WOOD FLOOR D17/J18 Empowering Wood Flooring Professionals BUSINESS After the Flood

Preparing for Disaster Tool Reviews Surfaces Exhibitor Showcase

DJ18-Cover.indd 1 11/10/17 4:06 PM WF12_Osmo1217.indd 1 11/14/17 12:04 PM HF12_Woodwi1216.indd 1 11/29/16 7:14 AM Inside D 2017/J 2018 | v30.7 FEATURES 48 After the Flood By Andrew Averill Five wood fl oor pros who lived through this fall’s hurricanes share their stories. 13 YOUR BUSINESS 14 Live and Learn By Omer Katzir How our business survived a massive disaster. 17 Legal Brief By Roy Reichow and Blake Nelson If the fl oor was nailed right, how come it squeaks? 18 Retail Q&A By Andrew Averill ‘We want people to know we’re local, and we’re here “Our own wood fl ooring for them.’ 21 Management showroom here in By Joni Rocco Houston has been under Trust: putting it to work in your wood fl ooring business. water six times...” 24 ON THE JOB 40 27 Talking Shop WFB readers share: What career decision would they change? 28 From the Field By Michael Purser Why we’re never the last contractor on the job ON THE COVER: anymore. Schenck and Company Owner Greg Schenck stands with Builders West 32 Troubleshooting Inc. Project Manager Jim Lotspeich. By Carl Howard For more, see page 40. Photo: Steve Chenn What caused this blotchy Brazilian cherry? 34 Tool Time By Nate Sitz, David Merrill, Patrick Dymora Testing a track saw, orbital sander and work pants. PREMIUM PARTNERS: 37 Sponsored Content By Bona US New wood fl ooring colors for a new year. 40 Techniques By Greg Schenck How we handle fl ooded fl oors. 48 Sponsored Content By Fidbox LLC How technology is changing our industry.

4 ood Floor Business ■ December 2017|January 2018 www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com

DJ18-TOC.indd 4 11/20/17 6:17 PM Darkr Gray RuR sttic Beeige

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WF12_DurSea1217.indd 1 11/14/17 10:36 AM Inside D 2017/J 2018 | v30.7 IN EVERY ISSUE PRODUCT FOCUS 8 From the Editor 57 Unﬁ nished Domestic Wood 10 Woodworks Flooring 71 New Products 67 For Advertisers: 73 Ad Index Surfaces Exhibitor Showcase 74 End Grain 11 Online Stay informed and get involved via our online and social offerings As Seen on Social Media… WHEN YOU PLAY the game of seasonal shrinkage, you win or you die. That’s a little heavy, but that’s Game of Thrones’ Cersei Lannister for you. We pity the wood ﬂ oor contractor who gets a call back from her come winter. The most popular recent post on Wood Floor Business’ Facebook page used a Game of Thrones meme to promote one of our most popular stories—“How to Prevent Wood Floor Gaps in Winter.” We suggest you read it, lest you lose your local throne to a studious up- and-comer: wfbmag.co/PreventWinterGaps.

WFB by the Numbers Wood Floor Business spans print, digital and social media. Do you want to share your message with wood ﬂ ooring retailers, contractors, distributors and more? Find out how WFB can help: info.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com. 23,500 17,307 25,313 Audited Print Subscribers E-News Subscribers Social Media Connections

6 ood Floor Business ■ December 2017|January 2018 www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com

DJ18-TOC.indd 6 11/20/17 6:18 PM No call backs, no complaints. That’s why your competitor switched to Lacrosse Hardwood Flooring.

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WF12_LaCros1217.indd 1 11/13/17 9:33 AM FROM THE EDITOR Publication Staff EDITORIAL By Kim M. Wahlgren Kim M. Wahlgren | Editor Andrew Averill | Associate Editor Maribeth Fleischmann | Art Director Abolish this Marjorie Schultz | Digital Production Manager Scott Packel | Production Assistant

EDITORIAL AND ADVERTISING OFFICES | AB MEDIA INC. regret in 2018 22 E. Miffl in St., Suite 910 | Madison, WI 53703 (608) 249-0186 | (800) 722-8764 | F: (608) 249-1153 ’ve found many wood fl ooring pros end up in editors@woodfl oorbusiness.com | www.woodfl oorbusiness.com our industry unintentionally. In talking with Gretchen Kelsey Brown | CEO Ithem over the years, I’ve heard about pros having Peter Brown | President backgrounds from repairing nuclear submarines to creating prosthetic limbs to military special ops. One Shawn Gahagan | Group Publisher way or another, they all fell in love with working with Cooper Brown | Audience Development Coordinator wood. One background I have rarely heard, though, is, Jared Bruley | Marketing Director “I went to business school.” Pros in our industry often Jodi Chamberlain | Sales Coordinator bemoan the fact that they didn’t have any background Kate Rampone | Marketing Associate in running a business before they jumped into starting a Sean Ray | IT Manager company. In fact, that was an answer that came up more than once when we asked our followers on Facebook Erika Reise | Online Producer and Instagram about one decision they would change Sadye Ring | Graphic Designer in their career (see more responses in our Talking Shop Editorial Advisory Committee column on page 27). Fortunately, going to business school isn’t your one Howard Brickman | Brickman Consulting and only chance to develop the necessary skills for Stephen Diggins | Wood Pro Inc. running a business. Our contributors—wood fl ooring Enos Farnsworth | Denver Hardwood Company pros like you—have often shared their favorite business Tim McCool | The Master’s Craft books with our readers. This year WFB blogger Keith Robert McNamara | Basic Coatings Long gave away one of his favorite books, “The Richest Man in Babylon,” to a lucky blog reader. Contributor Jimmy Nguyen | Dan’s Custom Hardwood Floor Inc. Jim Clarey shared a list of his favorite business books Paul Pleshek | National Academy of Floor Covering Training in his April/May article, “Stop the Excuses and Take Jenny Riddle | Castlewood Inc. Responsibility For Your Wood Floor Business.” Blogger Todd Schutte | Bona US Stephen Diggins is currently putting together a blog Genia Smith | Accent Hardwood Flooring Inc. post about one of his favorite books, “The E-Myth,” which also happens to be on Clarey’s list. Are you one of those pros who regrets not knowing Advertising Sales more about running a business? Maybe 2018 can be the Kendra Griffi n | National Account Manager year you dedicate to making up for lost time, whether kendra@woodfl oorbusiness.com by cracking open a book, listening to a podcast while (800) 722-8764 x107 | F: (608) 249-1153 running the big machine, or just by reading some info.woodfl oorbusiness.com wisdom from fellow pros. Decades of our content on everything from writing contracts to choosing workers comp to doing estimates is available for free on our website, all with the intention of helping you improve your business in the new year and beyond.

CHANGE OF ADDRESS: In order to ensure uninterrupted delivery of Wood Floor Business, notice of change should be made at least five weeks in advance. Direct all subscription mail to Wood Floor Business, P.O. Box 47705, Plymouth, MN 55447, call 800/869-6882 or fax 866/658-6156. For faster service, visit us online at www. woodfloorbusiness.com/subscribe. Single-copy price is $8, Annual Resource Book is $50. Subscription price is $40 for seven issues in the U.S.A. and Canada. Wood Floor Business is published bimonthly, plus the annual industry Resource Book in Kim M. Wahlgren November, and distributed without charge to qualified individuals in the wood flooring industry. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Wood Floor Business, P.O. Box 47705, Plymouth, MN 55447. Canadian Publication Mail Agreement #42330013. Printed in the U.S.A. © 2017 AB Media Inc. Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ISSN 2475-4226 (Print), ISSN 2575-4242 (Online) Periodicals Postage Paid at Madison, Wisconsin, and at additional mailing offices.

8 ood Floor Business ■ December 2017|January 2018 www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com

DJ18-Editor.indd 8 11/21/17 11:09 AM WF02_Stauf217.indd 1 1/20/17 8:16 AM ObservationsWOOD from the industry WORKS

Illuminating local connections in a showroom ﬂ oor

HE WICHITA, KAN., fl ag is meaningful: The white circle Trepresents home, a blue sun means happiness, red stripes signify honor and white stripes indicate courage. When Jesse and Rachel Sample of Wichita Wood Floor Specialists were looking to create something interesting in their showroom after a fl ood destroyed about half of their showroom fl oors, they looked out the window, saw the fl ag fl ying and thought it would be the perfect symbol to emphasize to their customers that they are a local, community-focused business. But just a simple fl ag inlay in the showroom didn’t seem special enough. “We were brainstorming about something cool and different that would draw attention to our shop,” Jesse Sample explains. “I fi gured, man, it would be cool to get that center to light up. Just staining it white wouldn’t have the same effect.” The end result is an LED-illuminated fl ag. Six layers of ¼-inch Plexiglass—fi ve clear with a frosted one on top—were cut by local CNC company CARV for the center of the fl ag. The rest of the colorful fl ag was achieved with water-based stains, with each portion stained separately to avoid the colors bleeding into adjacent boards. The fi nal product achieved its goal: “When they come in, customers always comment on it,” Sample says.—K.M.W.

10 ood Floor Business ■ December 2017|January 2018 www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com

DJ18-WW.indd 10 11/20/17 2:31 PM Vintage Moments

The most famous wood ﬂ oors in the world

HE STATE HERMITAGE in St. Petersburg, Russia, houses the world’s largest collections of art and artifacts, and arguably Tits most beautiful wood fl oors. Nearly every room features opulent parquet patterns hundreds of years old, originating from when the buildings were constructed and inhabited by the Russian monarchy in the 1700s. The fl oors and subfl oor gradually decayed over centuries, and some of the intricate patterns were even covered up with carpet. Thanks to a restoration program that started in 2000, carpet is being removed, subfl oors repaired and parquet fl oors restored to their former brilliance. The restoration project has involved a number of wood fl ooring artisans, including Yantarnaya Pryad-Parquet, whose projects, including some that are part of the Hermitage restoration, have been featured many times in this magazine.—A.A. Top photo:Top Pavel L. / Shutterstock. Bottom photos: Popova Valeriya / Shutterstock

www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com December 2017|January 2018 ■ ood Floor Business 11

DJ18-WW.indd 11 11/20/17 2:32 PM WOOD WORKS A maple tree ‘grows’ Caption Contest through a maple The Winner fl oor At exactly 9 a.m. HE FLOOR WAS like any other fl oor, except for one from this angle, you minor obstruction. “Nothing too crazy… well, other can see it. There’s than the tree,” says Gaylord Forest Products’ Greg a speck of dust in T the fi nish. Gaylord. That’s right. Smack dab in the middle of a 4,000-square-foot prefi nished bird’s-eye maple fl oor, spanning three levels on the inside of a home built in Ontario wine country, was an actual maple tree, roots, bark, branches and all. The tree—dead, but injected with a We asked you to submit your suggested caption for this preservative solution and photo, and our online readers voted. Congratulations to coated in polyurethane— winner James Stupak of Middle Tennessee Lumber Co. in was cut in two parts, Dickson, Tenn. Besides fame and notoriety, Stupak will receive with one half rooted in a Wood Floor Business trucker hat. Other favorites included: the basement and the “Please forgive me for I have sinned. I told our flooring other appearing to “grow” installer that we must have our altar and stairs completed through the fi rst fl oor and within one week, when the truth is there was no rush at all.” up to the second-story —Ron Gibson, General Floor Industries, Bellmawr, N.J. rafters. In the basement, “When will Mother Superior learn not to take low bid?” the lower half of the —Ron Teljeur, Acorn Wood Floors Ltd., Delta, British tree has its roots sunk Columbia 4 inches below the slab inside a 5½-foot-diameter circle. The 7-inch-wide, … and your next ¾-inch thick engineered maple bordering the tree chance to win: circle was cut following a template. Gaylord says usually he would have set up a jig in the center of the circle and cut the shape with a router, but the tree made that impossible. One fl oor up, the owners had planned to surround the tree with marble, but Gaylord convinced the homeowner to undercut the bottom of the trunk by ½ inch so the crew could fi t the 4½-inch-wide, ¾-inch-thick solid maple underneath. Domit / Flickr What’s it like undercutting an actual tree? “Our guys were Now it’s your turn again! Send your suggested caption to a little afraid to do it,” Gaylord says. “We didn’t want to [email protected] with “Caption Contest” mess anything up. Then it’s ‘Timber!’ in the middle of the in the subject line, then watch the WFB E-News for your house.”—A.A. chance to vote for a winner.

