quebec) has acquired the flooring assets of Robert
Ribeyron Lte. (Ripon, Quebec).
DuChateau Floors (Stratham, N.H.) has launched operations in North America.
The company manufactures distressed, aged and treated engineered wide plank
flooring designed to replicate historical European floors. For more information,
contact Erica Cottrill at 770/528-6097 or [email protected].
Virginia Abrasives (Petersburg, Va.) has acquired the marble and diamond-cutting product lines from Smithton Diamond Products (Hemet, Calif.), a privatelabel manufacturer and distributor, for an undisclosed price.
Clear Lake Lumber (Spartansburg, Pa.) has created a new flooring division,
Clear Lake Living, which services the independent dealer.
Sean Stewart, fomerly of Ochoco-International LLC, has started stewartfloor llc
(Chicago), an exotic wood flooring importing company selling to U.S. distributors. Stewartfloor has inventories located in Baltimore, Chicago and Oakland,
Calif., as well as prefinished inventories in North Carolina. For more information,
visit www.stewartfloor.com or call 866/780-7839.
Distributor News
Lanham Hardwood Flooring Co. (Louisville, Ky.) has acquired American
Products of Kentucky (Louisville, Ky.) for an undisclosed price. American
Products of Kentucky will be rolled into Lanham Hardwood Flooring’s warehouse
at 4121 Bishop Lane, Louisville, KY 40218. This acquisition is in no way associated with American Products Inc. (Pineville, N.C.).
Arborcraft Floors (Johnson City, Tenn.), the parent company of the Harris Wood brand, has selected Design Flooring Distributors Inc. (Pompano
Beach, Fla.) for distribution in Florida.
Pacific Floor Products (Eugene, Ore.) has added Beavertooth Oak (Medford,
Ore.) and Old Master Products Inc. (Van Nuys, Calif.) as distributors for Wearmax water-based finishes.
Lauzon Distinctive Hardwood Flooring (Papineauville, Quebec) has selected
Patriot Flooring Supply Inc. (Pompton Plains, N.J.) as its distributor for New
Industry News | Notes
York City, Long Island, Connecticut
and the northern half of New Jersey
down to Mercer and Monmouth
counties.
distribution partnership with Mohawk
Industries (Dalton, Ga.), which will
distribute Eterna wood flooring in the
mid-Atlantic and New England regions.
Parquets Dubeau Ltd., a division of
Lauzon International Inc. (Papineauville, Quebec), has formed a
Schafer Hardwood Flooring
Company (Tecumseh, Mich.) has
announced that Columbia River
Hardwoods (Vancouver, Wash.) is its
exclusive distributor of the company’s
solid hardwood flooring to Alaska,
Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana,
Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and Northern
California.
Samy Santa Flooring Depot (Duluth,
Ga.) has been selected as a Southeast
distributor for Owens Flooring Company (Shawano, Wis.) and PoloPlaz
(Jacksonville, Ark.).
Start ’N Finish Hardwood Floors
(Weddington, N.C) has selected Tom
Duffy Company (Fairfield, Calif.) as a
distributor.
1-800-669-4621
ONE OF THE
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IN THE SOUTHEAST
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⁄8 • 1⁄2 x 21⁄4 • 3 — RED OAK • WHITE OAK
UNFINISHED • PREFINISHED
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EXCELLENT PRICES
QUICK SHIP:
OUR TRUCK OR
MOTOR FREIGHT
4125 HIGHWAY 70 WEST
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828-322-9404
FAX 828-322-2202
Circle 69
The Wood Cellar Ltd. (Melbourne,
Fla.) has named Allstate Flooring
Distributors (Clifton, N.J.) its exclusive
distributor for the New Jersey, New
York and Connecticut areas for Wood
Cellar’s Relica and Arbor Creek lines of
engineered wood flooring. The company is also seeking other distributors.
GYM FLOORS
FACTORIES
COMMERCIAL
RESIDENTIAL
Baker’s Creek (Jackson, Miss.) has
opened a new manufacturing facility
located at 1245 Adams Lane, Edwards,
MS 39066. The phone number is
601/326-3130.
Ark Floors (Irwindale, Calif.) has
moved into a new 70,000-square-foot
facility located at 10775 Lower Azusa
Road, El Monte, CA 91731.
UA Wood Floors (Douliou City,
Taiwan) has opened a sales office
located at 501 Service Road, Suite
4, Lancaster, PA 17601. The office is managed by Tom Dux and
Chris Fisher. They can be contacted at 877/519-2723 or by fax at
770/234-6219.
Corrections
The flooring installation company for
the April/May 2008 Showcase, “The
Right Tone” should have been listed
as Barwood Flooring (Toronto).
The manufacturer of the finish used
in the April/May 2008 “Memphis
Ménage” should have been listed as
Dura Seal (Upper Saddle River, N.J.).
Industry News | People
Manufacturers
reached at 425/614-4600, ext. 208.
Mannington Mills (Salem, N.J.) has named Zach Zehner
vice president of commercial hard surfaces. Zehner has
been with Mannington’s residential division since 2003.
Premier Flooring Solutions (Anaheim, Calif.) has hired
Stephen Stewart as territory sales representative. His territory includes Northern California from Santa Cruz to San
Francisco. Stewart previously owned and managed a retail
business in San Leandro, Calif.
Shamrock Plank Flooring (Memphis, Tenn.) has named
James (Jim) R. Lennon director of flooring sales in the
Shamrock Plank Flooring Division. Lennon was previously
at Armstrong World Industries for 13 years, including his
position as national accounts field sales manager. Lennon
can be reached at 800/473-3765, ext. 1110.
Cikel North America (Greensboro, N.C.) has added three
members to its staff: Gerry Schappell as vice president,
George Celtrick as director of sales and Jason Ranney
as operation manager. Celtrick most recently worked at
Austin Hardwood Flooring, and Ranney and Schappell
formerly worked at Hoboken Floors.
Nydree Group (Forest, Va.), the parent company of
Gammapar and PermaGrain, has named Sean McConnell
vice president, national accounts. McConnell most recently
served as president of Dynamic Floor Solutions.
BonaKemi USA Inc. (Aurora, Colo.) has appointed John
Rauvola managing director. Rauvola has been with the
company since May 2007 and will continue his roles in
sales and marketing for North America and as a member of
the Global Management Team. The company has also appointed Tom McNeil national retail/distribution manager
for the U.S. and Canada. McNeil previously worked for
Saint-Gobain Abrasives Inc.
Bostik Inc. (Middleton, Mass.) has promoted Richard A.
D’Autilio to general manager of the construction and distribution division. He formerly served as director of sales
and marketing.
Loba-Wakol LLC (Kannapolis, N.C.) has appointed Don
Jewell technical sales manager of its wood floor finishes
and adhesives. Jewell managed his own installation company in Minnesota for the past 10 years.
Mohawk Industries (Dalton, Ga.) has appointed Dave
Slough general manager for the Northeast and Paul Armstrong wood specialist for the Northeast and mid-central
regions.
US Plank Flooring (West Portsmouth, Ohio) has added
Clark Delabar to its sales team. Delabar has worked
with US Plank for two years as lumber buyer. He may
be reached by cell at 740/505-7686, at the office at
877/297-5265, ext. 26, or at [email protected].
The company has also added James Gerlach to its sales
team. Gerlach previously worked for Columbus Wood
Products. He covers the Columbus, Ohio, area and can be
reached at 614/402-0530.
Ochoco International (Bellevue, Wash.) has hired Jeff
Mills as account manager, flooring sales. Mills can be
Clarke American Sanders (Springdale, Ark.) has hired
Rob Clements as a project engineer. He previously
worked at Zeus Engineering and Consumer Testing
Laboratories.
Vecoplan LLC (High Point, N.C.) has named Jeffery
Queen director of finance.
Distributors
Philadelphia Floor Store Inc. (Conshohocken, Pa.) has
appointed Larry Smith territory manager for northeastern
Pennsylvania and three counties in New Jersey, including Hunterdon, Warren and Sussex. He can be reached at
215/651-8302 or by e-mail at [email protected].
Golden State Flooring (South San Francisco, Calif.)
has named Allen Smith general manager of its Santa Fe
Springs facility. Smith previously worked for the Roane
company. He can be contacted at 562/903-2917; by cell
at 562/640-0655; or by e-mail at [email protected].