12 ood Floor Business ■ December 2017|January 2018 www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com

DJ18-WW.indd 12 11/20/17 2:32 PM Business advice for the wood ﬂ oor pro YOUR BUSINESS

“Yes, risk-taking is inherently failure-prone. Otherwise it would be called sure-thing-taking.” WORDS — TIM MCMAHAN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS SPEAKER OF SOCIAL STUDIES WISDOM Teaching work ethic WoodKid-sized flooring chair pros Facebook & social giveaway media David Borhi of London, Ontario-based has huge impact Deacon Flooring Inc., started in wood or the first time ever in the Wood Floor Business State of the Industry floors at nine years old, helping his dad survey, we asked contractors and retailers to tell us which social media during the summer and on weekends. Ftheyot use sure for where their tobusiness. spin your Two web quick to hits and the full results from the social mediacatch datanew areretail below. customers? For the Tryrest a of the annual State of the Industry y dad is deﬁ nitely a man of few words, survey, turnFacebook to page contest, 43. and be sure to N but he has always led by example includeFacebook Spiderman. is the most popular. Almost 80 percent of retailers and 54 through his work ethic, teaching me percentWoodstyle ractors Flooring use Facebook NI, based for intheir business. LinkedIn comes in second M that even when your back is against the wall, Bangor,place but Northern trails by aIreland, huge margin. decided Seventeen to percent of contractors and 40 you do everything for your family and work givepercent away, of retailersof all things, use it.a children’s even harder. He had me installing full rooms SpidermanContractors chair aren’t as a usingway to social drum media up as much as retailers. A whopping of hardwood by the time I was 12, and that business.40 percent Owner of contractors John Davidson said they posted don’t use social media for their business was a rush for me at such a young age—being aat photo all, while of the just chair 15 percent in August of retailers with aren’t doing social. given that much instructions to like and share the post responsibility for a chance to win the chair, and the and being able post received 480 shares and more than to contribute. 40,000 organic views. He taught me Davidson says the idea came to him how to take after he had made a mistake on a job pride every day site and ate the costs. He was looking at work, always for redemption—to create something This young man from Belfast give 100 percent positive from the negativity he was won Woodstyle Flooring NI’s and do every- feeling. A nearby business had a row popular kid-sized chair contest. thing it takes of colorful kid-sized chairs outside its to make sure building, and Davidson thought giving one away online might attract a your customers family audience to his store. are more than And attracted they were. According to Davidson, business flooded in, with impressed with sales after the contest running 30–40 percent higher than average. your work. We would work long hours on most Davidson has since held other contests for similar chairs, always featuring jobs installing hardwood, sometimes even later a Marvel superhero, and while none has received quite the same reception, a than 10 at night, and my dad never seemed handful still saw more than 100 shares and around 25,000 views. to get tired. I think that’s what he taught me Davidson is now all-in on superheroes in his business, including a the most: how to work hard every day and to laminate floor product with comic book pages underneath the top layer. The come back the next just as hungry. Even at his lesson in all this? age now, 55, he has not lost a step, and I don’t “Quirky works,” Davidson says. see him slowing. I’m thankful for everything he taught me about being a perfectionist and Andrew Averill is associate editor at Wood Floor Business. Do you have a social striving to be the best, as well as my passion media success story? Send it to editors@woodﬂ oorbusiness.com for installing hardwood.

www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com December 2017|January 2018 ■ ood Floor Business 13

DJ18-YBOpener_2017.indd 13 11/15/17 2:55 PM Q YOUR BUSINESS LIVE & LEARN By Omer Katzir

How our business survived a massive disaster

FIRE COMPLETELY destroyed my wood fl ooring wholesale and supply warehouse, and all the inventory within, in September A2015. Although we were relatively well-prepared, I wish someone had told me before it happened what it just needed to stay strong. would be like; it would have helped me The fi rst order of business was to call all navigate the rebuilding process. I hope my our customers and vendors and explain what experiences can help others who might have had happened. I thought using humor would to go through a disaster in their business. help them sympathize with our situation, so I learned about the warehouse fi re at I would start our calls by telling them, “Why my company in Los Angeles while I was in didn’t you come to the BBQ party? It was Israel. My wife called me around 4 a.m. her huge. It lasted fi ve days!” time, 2 p.m. my time. The news couldn’t It’s a beautiful thing in this industry have come at a worse time. I was tending to that when disaster strikes, people come my mother, who was ill and close to passing. together and make it their responsibility to My business, National Hardwood help each other. Vendors I had built great Flooring and Moulding, had been my life relationships with over the years expedited since I established it in 1984. I’d built it material shipments to our warehouses. from nothing to one of Los Angeles’ premier An overseas manufacturer of prefi nished wholesale hardwood and supply warehouses, fl ooring typically takes 60–70 days to ship with millions in annual revenue. The to us, but my contact was able to get me a warehouse had more than a million square shipment in 25 days. Our employees at our feet of hardwood fl ooring at the time of the custom fl ooring mill took on extra shifts. fi re in September 2015. Half a million dollars Not one customer, not even those who lost in product was already spoken for and pending shipments in the fi re, cancelled scheduled to be shipped. It all went up, and their orders. the fl ames persisted for four days. When the The insurance claim took us three weeks embers cooled, an empty, desolate skeleton to put together. I handed over 8,800 pages was all that remained. All our inventory was of documents. The fi rst insurance agent now ashes. assigned to our claim told us she had never I called my employees on a conference seen such immaculate records; that’s all call to touch base. Nobody was hurt. They thanks to the software we use. I can tell you had all left their homes in the middle of the within a minute how much of any product night to go to the warehouse while it burned we had in stock on any day of the year. All to see if they could help. They feared we our receipts, invoices, etc., are sent to our would lose our customers, and everybody bookkeeper and digitized, so they are also was worried they might lose their jobs. easy to access and sort through. We could have simply declared bankruptcy The model and serial numbers of all and walked away, but I couldn’t stomach our tools, machinery and miscellaneous the thought of letting our longstanding equipment are dutifully written down and customers and our employees down. I told saved until we no longer own the item. We my employees that if we built this company also take photographs of the interior of our from nothing before, we could do it again. We warehouse at least twice a year. This made it

14 ood Floor Business ■ December 2017|January 2018 www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com

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WF06_HomeL617.indd 1 5/18/17 8:50 AM Q YOUR BUSINESS LIVE & LEARN before after

easy to prove to the insurance company that throughout the process. Our insurance broker, we had what we said we had, and also made on the other hand, was very helpful from the scale of our losses immediately and the get-go. He actually got us our fi rst check, viscerally apparent. worth $500,000, within two weeks after the But what good is a data system if the fi re fi re. The insurance broker doesn’t get paid to destroys all your computers (which in our help you; he wants to help you because you’re case, is exactly what happened)? We were his business. The public adjuster, who gets paid prepared for that. For years we had been commission, asked our broker not to interfere making backups of all our data on a daily anymore after that. basis, and it was our practice to store them What we took away from this experience off -site. The data survived. is two-fold. In regards to handling our Despite our comprehensive data, the customers, it was crucial to our success that claims process was long and painful. Over we were forthright and acted quickly. My the course of our claim, the insurance staff and I contacted our clients immediately company replaced our main contact person and continually updated them on the status eight times. It felt like every time someone of their orders. This helped ease their was beginning to understand the complexity anxiety. Regarding insurance, it would have of our situation, they were reassigned. been helpful to have a better understanding We began to wonder: Was the insurance of our insurance limits and supplemental company playing games with us? coverages. We should not have accepted a Making matters worse, our insurance was shortened period of loss, because it took us set up to pay for only six months of business much longer to get back on our feet than I losses in the event of a disaster. I didn’t think originally anticipated. it could be possible for our claim to take To have a business disaster and longer than that to go through, but it did—it simultaneously suff er the loss of someone took a year and a half for our full claim to be as important as my mother was awful. But at paid. Eventually I had to have a lawyer send least when it came to the destruction of our the insurance company a letter demanding business, we were somewhat prepared. business losses for at least a year plus an extra We’ve slowly and meticulously built up cash sum, and they agreed. our inventory to a tolerable level and are We had also rushed right away to hire well underway in our struggle to return to a public adjuster—an independent claims our strong position. The burned warehouse handler who is supposed to support us, skeleton is now an active construction site, the policy holder, in the claims process. In and the building should return to service in hindsight, we should have simply hired a the beginning of 2018. competent attorney. The public adjuster we hired was accustomed to smaller jobs— Omer Katzir is the founder of National Hardwood $30,000; $50,000; $70,000 claims—not claims Flooring and Moulding, which has been in operation in in the millions. We felt he dragged his feet Van Nuys, Calif., since 1984.

16 ood Floor Business ■ December 2017|January 2018 www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com

DJ18-LiveLearn.indd 16 11/20/17 2:26 PM By Roy Reichow & LEGAL BRIEF YOUR BUSINESS Q Blake Nelson

If the ﬂ oor was nailed right, how come it squeaks?

The Homeowner’s Issue certain areas. A customer had solid prefi nished wood In turn, fl ooring installed in a newly built home the installer in the fall. During winter, the fl oor started has no duty squeaking, but only in certain areas. The of which I am retailer rechecked the nailing schedule and, aware to test fi nding it correct, advised the customer to or verify the wait a year to see if the fl oor settled. A year density of the later, the squeaks persisted. The retailer and OSB materials customer agreed to call a fl ooring inspector. the builder installed. The Roy: The Inspector’s Observations facts here The homeowner had marked on the planks indicate the where the squeaks came from, and all the installer did markings were on the seam. I suspected the everything noise was a fastener issue. Using magnets, by the book. I determined the fastener schedule met Finally, the manufacturer requirements in the noisy and manufacturer’s non-noisy sections. With permission, I then guidelines disclaimed responsibility for A 0.025-inch gap removed one plank. A feeler gauge showed noise issues if fasteners were used. existed between the a 0.025-inch gap between the fl ooring and So neither the builder nor the installer fl ooring and the the OSB subfl oor. When I applied pressure did anything technically incorrect, and the OSB subfl oor, but to the fl ooring, the fl ooring went tight manufacturer’s warranty will not cover the the fastener and to the subfl oor. I removed a fastener for noise issues. Still, the fl oor should not make schedule used were identifi cation. It was the right type and size noise, and if the homeowner insists on a acceptable. for the job, but it came out easily, which cure, I believe ultimately the builder would meant the subfl oor was not holding the be responsible. When the homeowners fastener. I went to the basement to look at purchased the house from the builder, they the subfl oor. I saw that the builder installed bargained for a fl oor that did not make two OSB products from two manufacturers— excessive noise. Further, regardless of one was a high-grade OSB and the other, whether it was not prohibited by published which was installed underneath the noisy standards, the builder installed OSB in some areas, was a commodity-grade OSB. I areas that was not dense enough to secure concluded the commodity-grade OSB did the mechanical fasteners. Collectively, not have enough fastener retention, causing these facts will make the builder liable. the noisy fl oor. The builder likely cannot legally force the installer or the manufacturer to share in the Blake: The Attorney’s Analysis costs to correct the problem. This is a tricky one. My understanding is that there are no published standards Blake R. Nelson is a construction-law attorney with regarding the density of OSB to be used as Hellmuth & Johnson PLLC in Minneapolis. He can be subfl ooring under wood fl oors. Assuming reached at bnelson@hjlawfi rm.com. Roy Reichow is that is the case, then the builder did nothing president at National Wood Flooring Consultants Inc. and “wrong” by using commodity-grade OSB in an NWFACP-certifi ed inspector.

www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com December 2017 | January 2018 ■ ood Floor Business 17

DJ18-Legal.indd 17 11/20/17 10:56 AM Q YOUR BUSINESS RETAIL Q&A

‘We want people to know we’re local, and we’re here for them’

Classique Floors + Tile Location: Portland, Ore. Employees: 15 Showroom size: 4,500 square feet Annual Revenue: $4 million

udith Huck wants to emphasize to her We advertised in local newspapers. We tried customers that her store, Classique to get the word out that we existed. With a JFloors + Tile in Portland, Ore., is small business, that’s half the battle—getting local. To give it that feeling, the longtime that top-of-mind awareness so when they’re Portlandian imbued the store’s operations in the market for your product, you’ll get a and marketing with her personality, and it chance. It’s a lot of networking. comes across in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, like an electric car for estimates When does that pay off? and the company’s eff orts to become a B It’s not an instant return, and I can Judith Huck Corporation. Since buying the store from understand that—I need to build trust in Owner her parents in 1998, she’s reported yearly someone I’m going to refer. I need to know revenue increases of 15 percent and received I can count on them. I have to see them accolades from the World Floor Covering several times a month at these meetings Association and the Portland District Offi ce and see them participate. And then I can of the U.S. Small Business Administration. start referring customers to them. It’s an Huck spoke with WFB’s Andrew Averill investment of time. I ask all my sales people about her operation. to do that now, to fi nd an organization that they have an interest in, stick with it and After you bought the store, how did participate in it. Get involved. It will pay off . you grow your revenue? We got visibly involved in our community. So your website looks very you. We joined the local chamber of commerce. We want people to know we’re local and that

18 ood Floor Business ■ December 2017|January 2018 www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com