Synteko Floor Finishes (Troy, Mich.) has added five
manufacturer representatives: Joe Valenza of JOVA Sales
(Mattawan, N.J.) covers New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New
York and Connecticut and can be contacted at valenza@
jovasales.com or 201/725-8758; Kyle Terral of Terral
Marketing Inc. (Texarkana, Texas) covers eastern Texas,
Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and western Tennessee and can be contacted at [email protected] or
501/258-2687; Scott Taylor covers Minnesota, Wisconsin,
Iowa and Illinois and can be reached at sjtaykor12@yahoo.
com or 414/405-2489. Dayle Moore of Moore Sales Co.
covers Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma and can
be contacted at [email protected] or 913/239-8558;
and Cort Dunlap of Hardwood Specialties (Seattle)
covers Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana and can
be reached at [email protected] or 206/331-8360.
SeaPort Hardwoods & Flooring (Clackamas, Ore.) has
added Ted Gilb to its sales staff. Gilb has 14 years’ experience in the industry and previously worked at Cascade
Pacific for 12 years.
Installers Warehouse (Rochester, N.Y.) has added Jerry
Rindell as territory manager for Rochester and Buffalo,
N.Y. He can be reached at 585/224-1402, 585/329-1046 or
at [email protected]. Rindell previously worked for Hoboken Floors. The company has also added James Patton as
warehouse manager.
Industry News | Products
1 Stauf-USA Adhesive LLC has released two new polymer
adhesives: SMP-960 and 940 MS. These products provide
green strength, easy spreading and cleanup, immediate installation and environmental compliance, the company says.
Both products are moisture-cure and contain no water, isocyanates, solvents or VOCs.
Circle 210
1
2
Harris Wood, an ArborCraft brand, is now available in
Hamptons ColorCraft, gently hand-scraped hardwood plank
flooring. The Hamptons line features an antiqued timeworn
painted appearance of yesteryear, the company says. It’s
available in maple and walnut.
Circle 211
2
3 Sonolam has developed Contack, an underlayment
3
that makes it possible to secure solid hardwood flooring
to concrete. It consists of 5⁄8-inch-thick polyethylene foam
with steel-encased wood nailing strips positioned every 10
inches for firmly affixing hardwood to concrete. Additionally,
Contack consists of 100 percent recyclable materials.
Circle 212
Save Your Issues
SUPER THIN SAWS
If you buy wood, WE should talk!
1.704.799.0100
FAX 704.799.7400
[email protected]
www.weinigusa.com
IWF booth 8626
1.802.244.8101
FAX 802.244.8625
[email protected]
www.superthinsaws.com
IWF booth 9000
Come see
see 33 great
great companies
companies
Come
work together
together
work
Preserve, protect and organize your
Hardwood Floors back issues. Slipcases
are library quality. Constructed with heavy
bookbinder’s board and covered in a rich
maroon leatherette material. A gold label
with the Hardwood Floors logo is included.
WEINIG GROUP
GROUP
WEINIG
UPERT
THIN
HINS
SAWS
AWS
SSUPER
& YOU!
YOU!
&
Because yield, productivity & size
tolerances are ALL important to you!
One - $15 Three - $40 Six - $80
Add $3.50 per slipcase for P&H. USA orders only.
Send to: TNC Enterprises Dept. HF
P.O. Box 2475, Warminster, PA 18974
Enclose name, address and payment
with your order. (No P.O. boxes please) PA
residents add 6% sales tax. You can even
call 215-674-8476 to order by phone.
Credit Card Orders:
Visa, MC, AmEx accepted. Send name,
card number, exp. date and signature.
To Order Online:
www.tncenterprises.net/hf
Circle 80
Industry News | Products
4
Torlys Inc. now produces TerraWood, a cork engineered
flooring line. TerraWood comes with acoustical and insulating cork backing, which means it doesn’t require an underlayment when installed.
Circle 213
5 Capri Cork has added three products to its Eco-Clicks
4
Collection prefinished engineered cork line: Jumble (pictured), Checker and Dark. The Eco-Clicks Collection comes
in 12-by-36-by-7⁄16-inch planks finished with water-based
matte polyurethane. The top layer of the flooring is from
the bark of a cork tree, which regenerates every seven to
nine years.
Circle 214
6
5
6
Pioneer Millworks has introduced an eco-friendly engineered flooring line. These products have either an FSCcertified fresh-sawn or 100 percent antique reclaimed wear
layer, and their platform is a 70 percent mix of FSC-certified
material with no added formaldehyde. The prefinished line
features oil-and-wax UV-cured finish made from all-natural
ingredients.