DJ18-Retail.indd 18 11/15/17 3:00 PM WF12_Saroya1217.indd 1 11/17/17 9:00 AM Q YOUR BUSINESS RETAIL Q&A

we’re here for them. Our goal in business can be overwhelming. We try to help narrow is for them to be delighted when we’re down the products from the hundreds we fi nished with their project. We’re not a off er by asking questions and interviewing national chain; I am the owner. The website the customer and sitting with them at the has my face on it. It has photos of the staff TV screen. We just try to fi nd out what their and the store. It’s very localized. We talk lifestyle is, so we’re working with them to about the weather in Oregon and how that fi nd a great end result for them. After it’s impacts your fl oor. installed, they’ll still love it. You also have electric cars, correct? How do you use the TV? We have a Nissan Leaf with a Classique We have a large-screen TV in the Floors + Tile wrap, and I drive a Tesla, and showroom, and we’ll sit with customers one of our salespeople drives a Chevy Bolt. next to it and talk to them about creating We have two electric car chargers in our a Houzz profi le or a Pinterest page for parking lot here. I think it has attracted themselves to collect photos, inspiration, people to our business because Portland is a colors, projects, rooms, whatever they have very green-minded city. It’s truly important a passion or interest in. Then we can see to me and my company to be as sustainable what images they’ve captured, and that’s as we can be. We’re working on our B Corp. very valuable. status right now, actually. How is a customer’s Houzz or What’s a B Corp.? Pinterest page valuable to you? It’s a Benefi t Corporation. The owner of We’re able to fi nd out what they love so we Patagonia—he made Patagonia a B Corp.; can work with that in helping them create that’s the type of company that becomes a that beautiful master bathroom or that B Corp. It’s a third-party organization that fi replace area. We’ve been doing that for a checks our company out to see if we impact couple years. It’s supplementary. If they’re and serve more than just the shareholders. A not someone who is comfortable with the B Corp. means we care about the community, internet, we can walk them through images our employees, customers and the online and fi nd out what they love. I really environment. We still have a few months to like Houzz. go to be done with the application process. How has the business of retailing Your website features many changed? testimonials, how did you get them? Well, software had a big impact. We use Good reviews are gold. We ask. We send JobRunner by Pacifi c Solutions. It tracks out surveys. We ask if we can post their details for us so we can stay on top of responses in our marketing. We ask purchase orders when a product is coming customers if they would please go on to in and if an installer has been paid. We Google or Facebook and leave a review for can use it to download pricing data, so us. Those are the two we ask for, because pricing always stays up to date. The internet Yelp will hide reviews. has made a huge diff erence. We can get information easily about products we’re How did you design your website? looking at and see if other people have had A local marketing company did it for us. I problems with a product line so we don’t looked for a company that understood how have to learn the hard way. important it is to look at a website from a customer’s point of view. We can’t just Do you still advertise in newspapers? say we have this and this and this—that We don’t at all. For us it was just too doesn’t help the customer. We need to turn expensive. We do direct mail to our it around and look at it from their point of customers. We do a limited amount of radio view. How can we help them? What can we advertising. We do email advertising and provide to make it easier for them? People Facebook advertising. But we also do some don’t buy fl ooring often. It’s a large expense; advertising in small local publications, like it can be intimidating. inside a nearby retirement community’s newsletter. There’s no perfect advertising How do you make it less intimidating? vehicle, at least that we’ve found. We’re still We try to make it a positive experience. It looking for it.

20 ood Floor Business ■ December 2017|January 2018 www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com

DJ18-Retail.indd 20 11/15/17 3:00 PM By Joni Rocco MANAGEMENT YOUR BUSINESS Q

Trust: putting it to work in your wood ﬂ ooring business

HE DESIGNER SPECIFIED walnut and my dogs are destroying it. Why would she sell me this product?” “You quoted me a “Tprice and now it’s costing me more. I’ve heard this always happens in construction.” “You must have towel and reach out to another distributor been burned before since you are asking me for a lower price. However, we’ve established to sign a contract.” a relationship built on authentic trust. You’ve probably heard something similar He does his best to educate me as to the whether you’re a contractor, distributor or reason for a high price. Maybe there’s a manufacturer. Each of the above statements shortage of materials, materials are being provides an opportunity to build trust with sourced from a higher-quality mill or the your customers. Regardless of your job or materials I’m requesting are hard to source. industry, trust has a measurable impact on Most importantly, he provides me with the business. opportunity to clearly explain my pricing to my end user: the homeowner. Our What is trust? relationship has paid off in many measurable People are creatures of exchange, and trust ways, from referrals to providing us with is a dynamic of human relationships. It is equipment to use in a pinch during an something we do and build with others. If unexpected machine repair. While Don is Flooring that you live in Colorado during an unexpected not on our payroll, my husband, Joe, and I doesn’t perform as blizzard, you realize how dependent we are both consider him a valuable resource. customers expect on others. How many people does it take to deliver destroys trust, an a gallon of milk to the grocery store? Trust is also The gap between knowing and doing essential factor in valuable to your business’ survival in an Knowing how trust works doesn’t mean your success. indiff erent marketplace. As a salesperson, I make mistakes that aff ect our business. Confession: In the recent past, I have forgotten to order nosing on some projects, which costs our business in time and travel. This impacts trust inside our business (introducing doubt in the minds of supervisors and employees) as well as the trust of our customers, causing them to question how thorough we are about price, timeframe, product quality and customer service. Our customers are not the only ones with expectations about our business: Vendors expect to be paid on time, and employees trust us to take care of their needs. As a wood fl ooring contractor, I’m a consumer of raw materials. If my sales rep at my distributor, Don Crisp, quotes a price I think is too high, I might throw in the

www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com December 2017|January 2018 ■ ood Floor Business 21

DJ18-Mgment.indd 21 11/20/17 2:41 PM Q YOUR BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

people practice developing it. According gets easier over time. We make requests of to Jeff rey Pfeff er and Robert Sutton, two our manufacturers, our distributor and our Stanford University professors, the gap employees, but the most frequent requests I between knowing and doing is harder to make for help are to our customers. Before bridge than the gap between ignorance I do an estimate, I request the homeowner and knowing. They call this the knowing- “like” us on Facebook. If they can’t be doing problem—the challenge of turning bothered with that simple reciprocity, it’s knowledge into actions. an indicator to me that this person isn’t We experienced this in our business. really interested. During the estimate, prior For about half the life of our business, we to providing pricing, I request they accept worked without a contract. It seemed easier our terms sheet, which spells out several on the front end, but there were times processes (scheduling and payment) as well as the scope of work changed in a way that what we don’t do. negatively impacted our timeframes and Manage expectations. If you don’t like to costs. There were also times when we chased apologize, set clear expectations. We choose people down, wondering if they had died to work directly with homeowners because before they wrote us that fi nal check. We I can take time at the front end to educate fi gured the only way to protect our business them, not just about product specifi cation was to use a contract, even though other but whether we are a good fi t for them. “It’s contractors had told us it couldn’t be done. very easy to educate builders and general We discovered it wasn’t easy. That contractors,” said no specialty tradesman knowing-doing gap is tough. First, we had to ever. Managing expectations also is vital trust ourselves: Once we put everything into for the trust you’ll build with vendors and writing, we would have to follow through employees. Do you provide employees with a on our promises. And, if we couldn’t get uniform, or do you expect them to look like our contract signed, instead of thinking we they just rolled out of bed? Because they will failed, we committed to learn what went look like they rolled out of bed. Every day. Is wrong and how we could fi x it. Finally, that what your customers expect? we didn’t start using a contract without Follow through on commitments. If you a plan, including a strategy for how we can’t do something you promise, you’ll be would allocate our resources to recruit and discovered. Building trust means being open work for a specifi c customer: remodeling and accountable, and apologizing when you homeowners. We knew we would have make mistakes. Apologies build trust because to spend more time at the beginning of you’re taking responsibility for your actions. our work, educating our customers and Don’t be afraid to fail—as long as you own managing their expectations, but the your actions and learn from the error. operations piece of our work would proceed Get feedback. Trust lives in unexpected much more smoothly with things in writing. places, so think outside of the box for Our plan worked: We placed more value feedback to help your business grow and on our business product and service, and our develop. Joe and I constantly bounce ideas customers now do the same. There are a lot off of each other, but I also participate in a of results that came from the work we did, weekly phone call with a group of business but the one to highlight here is authentic owners from Miami, Australia and New trust: Even though the quality of our work Zealand. Don’t be shy. Ask a respected didn’t change, our customers refer us more member of your local business community than ever before. to serve as your business mentor. Ask the author of one of these magazine articles How to implement and measure trust for advice or feedback. Get on social media, Keep it simple. We track how prospective from the closed Floor Sanding and Finishing customers hear about us. I ask everyone group on Facebook to Floor Talk on who calls me how they heard of us, Instagram (both resources off er incredible whether they’re a prospective customer talent and technical advice). or a manufacturer or a salesperson from You’ll never know the results of a Porch.com. It helps for targeting marketing relationship built on trust until you take campaigns and ensuring you know whom to action and begin to develop it. thank for a referral, which is important to grow relationships. Joni Rocco and her husband, Joe, are owners at Parker, Make requests. Ask for help. It’s hard but Colo.-based Artistic Floors by Design.

22 ood Floor Business ■ December 2017|January 2018 www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com

DJ18-Mgment.indd 22 11/20/17 2:41 PM WF11_Prov1117.indd 1 10/18/17 9:47 AM Skills for the wood ﬂ ooring job site ON THE JOB “Without labor nothing prospers.”

—SOPHOCLES GREEK PLAYWRIGHT, 496–406 B.C.

ᕡ Most edgers have a cutting area about the size of a … a. dime b. quarter c. silver dollar d. coaster e. entire edger pad

ᕢ In this big machine 10/3 cable, which color wire is the ground?

ᕣ True or false? Fast-cure additives or vapor retardants added to concrete may give your concrete moisture meter a false reading. ᕢᕢ

ᕤ A fl attening agent is added to wood fl oor fi nish to ... a. help the fi nish fl ow out b. decrease the gloss c. increase the spread rate d. a and b e. a, b, and c

ᕥ MINI-QUIZ Your customers just got this puppy and are wondering which species in their new addition will resist denting better: Australian cypress or hickory? ᕣ Based on their Janka ratings, the answer would be ... ᕥ

Bottom photo: Shutterstock photo: Bottom ANSWERS: 1 .b 2. The green one 3. True 4. b 5. Hickory Hickory 5. b 4. True 3. one green The 2. .b 1 ANSWERS:

Do you have a funny job-site story, a Wall of Shame photo or a Trick of the Trade to share? Email it to us at editors@woodﬂ oorbusiness.com. If we use it in the magazine, we’ll send you a WFB trucker hat.

24 ood Floor Business ■ December 2017|January 2018 www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com

DJ18-OTJOpener.indd 24 11/20/17 4:26 PM Foundations OF THE Basic MC know-how TRICK nderstanding moisture content Uis critical to having successful TRADE wood fl ooring installations, because wood is hygroscopic—it shrinks and Sander tricks from swells with changes in its MC. Ideally, fl ooring should be installed when it the dollar store has a MC at a midpoint of what it will experience year-round in the home. Wood can’t absorb more moisture when it is at fi ber saturation point, typically from 27–30 percent. At a MC around 17–19 percent, mold and decay may begin.

WALL OF SHAME t the end of the third day on a 1,020-square-foot restoration project, Jeff Marlow of Marlow Floor ARestore in Sullivan, Ill., spotted these stair steps in a mixed red and white oak ﬂ oor installed in 1962. “The whole house is shorts, which is common around me,” This issue’s tricks are from Chris Bauer at Marlow notes. Bauer Hardwood Flooring in Sacramento, Calif.

was doing some community work helping a friend fi x up a church where he is a pastor. There were no repairs, and I Ireally did not want to bring in my compressor, hose and air gun just to clean the belt sander’s upper roller. I brainstormed a little and happened to be at the 99-cent store. I saw the air duster can for $1.99 and decided to give it a try. It got the job done! I think a bigger spray can from an electronics store would probably even be better. Another thing I fi nd useful from the dollar store is a metal skewer for shish kabobs. I fi nd the drum on my belt sander gets fi lled with dust on one side. The skewer bends to the shape you want and helps work a lot of the packed-in dust out. I just put the sander up on its included attached dolly, take the sandpaper belt off, then lay down next to the drum and clean it instead of laying the sander on its side.

www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com December 2017|January 2018 ■ ood Floor Business 25

DJ18-OTJOpener.indd 25 11/21/17 12:22 PM Q ON THE JOB

Q&A Is engineered fl ooring harder? A salesperson told me engineered fl ooring is harder than solid fl ooring because the layers are pressed together so hard the fi ber is compressed. Is that true? TALES TONY MIRALDI, director of technical services at Somerset Wood Products, answers: FROM THE his sounds very much like a sales statement with some Tmisinformation mixed in. I’m sure our process is typical for FRONT the industry. All our engineered fl ooring goes thru a “roll” press where each A bad way to go: ‘Zoom, individual blank runs between steel rolls that apply about 1,500 pounds of direct bang, gone’ pressure, eliminating any gap that might exist between the face and the core. distributor out on Long Island in New The adhesive is a pressure-sensitive York had a customer with a job that polyurethane with an open time of just Acame crashing to a halt, to say the least. 90 seconds, so the entire process from The contracting company’s sand-and-fi nish application of adhesive on the core to Does the compression of supervisor had just hired a new worker who having a face placed on the adhesive and engineered fl ooring make it spoke limited English with an extremely heavy going through the roll press happens harder? That’s doubtful. accent, and he sent the worker out to a condo in seconds. Subsequently, a moisture- complex on his fi rst day to do a buff and coat. cure takes place, and the blank is ready for milling. We don’t present the Not long after that, the supervisor got a call product as “harder” because it gets 1,500 lbs. of pressure to the face. from the worker, who told him, “Buffer broke.” We checked with Dr. Alex Wiedenhoeft at the U.S. Forest Products “What are you talking about?” the supervisor Laboratory, and he was unaware of any studies regarding this topic. asked. “Buffer no work,” the worker answered. But he added, “Even if surface densific ation were the case (which I The supervisor decided to go out to the job, am inclined to doubt), one might reasonably expect in factory-fini shed and he took the service elevator up to the products that the sanding and fini shing process would remove any such seventh fl oor. When he walked into the condo, densifi ed surface.” he saw that one of the fl oor-to-ceiling windows In general, hardness is highly oversold in our industry. Too many was shattered completely out. He walked over, people and companies use Janka ratings as a sales feature and don’t looked over the edge and saw the buffer lying bother to tell the customer the fl oor will still scratch. Regardless of what on the sidewalk. “What happened?!” he asked type of fi nish is applied, the fi nish is what people are actually living on, the worker. He answered, “Turn buffer on, and that is what shows the scratching—no matter how hard the wood zoom, bang, gone!” Fortunately, no one was is underneath that fi nish. We want people to buy our product with real hurt in the incident—except for the buffer. expectations regarding what it will and will not do.

26 ood Floor Business ■ December 2017|January 2018 www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com

DJ18-OTJOpener.indd 26 11/15/17 3:13 PM TALKING SHOP ON THE JOB Q

If you could change one decision in your wood ﬂ ooring career, what would it be? ᕡ We asked our Facebook and Instagram followers the above question. Here are some responses: ᕣ Jeanette Martin ᕡ Brett Hall ᕥ Instead of ᕢ Grabbing every client possible buying more trucks and more when I should have been equipment and borrowing more selective in my early more money, I should have career. saved a big pile of cash and grown slowly out of the David Massingale I profits. should have started my business sooner. Richard Farrell I wouldn’t have waited too long to Mike Lantz ᕢ I should invoice certain customers. have done more private jobs and not as many builder jobs, Joe Kenney I wish I would and gotten half down and have worn ear plugs from the weekends off. beginning. ᕤ Brad Neubert To have Dave Habib ᕦ I would saved 30 percent of each have started attending job I have ever done for the training seminars much past 23 years and be retired sooner; there’s always by now, fishing and hunting something to learn when on the property that I should you get together with peers. have bought with 40 percent I love the team atmosphere of what I made, and to have with all wood floor guys and lived off of the remaining gals! 30 percent over the years. ᕥ Hindsight is 20/20, though. Adam Christiansen Not getting into sand and finish ² Warren Kennedy ᕣ Not soon enough. making more trade contacts ᕧ in my early years of flooring. Sinh Nguyen Not taking a concrete prep class Rodger Hobson I regret sooner. not charging more for extreme restorations. Dave Boucher I should have bought a dump truck, Lou LiCausi Not being a loader and excavator. They big business. I’m a two-man always have money in the team—that’s a mistake. I do budget for the site work. love what I do. David Runyon ᕧ Wearing Daniel Reddy ᕤ Taking proper PPE from the start. Tell Us What You Think business classes—or any All the other gripes aside, my Follow WFB on Facebook and Instagram to see the next type of business education— knees, ears and back would chance to be in the Talking Shop column. before starting a business. appreciate it these days.

www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com December 2017|January 2018 ■ ood Floor Business 27

DJ18-TalkingShop.indd 27 11/20/17 9:53 AM Q ON THE JOB FROM THE FIELD By Michael Purser

Why we’re never the last contractor on the job anymore

NE OF THE biggest drawbacks to wood fl oor refi nishing is our place in the sequence of building trade workers on a worksite: Odead last. We come behind everyone else when there is little time, patience or money to go around. At and came up with options that have changed the core of the problem are turf wars, since the way we do business, and we have never the areas we need to work on are the same looked back. On my historic restoration areas others need to tread on. In an eff ort to projects, our wood fl oor work now precedes create harmony on the job site and reduce the stripping of walls and ceilings and friction, contractors and homeowners will window restoration. We’ve been doing this delay work on the fl oors until the very end. for years now, and to say it works well is an That concept may be good in theory, but, understatement. You may want to consider in reality, it often deprives us of the time doing the same. needed to do our work and creates even The reason we can do this is that over greater chaos for us when we are fi nally the last 10 years, we have seen a quantum allowed on-site. leap in temporary protective products that Some time back, a contractor friend of can minimize the No. 1 reason for putting mine and I asked some “what if” questions us at the end of the line: premature damage to a freshly fi nished fl oor. For decades, the building trades had to rely on red rosin or builders paper to protect surfaces, and they did a marginal job at best. Next-generation fl oor protection The new generation of products provides a variety of materials that are typically made from recycled materials and address our needs. I think it would be most helpful to tell you about the specifi c products I know of and have used, although there certainly may be more (I’d like to hear about any you know of—feel free to comment on the online version of this article at www.wfb mag.co/DJ18FTF). Instead of the 9-mil-thick red rosin paper, Newer fl oor we now have a 45–50-mil-thick paper that rolls out and actually lies fl at so seams can protection products be taped. (Two of the most popular in that have allowed us to category I am aware of are Ram Board and completely change Flexboard by Protective Products.) They where we come provide additional protection from spillage in the long line of and also claim to allow vapors to pass through subcontractors. them if vapor is present in the substrate.

28 ood Floor Business ■ December 2017|January 2018 www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com

DJ18-FTF.indd 28 11/20/17 2:36 PM WF12_Artist1217.indd 1 11/14/17 10:51 AM Q ON THE JOB FROM THE FIELD

There are also softer products that are more pliable—but not at the expense of protection. A favorite of mine is Albert Floorotex; its bright blue surface is a thin polyester attached to a white nonwoven material made from recycled plastic. It is lightweight, and the bottom has an adhesive that keeps it in place when put down, which is particularly advantageous for stair treads. The product allows for moisture vapor to pass through, although the polyester keeps spills out. Somewhat similar is Dura Runner Plus with its felt-like surface on top of a waterproof backing; Left, the fl oors in the master bedroom of a the backing helps prevent $2 million remodeling project after being slippage but doesn’t have sanded, stained and fi nished. Above, once adhesion. the fl oors were wrapped and protected, the If I really want to up master bedroom became a spray booth for the protection ante, I cabinetry and trim items. will put down Masonite or hardboard over these products. It may sound extreme, but I’ve never work took place as soon as the drywall and regretted going overboard in this category. plaster were completed. The fl oors were sanded and stained, and three coats of fi nish applied. A few precautions to keep in mind The fi nish was allowed to cure for four days and As with all products, make sure you read the then totally covered. It was understood that technical specs. Finishes should be well into when the covering was removed, we would do a the curing process (it’s best to check with the fourth application of fi nish. manufacturer about how soon they can be The covering on the fl oor allowed for covered). (Note from the editor: See page 32 other work to continue. The master bedroom to read about what happens when a fl oor is was turned into a spray booth for custom covered too soon.) Also, avoid areas of intense fi nishing cabinetry. The family room became sunlight to avoid color diff erences in the fl oor a storage area for cabinets before they were from UV damage. installed, paint supplies and other equipment. Also, as you would expect, these items do A bedroom was used to prefi nish the new stair add to a project’s cost, but all of these products treads being installed from the basement all can be removed and reused in other areas or the way to the second fl oor. All of this was on on other projects, which really helps defray top of freshly fi nished wood fl oors. their cost. Simply put, the cost and the labor When the project was completed, the needed to install them should never be an contractor was fi rmly convinced he could argument to not use them. never have achieved such high-quality results Of course, none of this amounts to much if if the fl oor work had been put at the end of we don’t have concrete evidence of these types the project. He needed additional time, and of products actually performing their tasks. he got it. He’s never gone back to the old I’ve had many opportunities to use them, and scheduling sequence since that project. I’ll give you visual proof of their eff ectiveness. Example: Henry and Clara Ford’s Example: a $2 million restoration Fair Lane This was a $2.3 million remodeling project. The This is my current restoration project in contractor was an old friend of mine, and we Dearborn, Mich., of Henry and Clara Ford’s knew in advance we could not put the fl oor house known as Fair Lane. After we were work at the end. All of our wood fl oor fi nish selected for the restoration of the wood fl oors,

30 ood Floor Business ■ December 2017|January 2018 www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com

DJ18-FTF.indd 30 11/20/17 2:37 PM Left, the ﬂ oors in Henry and Clara Ford’s billiard room fully restored and ready to be wrapped. Above, once protected, the billiard room provided a workshop for stripping doors and storage space for building materials.

we had the pre-construction materials and to strip the painted meeting with all the other trades, French doors. All of this over and the question came up about fully restored wood fl oors! The sequencing. I patiently waited my principals with the Historic Ford turn and then told them I felt like Estates overseeing the work are the wood fl oor restoration work elated. should precede all other trades. I expected pushback and got it, but Discovering fl exibility in I went prepared. I took my iPad planning and execution and started showing the photos of They discovered what I already restored fl oors on other projects knew: Temporary protection and how they were protected, products give fl exibility in along with accompanying planning and executing a testimonials. It took a bit to sink project. They open doors you in, but the decision was made to never thought existed and put us fi rst in the line. provide options that can exceed We completed restoration of everybody’s expectations. On the music room in August 2016, every project where we’ve fl ipped and the fl oors were immediately the sequence, everyone involved covered. Following our work, the has said they would never go back walls in the music room were to the older, outdated method of chemically stripped of paint to putting our trade last. For me, it’s reveal the solid walnut paneling. been a game-changer. The windows in the room were Temporary protection products removed and replaced, and a lot of are a growing fi eld, so be on electrical work was completed. the lookout for new products After we completed our beyond those I am aware of and restoration work in the billiard mentioned in this article. You room in March, those fl oors were might fi nd that, like me, you never covered. The photos I took in go to the end of the line again. October (shown above) show the room is now used to store building Michael Purser is at Atlanta-based Rosebud Co.

www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com December 2017|January 2018 ■ ood Floor Business 31

DJ18-FTF.indd 31 11/20/17 2:37 PM Q ON THE JOB TROUBLESHOOTING By Carl Howard

What caused this blotchy Brazilian cherry?

The Problem averaged 7.0% MC, while the new Brazilian After both newly installed and existing cherry averaged 7.7% MC. Subfl oor moisture Brazilian cherry fl ooring was resanded and was an average of 8.0%; all of the readings recoated, the areas with existing fl ooring had were in a typical range. blotchy lighter spots on the fl oor. At fi rst it appeared the spots might be consistent with white spots that can appear in What Happened Brazilian cherry, but because the spots went The condo had approximately 1,100 square across multiple boards, that was eliminated as feet of existing Brazilian cherry fl ooring a cause. After reviewing all procedures, it was throughout the kitchen, dining room, living apparent that the only variable was the foam room and other main fl oor areas on a plywood fl ooring protection. I got information on it subfl oor over a basement. The contractor was from the builder and discovered it had a perm asked to add approximately 225 square feet of rating of 0.06 and is designed as a fan-fold new Brazilian cherry in the hall and closet, exterior wall insulation. I determined the which was installed in May. blotchy areas were due to the fi nish solvents After the new fl ooring was installed, the being trapped by the covering, not allowing contractor then sanded and fi nished the the fi nish to cure properly. entire fl oor. After sanding, he used an oil- modifi ed sealer followed by two coats of a How to Fix the Floor matte waterborne urethane. The homeowner The fl oor must be resanded and recoated. didn’t like the matte fi nish, so the contractor then coated with a waterborne satin fi nish. In the Future Once all coats were dry, the builder Allow the fi nish to dry naturally between covered only the existing fl ooring with a foam coats, ensuring any protective covering is kept protective covering that was taped around the to a minimum and is permeable. edges, and all the fl ooring was covered with upside-down carpeting that had been torn Carl Howard is at Lansing, Mich.-based Central Michigan out of other areas. After about two-and-a-half Inspection Services and is certifi ed by NWFA, FCITS, IFCI, weeks, the covering was removed, and they and NALFA. saw that only the existing areas of Brazilian cherry looked blotchy. The Inspection The blotchy appearance in the existing fl ooring was obvious, with lighter spots in 1 the fi nish ranging from ⁄4–6 inches across. In some areas, the discolorations were contained to one board, but in others, they crossed over several adjoining boards. The newly installed fl ooring showed no issues. The RH in the home’s living area was 51.0% at 77 degrees Fahrenheit, while the basement was at 52.7% RH and 76 degrees. Moisture readings on the existing Brazilian cherry

32 ood Floor Business ■ December 2017|January 2018 www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com

DJ18-Troublesh.indd 32 11/15/17 3:20 PM WOOD FLOOR D17/J18 Empowering Wood Flooring Professionals BUSINESS After the Flood SUBSCRIBE/RENEW IN SECONDS

Preparing for Disaster Renew your FREE magazine subscription at: Tool Reviews wfbmag.co/decrenew Surfaces Exhibitor Showcase