Circle 215
Circle 71
Industry News | Events
The Remodeling Show
International Builders’ Show
October 9-12 « Baltimore
January 20-23, 2009 « Las Vegas
For more information, call 800/681-6970 or visit www.
theremodelingshow.com.
For more information, call 202/266-8111 or visit www.
buildersshow.com.
2008 Australian Timber Flooring Expo
Surfaces 2009
October 9-10 « Melbourne, Australia
February 3-5, 2009 « Las Vegas
ATFE is the only hardwood-flooring-exclusive event held
in Australia. For more information, call 61-2-9744-5252,
e-mail [email protected] or visit www.australiantimberflooringexpo.com.au.
More than 34,540 floor covering professionals attended
the Surfaces show in Las Vegas in 2008. For more information, call 800/547-3477 or visit www.surfaces.com.
Greenbuild 2008
April 21-24, 2009 « Orlando, Fla.
November 19-21 « Boston
Coverings 2009 moves back to the Midwest at Chicago’s
McCormick Place. For more information, call 886/285-3691
or 703/683-8500, or visit www.coverings.com.
This conference serves as a tool for professionals in
the green building industry. For more information, call
202/742-3818 or visit www.greenbuildexpo.org.
Coverings 2009
Domotex 2009
24th Annual NWFA Education Conference
and 2009 Wood Flooring Expo
January 17-20, 2009 « Hannover, Germany
April 29-May 2, 2009 « Long Beach, Calif.
More than 47,000 floor covering professionals are expected to travel to Hannover. For more information, call
49-511-89-0 or visit www.domotex.de.
For more information, visit www.nwfa.org.
For a list of NWFA technical schools, see page 14.
Circle 72
WoodShowcase
A Taste
of
Europe
Hand-scraped floors
bring European style
to Chicago-area
home
Project Details
Location: Chicago
Wood Flooring: Walnut | Finish: Waterlox
Flooring Installation: Apex Wood Floors (Downers Grove, Ill.)
Medallion: Distinctive Hardwood Floors (Nashville, Ind.)
lthough this new upscale home is in the heart of the Midwest, it
looks as if it could be in the French countryside. The homeowners wanted to give this 10,000-square-foot estate, located in a prestigious Chicago suburb, a European
touch. Integral to this look is the more than 2,000 square feet of hand-scraped walnut plank flooring installed
by Apex Wood Floors.
While the floors may look European, all of the wood came from a local mill that Apex regularly uses to
create custom flooring. “The clients wanted a dark, handcrafted floor and really appreciated the grain and
character of the plainsawn walnut,” says John Lessick, Apex president. The clients also wanted a medallion in
the foyer to match the European design theme. Lessick enlisted the help of Dan Antes of Distinctive Hardwood Floors to create a square medallion hand-cut from plainsawn walnut, burl madrone, quartersawn sapele
and root walnut. In the family room, Apex continued the square design pattern by installing the hand-scraped
walnut in a Versailles pattern. The floors were finished with three coats of tung oil, completing the feel of a
European manor.—C.L.
A
Convenient New Packaging!
Bostik’s Best Wood Flooring Adhesive and MVP4
Moisture Vapor Protection products by Bostik are now
offered in convenient 1.5 gallon easy to open foil bags.
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
Each case contains 3 x 1.5 gallon foil bags
Each Unit weighs 57 lbs
36 Units per Pallet
Heavy Duty Reinforced Carton; may ship UPS/FEDEX
Dealer Friendly; sold by the each or by the case.
Extended shelf life - 2 years
Fast and easy to open; no tools required
No skinning
Reduced trash; cartons are reusable and may be recycled
Produce less refuse
Partially used pouches can be folded and stored for future use
No wasted product
For more information, contact Bostik’s Customer Service Department at 1-888-592-8558
Email us at [email protected] s Visit us at www.bostik-us.com
true
When a company lives by it, so do their products and their business
relationships. It’s what our more than 180 products represent in the
marketplace and it’s the way we do business.
W•D is proud to be a FSC Smartwood program certified company.
It reflects our past, present and future.
True.
© 2 0 0 7 W •D F L O O R I N G , L L C
W D FLO O R I N G.CO M

June|July 2008 - BOWE Client.com

Transcription

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