WFB18house_fulls_working.indd 6 11/20/17 9:47 AM Q ON THE JOB TOOL TIME

DEWALT’S NEW CORDLESS TRACK SAW OPTION

NATE SITZ OF Park Rapids Hardwood Flooring in Park Rapids, Minn., tried the new 1 DeWalt cordless Flexvolt 60V Max 6⁄2 -inch track saw (DCS520): See videos of our reviewers s soon as I took the saw and its track through quite a few nails I wasn’t able to see, and more photos out of the box, I grabbed a piece of and it cut right through them without bogging in the online A six-quarter hard maple in my shop and down. I also accidentally dinged the concrete version of this ripped it. The saw comes with a 42-tooth blade, between the sleepers at the end of that job and article at www. which is way too high of a tooth count for destroyed the blade, so the next time I used the saw I tried my Festool blade, which fi t but is 5 wfbmag.co/ ripping hard maple, particularly when it’s that thick, but it went through the board like butter mm smaller in diameter. DJ18ToolTime. and didn’t leave any burn marks. On my next job I used it to cut a 45 where The second time I used the saw I was doing a the tile was going to butt up against the wood job in an old building that’s now a coff ee shop. fl oor. The saw was accurate, but it took a little I needed to remove a section of old fi r fl ooring bit of time to set it up to cut perfectly plumb that ran under the walls after new walls were (it needed a minor adjustment to the 90-degree put up so I could replace it with matching stop out of the box). old maple. I cut along the One thing I liked is that, unlike the track walls in sections of 19 feet, saw I usually use, which has a pivot point in the 3 feet and 16 feet, and I back, this one plunges in a forward direction, wasn’t quite able to fi nish so the angle of your wrist doesn’t change. If all of that cutting on one you’re making a ton of repeat cuts, I think this charge, so I wasn’t terribly would be easier on your wrist joint over time impressed with how long (I confi rmed this with my sister, who is an the battery lasted. I did cut occupational therapist). Another good feature is that this track has a center guide, so you can cut on both sides. I did notice that the track wasn’t very stiff —when I cut that solid piece of maple and backed the saw up to start cutting, I had to hold the track down on the board so it didn’t bend up in the middle. This saw is part of DeWalt’s 60-volt line, which also has a circular saw, miter saw and table saw. Something that’s cool is that their 60-volt battery is a smart battery—you can plug it into a DeWalt 20-volt tool like a drill and it automatically converts. When it’s 60-volt it’s only a 2-amp-hour battery, but when it’s 20-volt it’s 6 amp hours. Overall I was impressed with the power of this saw; it has about the same power as a corded tool. The issue for me is that if I’m using a track saw in a customer’s home, I want to have a dust bag or a vac connected to it; there has to be a way to capture that dust. It kind of defeats the purpose of going cordless if you still have to have a vacuum hose attached. If you’re using it outside for cutting plywood subfl oor repairs or something like that, it wouldn’t be as big of a deal. Retail price: $579.00

34 ood Floor Business ■ December 2017|January 2018 www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com

DJ18-Tool review-3.indd 34 11/21/17 10:02 AM FESTOOL’S CORDLESS HYBRID ORBITAL SANDER DAVID MERRILL OF Totallywood Flooring in Spring Grove, Ill., reviewed the new Festool 5-inch ETSC “hybrid” orbital sander: hen I got the sander I immediately put a taped-off area to do a fi nish the battery and the bag on and started repair. With this sander, we Wsanding a tread in my shop just to see didn’t have to bring in the edger what it’s like … and it’s great. It’s lightweight but and go through that whole setup powerful, and not having the cord connected just process—we wouldn’t have had makes it that much more maneuverable. The dust to even plug anything in. The collection with the bag is decent—not as good as back of the battery pack has an hooking it up to the vacuum, but you can easily indicator light showing how full take the bag off and hook it right up to the vac. or empty the battery is. I fi nd the quality of this sander is the same as Like everything Festool, the corded Festool versions I have—they are super this tool comes with its own high-quality with very low vibration and very “Systainer” for storing the tool, little scratch pattern. I noticed that this sander is and this sander’s Systainer comes not as low-profi le as the newest corded Festool with a drawer on the bottom, sander, so I would say that’s its only downfall which I haven’t seen before and compared with the corded versions. is a nice feature. Like all other This one could easily replace any of your Systainers, it can latch onto other random orbital sanders because while it does Systainers or Festool vacuums, come with two batteries (which each last about a keeping things organized and half hour) it also comes with another adapter you not getting beat up in your work can plug in for AC voltage. I have a ton of cordless vehicle. The sandpaper that tools, and sometimes it can be frustrating running came with the demo unit is the out of battery power—then you’re dead in the company’s Granat abrasive, which water and you have to go get a corded version is fantastic—long-lasting and anyway. With this one, you can plug in the adapter sharp-cutting. and the cord that comes with it and keep going. Overall this is a great little We used the sander after we had to replace tool in the arsenal; I like it a lot. Like everything a couple boards to sand them fl at and abrade Festool makes, it’s top-notch. Retail price: $535.00 DURABLE WORK PANTS FROM WALLS PATRICK DYMORA OF Plus Hardwood Flooring in Glenview, Ill., reviewed the Walls 833 Original Outdoor Work Pant: ’ve been wearing these pants on my job sites, and I think they are really good quality; they Ifeel like regular jeans and are really fl exible (they are made of 11-ounce “cotton duck” fabric). I like the color; I think it’s nice to get work pants in a color like this because it doesn’t show stains that much. I have been wondering why they have the squares on the knees; other pants of similar quality sometimes have cut-ins where you can slide knee pads in there. It looks like maybe on these the company just used more aggressive Would you like to be considered as a tool fabric here to help prevent tearing. Regardless I’m reviewer for WFB? Contact us at going to keep using these and would defi nitely editors@woodfl oorbusiness.com. order another set. Retail price: $44.99

www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com December 2017|January 2018 ■ ood Floor Business 35

DJ18-Tool review-3.indd 35 11/21/17 10:03 AM 2018 WF DESIGN BUSINESS AWARDS

Open to all pros No entry fee Win fantastic prizes

Enter: wfbmag.co/WFBDesign18 Deadline: February 1, 2018

WF11_house1117.indd 3 10/19/17 10:40 AM SPONSORED CONTENT

New Year, New Floors By Heather Lindemann

S 2018 NEARS, it is a great time to look at some of the broader trends in hardwood Aflooring. It’s easy to get stuck in patterns of repetition. How- ever, homeowners continue to be more and more savvy with what they are requesting for hardwood floors. This New Year, consider offering guid- ance on some of these new trends in hardwood flooring. • Color: As contractors, ® Bona DriFast Stain Graphite over we’ve known for some time waterpopped white oak. that changing the color of a floor is fairly simple—and homeowners are catching on. From dark walnut to warm, natural tones, educating a homeowner on the ease of changing a floor color is a great way to bring ™ value and win a repeat Bona Craft Oil 2K Frost on white oak. customer. 2018 is showing two ends of the spectrum when it comes to color—homeowners are seeking either darker colors or opting for more natural, lighter colors. Products like Bona’s DriFast Stains offer 26 base colors that can be mixed and matched to create an unlimited color palette. • Texture: Innovations in tools and machines have made creating texture in a floor easy and visually stunning. Wire brushing, for example, is a great tool for bringing out the essence and grain of a hardwood floor by removing the softer, more open Bona DriFast® Stain Cherry grain on most species of hardwood flooring, providing a natural, rustic appearance. waterpopped on red oak. • Depth: A beautiful oiled hardwood floor offers a warmth and texture for homeowners that continues to change and develop over time. The new Bona Craft Oil 2K offers all the benefits of a natural oil finish plus a high level of performance. The extended open time along with quick setup makes it easier to work with and allows for light use in just eight hours. Blend or apply two colors for a custom look, then protect the floor by top-coating with any finish in the Bona Traffic family. • Sheen Level: Just like changing the color of a floor is a quick and easy process, so is changing the sheen level. The high-gloss trends are giving way to a more natural look in 2018. Homeowners are looking for less shine to create a flatter, matte appearance. Bona offers a full range of finish sheens—from high-gloss to extra-matte—to offer homeowners the perfect look. From colors to textures to sheens, 2018 is the year of customization. Access to trends, ideas and information has empowered homeowners with knowledge to create the perfect floor for any home. As contractors, every opportunity to advise a client is an opportunity to offer these tools, trends and ideas, thereby creating long-lasting relationships with homeowners. A 1:1 Blend of Bona Craft Oil™ 2K Neutral and Frost on red oak. Heather Lindemann is senior communications manager at Bona US. This article was paid for by Bona US. For more information, visit www.bona.com.

www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com December 2017|January 2018 ■ ood Floor Business 37

DJ18-SponCon-Bona.indd 37 11/21/17 9:14 AM WF12_Garris1217.indd 2 11/14/17 10:45 AM WF12_Garris1217.indd 3 11/14/17 10:45 AM Hurricane Harvey was the sixth time our showroom ﬂ oors have ﬂ ooded. Our longtime employee Isac Fuentes was one of the few employees who could make it in through the high water right after the hurricane to help with cleanup.

Q ON THE JOB TECHNIQUES How we handle flooded floors By Greg Schenck

ere in Houston, where hurricanes hit on a regular basis, if you do wood fl oors, it’s a guarantee that Hyou’ll end up dealing with the aftermath of fl oods. Our own wood fl ooring showroom here in Houston has been under water six times, and as I write this we’re just starting to recover from the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. The fi rst week after Harvey hit, nobody was out and about, and out of about 30 employees, only two or three could The author (left) and project manager make it in to the offi ce. We tore out baseboards and wet Jim Lotspeich of Builders West Inc. review plans after fl oods destroyed insulation and threw out all the things that were ruined. the home’s existing wood fl oors. Once the water receded, we got fans and dehumidifi ers on

40 ood Floor Business ■ December 2017|January 2018 www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com

DJ18-Techn.indd 40 11/20/17 2:48 PM WF12_Domot1217.indd 1 11/16/17 6:11 AM Q ON THE JOB TECHNIQUES

After a hurricane there are groups of people who cruise neighborhoods like gypsies offering to take out fl ooring for $X per square foot, and homeowners are in a rush to let the drying process begin. When we get there, we see all sorts of interesting things, like the subfl oor at left (I’m not sure who did that, but I hope it was a carpenter and not a wood fl oor guy). This home also had Houston’s trademark tar-and-screed subfl oor (on the right) in an area with an addition. The plywood subfl oor was directly over joists, so we would potentially be able to dry that out, rip out the shims and redo the necessary areas to have an acceptable subfl oor. For the areas with the screeds and tar, we would want to take that down to a clean slab and let that dry before installing a new wood fl oor.

our fl oors. Now our own fl oors are in good trying to clear that drain and make sure the shape—they survived being fl ooded again— water subsided as quickly as possible. but we haven’t put the showroom back Despite all our fl oods, we still have the together because we’re so busy trying to same wood fl oors in our showroom and fi nish up the work we had in progress before offi ces—the fl ooring is end-grain mesquite the hurricane and bidding all the fl ood glued directly to an epoxy-type moisture work. We’ve heard from people we installed barrier over the concrete slab. During fl oors for up to 35 years ago, and of course Harvey, that wood fl oor got as much as 6 everybody wants something immediately. inches of water on top of it. In the hallway Here’s how we go about dealing with all for the offi ces and our mailroom, we have the wood fl ooring work after yet another a ¾-by-7-inch long-length engineered oak fl ood situation. plank fl oor glued to the same moisture barrier over the concrete slab, and that’s Salvaging our showroom fl oors been under water three times. For both People are always surprised when they fi nd of these fl oors, as the water from Harvey out how many fl oors we are able to save after receded, they looked like hell, full of a fl ood. Our showroom fl oors are a good sediment and debris, but even the plank example; I mentioned that our showroom hadn’t buckled or even cupped. We wet- has been under water six times. Three or mopped them just to try to get all the junk four of those times were from hurricanes, off , then dried them by putting fans and while the other times were from heavy dehumidifi ers on them. Our showroom is rains. Unfortunately, the only storm sewer about 1,000 square feet, and we had about drain on our street for a mile or so in either four or fi ve of the carpet-drying fans and direction is right in front of our building, so probably three dehumidifi ers running 24/7 if we get a really intense rain we’re always for several weeks. worried about water backing up. Our front Both of those fl oors had burnished oil door and showroom are approximately 2 feet fi nishes, and once they dried to typical higher than our parking lot, so when heavy moisture levels, we just buff ed another coat rains come, we’re sandbagging, and when it of oil on them, and now they look fi ne. starts fl ooding, I put on my waders to check In my offi ce I have a ¾-inch antique the drain. During the worst of Harvey, I was solid oak plank fl oor glued to the slab, and out all night in water up past my waist just that’s been under water probably six times.

42 ood Floor Business ■ December 2017|January 2018 www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com

DJ18-Techn.indd 42 11/20/17 2:49 PM We looked at this job maybe only one and a half weeks after the hurricane; I was amazed they had made so much progress. For the area on the left, we will end up chipping out all that tar and what we call patch so we are down to the original slab. Then we will do our usual slab prep with a self-leveling underlayment and a moisture membrane before shooting a new plywood subﬂ oor to the slab. The area on the right had a plywood subﬂ oor; the slab just needs to dry before we start installing.

www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com December 2017|January 2018 ■ ood Floor Business 43

DJ18-Techn.indd 43 11/20/17 2:49 PM Q ON THE JOB TECHNIQUES

After Harvey it buckled. When we installed still wet belongings everywhere. For others, it, we had glued that fl oor to a sheet-type demolition companies have already taken moisture barrier that was glued down with out everything in the homes, including a water-based adhesive. With the fl ood, the the wood fl oors, so we’re just talking about fl ooring remained adhered to the barrier, replacement. but the barrier adhesive failed, so now, even For homes that still have their wood though we dried and fl attened the fl oor, it fl oors, we are able to save some of them. The is essentially a fl oating fl oor. When we get fi rst question is: Are they buckled? If they time, we’ll replace it. are, they probably aren’t worth trying to save. Looking at clients’ hurricane fl oors We also have many clients who ask us Right now I’m spending the majority of about mold and mildew. I always tell them my time doing estimates for work caused I can’t counsel them regarding mold and by Harvey. When I fi rst visit the homes, mildew concerns—they need to talk to a many still have wet fl oors, and there are mold remediation company about that. The Meanwhile, back at the office ...

That isn’t glossy fi nish, that’s standing water in our showroom on our endgrain mesquite fl oor in this photo. At this point, the water isn’t that deep, but it’s the fi rst inch of water that does all the damage; the rest is academic. In the photo above you can see the water line where the fl ood reached on the door trim. That’s an When we have engineered a heavy rain, we domestic white put sandbags by oak plank; once the front doors to it dried out we our showroom. were able to When it’s really clean it and fl ooded, like then buff in during Harvey, a new coat of the big trucks burnished oil, driving by on the as you can see street create a in the photo on huge wake and the left. splash against the entry.

44 ood Floor Business ■ December 2017|January 2018 www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com

DJ18-Techn.indd 44 11/20/17 2:50 PM local news here has also exploited several Houston (I think it might be because of cases of fl esh-eating bacteria in the water. our petrochemical industry). Back in the If the client has any of these concerns, why old days, long before my time, the roofers take a chance? Many of our clients have the used to pour tar on the slabs and put 2-by-4 resources to pay for a complete removal and screeds down. Then the carpenters would replacement. install the wood fl oor, and the fl ooring For clients who don’t have those companies would sand and fi nish them. The resources, we’ll try to save the fl oor for employees I mentioned had these sorts of them when we can, and over the years older strip fl oors over screeds. They didn’t we’ve been able to save fl oors that have have fl ood insurance and couldn’t aff ord to been severely cupped. For example, we move out of their homes, so we dried out had two employees with strip oak fl oors their fl oors. Of course, those screeds create that fl ooded with 4 or 5 inches of water a space that can fi ll up with water—but at during Harvey. These strip fl oors were the same time, that space enables you to installed in a way that seems unique to inject air underneath the fl oor and dry it

Harvey hit on Saturday and we fl ooded. We started cleaning up later that day, but then we fl ooded again on Sunday. Once the water was gone, we used dehumidifi ers and fans to try to dry things out as quickly as possible. You can see the debris and fi lm on our endgrain mesquite in the photo at left. The photos below show what the fl oor looks like now after a new coat of oil.

www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com December 2017|January 2018 ■ ood Floor Business 45

DJ18-Techn.indd 45 11/20/17 2:51 PM Q ON THE JOB TECHNIQUES

having standing water on them. Whether they have urethane or oil fi nish on them, the longest we’ve found it has taken a fl oor to dry completely using the drying equipment has been about three weeks. Some local fl ooring contractors like to rough-sand water-damaged fl oors to get the fi nish off and open the pores to enhance the drying process, and we used to do that when we knew we would be sanding and refi nishing a fl oor after it dried. But if the fl oor’s really cupped, you take off quite a bit of wear surface just trying to rough-sand the fi nish off . To me, you’re just wasting wear surface, so why do it? The most diffi cult fl oors to save are those with plywood under the wood fl oor, because it’s virtually impossible to dry that plywood out. For a job where we had a fl oor on top of plywood on top of screeds, I can dry the fl oor, and I can dry the screeds, but I can’t dry the plywood, so that fl oor is coming out. Typically we do our own demolition work, but we’re so spread out right now that we’re asking our clients to get somebody else to tear out their fl ooring. It doesn’t require a lot of expertise, so after they remove the fl ooring, we’ll come in and take it from there. If we’re doing a job where the wood This is a typical plank fl oor over screeds with plastic on top of the fl oor has been destroyed, we’ll insist that screeds; in this area it’s common to use plastic over screeds to the fl oor goes down to the bare slab and protect the wood from nuisance leaks like those from an icemaker. In dries for at least two or three weeks with situations like this, though, that works against us, because the plastic the air conditioning and/or the fans and acts like a glass ceiling. Although we can save many cupped fl oors, for dehumidifi ers running. Once we think the a buckled fl oor like this it doesn’t make sense to try to save the fl oor. job site might be ready, we’ll test the studs with moisture meters to see if we are getting normal readings before we’ll think about from both the top and bottom. With fl oors bringing in our wood. like that, if the client wants to save the fl oor, we remove several rows of planks on Saving smaller fl ooded fl oors the sides of the fl oor, since the screeds run Apart from natural disasters, we have created perpendicular to the fl oor. We use special a niche for ourselves dealing with smaller injection fans that are high-volume—much water damage like that from a plumbing more powerful than your typical carpet- leak or an ice maker leak. We have drying drying squirrel-cage fans—to create air mats (ours are made by Dri-Eaz); you put circulation through the ingress and egress them down on the fl oor and connect them in the screed space. Then we use fans and to a vacuum pump. They have such a strong dehumidifi ers to dry the fl ooring out from vacuum that we have videos where you can above. actually see the moisture being pulled up For both of these fl oors, they dried out through the pores of the wood. so well that we didn’t even have to buff and These mats are a more targeted approach recoat the fl oors, much less sand them. In for a smaller area—if I have a whole room fact, for one of them, the FEMA adjuster that’s fl ooded, I will try to contain that came and said, “Your fl oors look perfect, so room, not leaving it open to the whole we’re not going to give you any money.” That house, and use fans and dehumidifi ers to seems like an injustice, but it does show how dry it out. But if I have a smaller area, these well some of these fl oors can recover after drying mats are very eff ective. We’ll rent

46 ood Floor Business ■ December 2017|January 2018 www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com

DJ18-Techn.indd 46 11/20/17 2:52 PM them out by the day, and sometimes we’ll have fi ve or six systems out on one job. I had a fellow contractor call me one day, and he asked me, “Greg, I saw this on your website—aren’t you cheating yourself out of your water damage repair jobs?” I told him that if you think about it, I can make hundreds of dollars a day with these versus being down on my hands and knees tearing out, replacing, sanding and fi nishing. Which would you rather do? These systems are making money for us while we’re doing other things. Another benefi t to drying water- damaged fl oors is that it’s a better service to our clients. Many of the homes we work in have priceless art and antiques. We spare those clients For smaller fl ooded areas from things like a plumbing leak, we use these drying mats the hassle of having to remove those and temporarily relocating. So if we can manufactured by Dri-Eaz that draw the moisture out of the wood. They are perfect dry out the fl oor for a fraction of the for a situation like this where the fl oor is drastically cupped but not buckled, and it’s time and the cost—and spare everyone contained to this area. They aren’t really practical to do a whole house but are perfect issues with logistics—why not? for this scenario; I describe it like a rifl e as opposed to a shotgun approach. With this equipment, we’ve become like a one-stop shop for customers with these issues. Typically they might have replace it; you’ll pay three times as much otherwise hired remediation companies, money.” When they argue that our bid for and those tend to leave their equipment replacement is too high, I tell them, “I know on a job for only three or four days before it doesn’t fi t into your spreadsheet or in your the insurance company tells them to pull estimate program, but that’s what it costs.” it off ; mainly they just want to tear out the This is the fi rst hurricane where we’ve fl oor. We’ll come in and dry the fl oor, and found that even when we say the fl oor is then we’ll buff it or touch it up—whatever’s going to settle down (sometimes without necessary. They don’t have to look for us even having to dry it), the insurance another contractor. company adjusters are insisting we give Of course, another benefi t of this work is them replacement costs so they can write that we are saving natural resources. If the that check. It’s strange. fl oor is salvageable, I just hate to see the waste. Looking ahead Dealing with insurance companies By now we’re past those initial weeks when When doing any sort of fl ood work, we traffi c was gridlock and our city looked like won’t work directly for an insurance a Third World country, with mountains company. If a client’s insurance company of personal belongings and trash piled up has questions about my approach to a job, high on the streets. People aren’t sitting out of respect for my client, I will respond around waiting for someone to help them, to them, but at the end of the day, I look to they’re getting things done. Traffi c is back my client for payment. to normal, maybe even a bit lighter, as we Many of the insurance companies down had reportedly a half a million vehicles here are under the impression that if a fl oor that were totaled in the fl ooding. For many hasn’t fl attened out after drying for two months to come, we’ll be doing our part to or three days, it never will. The insurance try to get our customer’s lives—and our own companies will call me and say, “We aren’t business—back to normal, too. used to having drying machines on the job for so long,” or they will tell me the Greg Schenck is the founder and president at Houston- drying estimate is too high. I just respond, based Schenck and Company (www.schenckandcompany. “Fine, then pay someone to remove and com).

www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com December 2017|January 2018 ■ ood Floor Business 47

DJ18-Techn.indd 47 11/20/17 2:52 PM SPONSORED CONTENT

How technology is changing

our industry By Scott Taylor

S WOOD FLOORING inspectors, we are asked to determine the reason why a floor has failed. In my inspections, I find that more than 90 percent of the time the failure has to do with moisture—either too little or too much. As part of the inspection, we interview installers about their documentation. AIn general, I find very little information is collected prior to installing the wood floor. Good practices include documenting RH and temperature of the job site, subfloor moisture content and wood flooring MC. Most contractors tell me they “don’t have the time” to document all of the readings required by the manufacturer or the NWFA. That begs a bigger question: “Do you have time to replace the floor?” Even when all the readings are carefully documented and a wood floor is installed under the ideal conditions, sometimes moisture problems happen months or even years later that seem out of the realm of “normal.” The problem is that, without knowing what the conditions were in that space, contractors can be left on the hook for a problem that may have been completely out of their control. Fortunately, with today’s technology, contractors can use something called a “remote data logger” to gather that data from the home or gym both before a wood floor is installed and long after they leave the job site, and doing so can potentially save thousands upon thousands of dollars. For example, Corey Cathcart of Integrity Floors in Tampa, Fla., used a device called the HMbox on one of his high-end job sites where he installed 5-inch maple in a large warehouse used for housing a collection of expensive cars. The HMbox is left on a job site adhered to the substrate near a wall in an area with no foot traffic and uses a cellular connection that provides the RH and temperature of the interior, along with the RH and temperature of the substrate, gathered every hour (to show a trend). This report can be printed or emailed to the builder/inspector. After Hurricane Irma, that maple floor severely cupped, and the GC and client both questioned Cathcart’s installation practices, trying to pin the blame on him. Cathcart was able to download the report that showed a spike in temperature and RH at the job site for days; the RH readings were over 90% for days on end. As it turns out, the power had gone out and the backup generator had kicked on but eventually ran out of gas, rendering the HVAC useless. The data from the HMbox saved Cathcart what could have been a legal battle over responsibility for the cupped floor. Other devices can be actually installed within the floor. With one such device, the Fidbox, the contractor routers out a space in the bottom of a board and installs the device, about the size of a smart phone, in the floor. It collects RH and temperature data for the ambient environment three times a day; the data can be collected via Bluetooth. Some contractors build the cost of one of these devices into every job. For Top, moisture that is too high or too low is example, Dillon Moore of Moore Flooring in Chico, Calif., had a job that ended up the top cause of wood flooring problems, cupping months after the flooring was correctly acclimated and installed. The Fidbox such as this splitting engineered floor. proved humidity in the house skyrocketed after the homeowner left for months and Center, data loggers such as Fidbox can be shut off the HVAC. “The Fidbox itself cost me only $250, but it saved me over $52,000, left in the wood floor to monitor job-site as well as the homeowner moving out and having to refinish or replace the hardwood conditions; the Fidbox battery can last up floor,” Moore says. to six years. Bottom, such devices can gen- When it comes to protecting yourself from liability, the more data you have about erate a report showing relevant data such the job site, the better your chances of avoiding the time and hassle of lengthy legal as humidity and relative humidity. battles about problem floors.

This article was paid for by Fidbox LLC, where Scott Taylor is director of business development. For more information, visit www.fidbox.net.

48 Wood Floor Business ■ December 2017|January 2018 www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com

DJ18-SponCon-Fidbox.indd 48 11/20/17 11:14 AM Top photo: IrinaK / Shutterstock. Bottom photo: Zoltan Boros After the Flood

By Andrew Averill

The majority of wood fl ooring professionals have never faced a hurricane. They couldn’t possibly understand the feeling of dread as a tropical storm approaches. They can’t imagine the sound of 180 m.p.h. wind or what it takes to rebuild after the clouds dissipate. But wood fl oor pros who make their livelihoods in hurricane zones know. Wood Floor Business spoke with fi ve pros, two in Houston and three in Florida, to hear how they prepared for, rode out and rebuilt after this fall’s deadly hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Puerto Rico was still recovering from Hurricane Maria when WFB tried to contact contractors there. Are you a Puerto Rican contractor? Email us at editors@woodﬂ oorbusiness.com.

www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com December 2017|January 2018 ■ ood Floor Business 49

DJ18-AfterStorm-2.indd 49 11/21/17 9:34 AM Horizon Forest Products Houston

rom the minute Horizon Forest Products reopened its Houston distribution center on Aug. 24, a week after Hurricane Harvey made Flandfall and devastated the area, the distributor’s phones have not stopped ringing. only three usable dock doors, that meant The orders during the fi rst couple of days taking forklifts down the ramp into the were from contractors trying to build up parking lot to serve the customers who their inventory fast. Branch Manager Alan couldn’t get a spot, all while people were Blake says they were getting calls for 5,000 walking inside and waiting at the counter. square feet of No. 1 red oak from contractors Stories—both devastating and hopeful— who had already given estimates on 5–7 jobs. were shared, Blake says. One installer’s “Seldom were people calling in for 400 equipment was destroyed after he woke feet, 500 feet; it was massive amounts,” Blake up to fi nd 5 feet of water in his storage says. “It was, ‘How much select quartered do facility. The equipment was brand new— you have?’ It was that kind of call.” replacements after he was burglarized six The Monday after the branch opened, it weeks before Harvey hit. Others told about had a constant fl ow of six to eight installer people in their neighborhoods coming trucks arriving to pick up materials. With together to help each other out. One of Horizon’s employees, Gerson Pereira, rescued stranded Houstonians on his Jet Ski. Horizon kept the doors open an extra hour that fi rst week. Blake told his staff at the end of the day Friday to go home and get some rest over the weekend, because they hadn’t reached the tip of the iceberg yet. The blitz continued. While calls from contractors ordering large quantities became fewer and fewer, they were replaced with orders for smaller repair jobs for insurance companies, who Blake says try not to replace whole fl oors. It’s no easy task matching new material to old, especially for so many customers at once. “I get all these questions about fi nding wood that looks like this, and it’s stuff you’re never going to fi nd,” Blake says. “Old parquet patterns. Old prefi nished stuff . Old Bruce. Old Anderson. Old Harris-Tarkett.” The callers are asking for small quantities—200 square feet, for example— and while Blake always tries to accommodate them, sometimes he has to be frank and let them know he’s just not going to fi nd what they need. Horizon Forest The whole wood fl ooring ecosystem in Product’s parking lot Houston is moving double-time these days, was an endless line of Blake says. contractors picking up “It’s just busy. I’m sure my competitors material and vendors are feeling the same ‘gift’ from Harvey, but delivering material. it’s not how anyone likes doing business.”

50 ood Floor Business ■ December 2017|January 2018 www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com

DJ18-AfterStorm-2.indd 50 11/21/17 9:34 AM Houston Custom Floors Houston he dumpster outside of Houston Custom Floors following Hurricane Harvey was full of swollen Twood fl ooring samples. Owner Crystal Caraway estimates they had “You spend a lot to throw away more than a couple hundred of time caring about thousand dollars in wood fl ooring material. people and wanting to They had moved their products up a couple be able to do things with feet in preparation for Hurricane Harvey, but them. Their homes are it wasn’t high enough. Caraway discovered destroyed, and their 3 feet of standing water when she returned fi nances aren’t right,” she for the fi rst time. There was so much water says. “You want to give inside that the moisture wicked up to the them a product that will highest shelves. hold up, but you have to “We had walls and walls stacked with tell them you can’t have wood—ipés, Brazilian cherries, purplehearts, fl oors in here for weeks. your specialty woods that take a long time And fi nancially, some to get into your shop,” she says. “We had aren’t able to aff ord the to take them down and throw them in the products we had installed dumpster.” for them before.” The company’s forklift was also ruined, Caraway tells of as were pieces of backup equipment, an elderly couple in like sanders, buff ers, nail guns and air Houston suburb Bellaire, compressors, kept on hand in case a near the Buff alo Bayou, subcontractor’s equipment malfunctions on whose house fl ooded. the job site. The drywall and old The tools and materials were not covered fl ooring had already by the company’s insurance policy, Caraway been torn out, but says. They didn’t believe a fl ood would ever they didn’t have fl ood reach their location—the waters didn’t reach insurance and were not them during the last catastrophic tropical in a fi nancial position to storm, Allison, in 2001—so they hadn’t purchase new fl ooring. pursued fl ood insurance. Caraway eventually Despite the losses, she says business found a product the revenue will more than make up for it. couple could aff ord and Houston Custom Floors was back doing tear- installed it, but only outs within a couple days. Soon they started because she wanted to scheduling jobs for houses that suff ered do right by them, she from crawl-space moisture intrusion. The says. It was a product business, which she runs with her family, for fast commercial jobs has more work inquiries than it can handle. and not one she’d ever These days Caraway starts work at 5 a.m. and install. “But it got them back in their house.” Top, wood fl ooring sometimes stays as late as 11 p.m. Caraway Despite the materials lost, the chaotic samples lay in place typically subcontracted one or two jobs a scheduling and the heartbreaking after the fl ood waters week, but that’s risen to fi ve after Harvey. discussions with homeowners, Caraway receded. Bottom, The business has been forced to be manages a few laughs during the the waterline in this selective with the jobs it accepts. The jobs conversation with WFB. Asked how she warehouse is black from that get priority are the company’s custom was able to keep a sense of humor amid the oil that leaked from builder partners and past clients. Caraway devastation, she answered simply: the company’s forklift says the conversations with previous “You have to. Otherwise I’d be at the during the fl ood. customers can be heart-wrenching. psychiatrist.”

www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com December 2017|January 2018 ■ ood Floor Business 51

DJ18-AfterStorm-2.indd 51 11/21/17 10:32 AM Classic Wood Floors Key West, Fla. ou have to have big ones to stay in Key West during a hurricane,” says Zoltan Boros, owner of Classic Wood Floors “Yand 26-year resident of the southernmost city in the continental U.S. And you also need strength, up the family car with gas, drove his work apparently, because Boros decided the truck to high land nearby, and took a best way to guarantee his fl oor sanding food inventory. Boros, his wife and two equipment would survive Hurricane Irma children rode out the storm in their laundry was to hoist all of it in the air to hang from room. The kids had an iPad to keep them the 6-by-6-inch beams beneath the ceiling distracted, but Boros and his wife were in his dining room. scared. As Irma made landfall, the sound was We’re not talking nailers and mallets deafening, he says: “It’s like a train running here. He, with help from his wife and a through your house.” close friend, using ladders, heavy-duty Two hours later, the storm had passed. chains and grit, successfully lifted two big No water made its way into the house, the machines, a buff er, a planetary sander and roof was intact and the machines were dry, an edger to safety. A hurricane in 2005 had still suspended above the dining room. Zoltan Boros fl ooded Boros’ home, which also serves as Boros spent the next week cleaning up his hoisted his wood his business headquarters, with chest-high backyard. He didn’t accept a wood fl ooring fl ooring machines water, and he wasn’t taking any chances this job for a month, a decision made partly up toward the time. because his success in Key West has allowed dining room “They had to survive,” Boros says. “That’s him to be selective with clients and partly ceiling in case his your income. That’s your bread and butter.” because it took a while for the majority of house fl ooded. Then he boarded up his windows, fi lled the Keys to get their power back, let alone have fl oors dry enough to work on. He’s now receiving calls from areas in the Keys that were the worst hit. Most of these callers tell Boros their fl oors were completely underwater. His favored approach to fl ood remediation is to just let the fl ooring dry fi rst, then sand and fi nish. However, wealthy people often don’t want to wait and will pay more to have their fl oors redone fast. For them, Boros says he tears the fl ooring and subfl oor out and starts from square one. The break in business hurt his bottom line, Boros says, but he’s managing OK. As a business owner, he was always putting emergency money away for times like these. “We survived,” Boros says. “We really lucked out.”

52 ood Floor Business ■ December 2017|January 2018 www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com

DJ18-AfterStorm-2.indd 52 11/21/17 9:35 AM • Mannington Mills matched employee donations for a grand Look for the helpers total donation of $26,000 to the Red Cross, and it made a ragedy has a way of bringing the best out of people, and donation of $25,000 to the Samaritan’s Purse to help Houston. THurricanes Harvey and Irma were no different. While neighbor It also plans to donate fl ooring for rebuilding efforts. helped neighbor, aid wasn’t limited by proximity. It came fl ooding • Armstrong Flooring pledged to donate 250,000 square feet of in from across the country from friends, families, strangers and fl ooring. companies, including leaders in the wood fl ooring industry. • 3M established a Global Relief Fund of $1 million to support the • Shaw Industries made an undisclosed corporate donation to communities affected and additionally donated $2.5 million in the Red Cross and encouraged its employees and retailers cash and products. to do the same by matching. It also extended showroom • Real Antique Wood gave a portion of sales during a replacement support and special offers to customers, provided demonstration day to assist animals in the hurricane areas. a dedicated customer service group, and transported water. • Graf Brothers and other vendors local to South Shore, Ky., • Mohawk set up a GoFundMe page for its employees to donate donated $10,000 worth of supplies to Marathon and Big Pine directly to their coworkers impacted by the hurricanes. Dallas Key, Fla., two of the worst-hit areas in the Florida Keys. employees donated items and even sponsored entire families. Mohawk also sent more than 100,000 bottles of water and • Q.E.P., the parent company of brands such as Harris Wood increased its corporate donations targeted toward the Texas and Floors, Roberts, Porta-Nails, shipped two tractor-trailers with Florida chapters of the United Way. an assortment of professional tools to its customer partners living in and around the Caribbean basin. It also raised $30,000 • Ecore International donated to the Red Cross and launched a from Q.E.P. associates across the globe and sent the money to company-wide donation drive. established charities in Puerto Rico and The Florida Keys. • Swiff-Train raised tens of thousands through a YouCaring account for its employees in the hurricane areas, as well as others. Thank you all for your contributions.

Tramex

www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com December 2017|January 2018 ■ ood Floor Business 53

DJ18-AfterStorm-2.indd 53 11/21/17 9:35 AM Big Ass Wood Floors Key West, Fla.

fter Hurricane Irma, Big Ass Wood Floors had, like everyone else in Key West, Fla., a big ass problem: The company had no power, Aand wouldn’t for 10 days, meaning devastating downtime, particularly for a new business working to Then, the day before Irma hit, Big Ass Wood Big Ass Wood Floors’ grow its operations. Big Ass Wood Floors, Floors owner and offi ce manager Julie Crane offi ce is located on which sells fl oor coverings to customers called Wirsching on the telephone with an the second level, across the U.S., started in 2016, and they idea to keep the business running during which meant its needed a way to keep the lights on. the hurricane. They decided all company Enter Eldred Wirsching, orders desk calls would be forwarded to Wirsching in owners did not worry extraordinaire and, fortunately, backpacker. Colorado—she would operate Big Ass Wood about fl ooding, but She was fi nishing a long hike in the Rocky Floors from her friend’s kitchen table. the main offi ce still Mountains just as many citizens of Key West Wirsching answered calls and processed didn’t have power for were evacuating, so she decided to wait out orders for the next week. Meanwhile, Crane a week. the storm at her friend’s home in Colorado. and anyone who hadn’t evacuated the

54 ood Floor Business ■ December 2017|January 2018 www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com

DJ18-AfterStorm-2.indd 54 11/21/17 9:38 AM Keys were unreachable. Sometimes people new fl ooring—fast—and had cash in hand. would call Wirsching and ask how Crane Once power was restored and the airport and her business partner and husband, Josh opened, Wirsching closed the Colorado McGrane, were doing. But all Wirsching operation and headed home. The company could say was, “I don’t know.” is currently in a “hurricane lull.” Having Back in Key West, Crane and the seen the end of the fi rst wave of customers, business made it through the storm they’re awaiting a second surge from people without a scratch. Part of that was due in the middle and upper keys who suff ered to prep by Crane and the team before signifi cant damage and have been waiting Irma landed. They boarded up windows, for insurance money. unplugged electronics, moved valuables To be top-of-mind when those people into the center of the space and covered want new fl oors, Big Ass Wood Floors displays in plastic to mitigate any water has started supplementing its nationally- damage had the roof torn off the frame. focused marketing campaign aimed at The company’s offi ce is also located on developers and builders with a locally- the second fl oor of a building, so fl ooding focused campaign for GCs and homeowners. from a storm surge wasn’t a concern. Besides that, Irma didn’t cause Big Ass Although the power outage meant no Wood Floors to make many big changes. incoming calls, it didn’t mean no walk-ins. Well, except for Wirsching’s employee Crane says business picked up signifi cantly benefi ts. “I’m going to get a company-paid in the aftermath of Irma due to customers vacation next time this happens,” she can be with small roofi ng issues that cost less than heard over the telephone, shouting from her their insurance deductibles. They wanted desk, as Crane laughs into the telephone.

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www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com December 2017|January 2018 ■ ood Floor Business 55

DJ18-AfterStorm-2.indd 55 11/21/17 9:38 AM Bonded Wood Floors of Vero Inc. Vero, Fla. he worst part of Hurricane Irma was the preparation, at least for John Cannon, owner of Bonded Wood Floors of Vero Inc., located Tnorth of Miami in Vero, Fla. Initial forecasts put Irma right on top delay around their heads, he says. He was of the small beachside town. When a trying to explain to the brewery backers, tropical storm threatens, high-end building based in St. Louis, that they’d be lucky if contractors shut down job sites three or the site had electricity two days after the four days before landfall is scheduled to storm hit. occur. That’s Cannon’s main clientele, so “They couldn’t understand how his employees couldn’t work as the storm devastating it could be, because they’ve approached. never experienced it,” he says. “They send you away; they shut it down,” When Cannon’s crews can no longer work Cannon says. “You can’t blame them.” on the job sites, he closes shop, too, and gets Cannon’s team was in the middle of to work reinforcing his store and warehouse. installing wood fl ooring inside a new The warehouse has fi ve large overhead doors, brewery when they were pulled off the job which he barricades with piles of wood site. Before they left, the crew wrapped the pallets. Then he backs a forklift against the uninstalled plywood and wood fl ooring in pallets for reinforcement. Plywood goes on Accordion shutters plastic wrap to protect it should moisture all the doors. Accordion shutters are drawn were drawn across infi ltrate the building. across windows. Hurricane Jeanne in 2004 the company’s Cannon, who has lived through a tore the building’s roof off , along with a showroom windows number of hurricanes, understands why 5-ton AC unit. He says they ended up with in preparation for the job sites must close, but it’s not always a big swimming pool inside, and he doesn’t the hurricane. easy for out-of-town developers to wrap the want that again. “Your building kind of breathes when a hurricane is blowing around you; it’s an eerie feeling,” he says. “You can feel it pulling and pushing. We just secure it the best we can and hope for the best.” Hurricane Irma was supposed to devastate Vero, but it veered west and left the town largely intact but not unscathed. Wind speeds around 100 m.p.h. uprooted trees and scattered limbs and shrubs. The roof on Bonded Floors’ building was still there, though, and while people in the area lost power, it was soon fi xed. Cannon’s crew got back into the brewery a week later, and there was no damage to the interior. Vero dodged a bullet. All the prep work and lost wages, even though the hurricane was not as devastating as was predicted, doesn’t bother Cannon one bit. “You’re happier it didn’t hit than you are worried about the money you spent preparing for it.”

56 ood Floor Business ■ December 2017|January 2018 www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com

DJ18-AfterStorm-2.indd 56 11/21/17 9:39 AM nfi nished hardwood fl ooring— UNFINISHED both solid and engineered— DOMESTIC Umade up 69 percent of all WOOD hardwood fl ooring installed in 2016 by contractors who fi lled out Wood Floor FLOORING Business’ State of the Industry survey in 2017. Here’s an overview of what manufacturers of unfi nished domestic fl ooring are making today. PF PRODUCT FOCUS

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DJ18-Unfinished-PF-Table.indd 57 11/21/17 8:46 AM PF UNFINISHED DOMESTIC WOOD FLOORING

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58 ood Floor Business ■ December 2017|January 2018 www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com

DJ18-Unfinished-PF-Table.indd 58 11/21/17 8:46 AM Charles Peterson Signature Flooring

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3 1 SEE ⁄4 1 ⁄2–4 N/A N/A OUR AD ON PAGES 38–39

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3 S: ⁄4, Harris Wood Floors/ 5 3 1 1 E: ⁄8, ⁄4 2 ⁄4–11 ⁄2 9, 11 3–5 Hardwoods of Wisconsin Q.E.P. Co. Inc. Heister House Millworks

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DJ18-Unfinished-PF-Table.indd 59 11/21/17 11:13 AM PF UNFINISHED DOMESTIC WOOD FLOORING

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Lacrosse Hardwood Flooring | lacrossefl ooring.com SEE OUR AD ON PAGE 7 Northern Strip & Plank Q QQQ Q QQQ Logpower.com LLC | logpower.com Custom Solid Wood Flooring Q QQQQ QQQQQ Logs End | logsend.com Unfi nished Birch QQ Q Maine Traditions | mainetraditionsfl ooring.com Q QQ QQQQ Mcminnville Mfg. Co. | mmcfl ooring.com Velvet Brand QQ QQQQ Mullican Flooring | mullicanfl ooring.com Wexford Engineered Q QQQQ Q

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DJ18-Unfinished-PF-Table.indd 60 11/21/17 8:50 AM SEE OUR AD ON PAGE 7

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DJ18-Unfinished-PF-Table.indd 61 11/21/17 8:50 AM PF UNFINISHED DOMESTIC WOOD FLOORING

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62 ood Floor Business ■ December 2017|January 2018 www.woodﬂ oorbusiness.com

DJ18-Unfinished-PF-Table.indd 62 11/21/17 8:51 AM Oshkosh Designs

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DJ18-Unfinished-PF-Table.indd 63 11/21/17 8:51 AM PF UNFINISHED DOMESTIC WOOD FLOORING

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DJ18-Unfinished-PF-Table.indd 64 11/21/17 8:52 AM Southern Wood Floors SouthFloor Speed Hardwood Flooring

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3 ⁄4 3 N/A N/A WD Flooring Wide Plank Hardwood

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DJ18-Unfinished-PF-Table.indd 65 11/21/17 8:53 AM WF10_Surf1017.indd 1 9/18/17 9:40 AM EXHIBITOR SHOWCASE

WOOD FLOOR BIG Empowering Wood Flooring Professionals BUSINESS Pocket Guide OF WOOD FLOORING INDUSTRY EXHIBITORS A Bet 2018 HE INTERNATIONAL SURFACE Event be plenty of on-ﬂ oor takes place Jan. 30–Feb. 1 at the Mandalay demonstrations. TBay Convention Center in Las Vegas, and If it’s your ﬁ rst time, it’s big—like 445,000 square feet of exhibition it can be a lot to take space big. If you’re unsure where to start, here’s in. Stop by the WFB

Show a collection of exhibitors—all advertisers in this kiosk in the media alley Floor Map issue—worth making a beeline toward. (5D) and pick up the Inside But TISE isn’t only a trade show. It’s also full WFB Pocket Guide. It of education sessions that cover an encyclopedia includes a listing of all the wood of topics. Seminars start Jan. 29 and include ﬂ ooring industry exhibitors, along with a color- “On Trial for Moisture-Related Flooring Failures coded foldout map highlighting their locations II,” “How Flat is Flat? Surface Preparation on the trade show ﬂ oor. It’s a great way to get for Installation,” and “Wood Floor Claims— your bearings and ensure you’ll get to see the Evaluations and Inspections.” There will also companies most important to your business.

Allegheny Mountain Hardwood Flooring Booth 5430L Allegheny Live Sawn features a unique mix of plainsawn and rift-and- quartered flooring available in red oak and white oak with engineered or solid construction. It comes in lengths up to 12 feet and widths up to 12 inches. Allegheny uses only lumber Artistic Finishes Inc. that it cuts and dries itself to ensure the wide planks Booth 1009 and long-length boards are Artistic Finishes offers a wide variety of waterproof core top-quality, the company accessories. Enduracor is a durable, water-resistant and says. Live Sawn is also versatile solution featuring an exclusive four-layer design, available in herringbone. making it one of the most technologically advanced alleghenymountain accessories on the market, the company says. hardwoodflooring.com artisticfinishes.com

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DJ18-SurfacesShowcase-2.indd 67 11/21/17 10:30 AM surfaces EXHIBITOR SHOWCASE

DriTac Flooring Products LLC Booth 4637 Supreme Green DriTac 7800 provides subfloor moisture control with no testing required and a lifetime warranty. This five-in-one “green” hybrid polymer wood flooring adhesive offers sound and moisture control, isolates cutback adhesive and provides crack suppression, the company says, adding that Supreme Green is easy to clean off the surface of wood flooring, wet or dry. dritac.com

Fidbox LLC Booth 4582 Delmhorst Instrument Co. The HMbox monitors the job site and substrate Booth 4274 pre-installation, and the Fidbox (embedded into the floor) monitors the product, substrate Delmhorst Instrument Co. offers a full line and job site post-installation. These pre- and of moisture meters for flooring professionals post-installation tech tools save the contractor who need to accurately measure moisture time, money, aggravation and possible litigation, in wood floors and subfloors, and measure the company says. The devices create reports RH in concrete according to the ASTM F2170 that can be printed or emailed to the flooring Standard. Delmhorst meters can help prevent manufacturer, builder, homeowner or whomever flooring failures before and after installation, has interest in the data they collect. the company says. fidbox.net delmhorst.com

Brickman Consulting

-Education -Expertise -Experience -unbiased -conﬁdential -independent Installation Sanding & Finishing Consulting Inspections Research Teaching Since 1978

[email protected] 781.659.7209

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DJ18-SurfacesShowcase-2.indd 68 11/21/17 10:31 AM SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Lignomat USA Ltd. Booth 4376 Lignomat offers excellent pin, pinless and RH-specific moisture meters, as well as data loggers and customer service, for flooring professionals, the company says. The entire line of meters is on display at Surfaces, from the very affordable mini-Lignos to the Ligno-Scanner and the Ligno-VersaTec. lignomat.com

Lacrosse Hardwood Flooring Booth 1175 Lacrosse Hardwood Flooring is exhibiting its unique Rainy River product line. Rainy River is a canvas for the true craftsman installer, the company says, adding that it is precision-milled with the full spectrum of character provided exclusively by Mother Nature for job-site creativity and shop- produced texturing. lacrosseflooring.com

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DJ18-SurfacesShowcase-2.indd 69 11/21/17 10:31 AM SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Provenza Floors Inc. Booth 2221 Provenza Floors is passionate about designing products that exceed architectural and interior design industry demands, the company says. This year, it is showcasing new product lines, including its MaxCore Waterproof LVP and Colour Nation Painted Plank Collections. provenzafloors.com

Stauf USA LLC Booth 557 Stauf’s patented solvent-based adhesive grabs faster and holds stronger than any other wood floor adhesive, virtually ending hollow spots and expensive call-backs, the company says. It won’t etch the finish, and spreads and cleans up easily, all while meeting environmental standards across the U.S., the company adds. staufusa.com

2018 Resilient Class Dallas, Texas February 9th and 10th, 2018

Featuring presentations from the leading manufacturers’ in flooring:

Concrete and concrete additives used to control moisture Tramex Meters Booth 4465 Thermal dynamics in resilient The Tramex CMEXpert II moisture meter and reusable Hygro-i RH Probes provide flooring a complete testing system for flooring, including fast, accurate, economical and reliable testing of concrete floor slabs to ASTM F2170 and non-destructive concrete tests, the company says. The system also checks wood moisture content, ambient temperature, relative humidity and dew point readings. tramexmeters.com

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DJ18-SurfacesShowcase-2.indd 70 11/21/17 10:31 AM New Products Q

AMERICAN SANDERS’ Epoch Rotary Sander is a 16-inch machine with two speeds—175 rpm and 300 rpm. At the slower speed, the Epoch can be used as a traditional buffer, and at the higher speed, in combination with the Hydrasand, it acts as a passive planetary 3 sander. It can sand within ⁄8 inch from the wall, and it comes with a weight kit, ﬂ exible LED light and a dust port. americansanders.com

PG MODEL’s Athena is prefi nished 5¼-inch-wide maple engineered fl ooring with a varied color palette of brown, beige and gray. It is BOSTIK INC.’s Bosti-Flex available in a grade called Mystique that features character marks and Plus is a multipurpose a chased effect, which consists of lines randomly placed on the boards siliconized acrylic latex that recall the mark left by a bandsaw. sealant for multi- pgmodel.com purpose applications, including bonding wood trim. It may be SUNSHINE FLOOR painted with latex or SUPPLIES INC.’s Bog oil-based coatings and Oak is fl ooring made from is mold- and mildew- ancient oak trees salvaged resistant. from inside bog pits bostik.com and rivers. It is available solid or engineered and measures ¾ inch thick and 4 or more inches wide. The fl ooring’s colors range from silver and brown to black. shwfl oors.com

ARMSTRONG FLOORING PARAGON’is solid hardwood fl ooring prefi nished with Diamond 10 technology, which incorporates BORAL TIMBER’s Engineered Wideboard Flooring is available in cultured diamonds to create powerful scratch protection, the blackbutt and spotted gum. It comes in 186-mm-wide (7.32-inch) company says. Paragon comes in oak and hickory and is available planks and features a matte, brushed fi nish that highlights the wood with Smooth, Scraped and Brushed textures. species’ natural colors. armstrongfl ooring.com boral.com.au

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DJ18-NewProducts.indd 71 11/20/17 2:55 PM Q New Products

BOSCH’s GOP 12V-28 12V Max EC Brushless Starlock Oscillating Multi- Tool features the Starlock 3D interface; the accessory connection is cupped and shaped like a bottle cap to provide more contact surface area for blade grip and torque transfer, the company says. boschtools.com LP BUILDING PRODUCTS’ LP Legacy is an engineered subﬂ oor made with Gorilla Glue Technology. The panels consist of wood strands coated with resins using Gorilla Glue, which ensures maximum moisture resistance, the company says. lpcorp.com

5 SKILSAW’s 10-inch heavy-duty worm-drive table saw features a 3 ⁄8-inch depth of cut and a 30½-inch rip capacity. Its precision rack-and-pinion fence system was incorporated to allow smooth fence adjustments for exact cuts. skilsaw.com

MAPEI CORP.’s Planitex SL and SLF are gypsum self-leveling underlayments. SL has high-ﬂ ow characteristics while SLF is ﬁ ber-reinforced for enhanced strength. mapei.com

FESTOOL’s STL 450 PORTER-CABLE’s LED Task Light Surface Inspection Light can be used with or without a pow- features 1,500 lumens and a color er cord to illuminate work spaces temperature of 5,000 kelvins to allow up to 1900 lumens. The Task Light professional craftsmen to see ﬂ aws and defects runs for 10 hours on battery before their customers do, the company says. power and can be mounted to festoolusa.com a tripod. portercable.com

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DJ18-NewProducts.indd 72 11/20/17 2:56 PM Ad Index Q

Quickly locate an advertiser in this issue using the list below:

Allegheny Mountain Hardwood Flooring www.alleghenymountainhardwoodfl ooring.com ...... 55 Artistic Finishes Stay connected with WFB www.artisticfi nishes.com ...... 29 Bona US www.bona.com...... 37, 76 Brickman Consulting www.brickmanconsulting.com ...... 68 Delmhorst Instrument Co. www.delmhorst.com ...... 43 Domotex Asia www.domotexasiachinafl oor.com ...... 41 DriTac Flooring Products LLC www.dritac.com...... 69 DuraSeal www.duraseal.com ...... 5 Eagle Creek Floors www.eaglecreekfl oors.com ...... 15 Fidbox LLC www.fi dbox.net ...... 48, 55 The Garrison Collection www.thegarrisoncollection.com ...... 38–39 LaCrosse Hardwood Flooring www.lacrossefl ooring.com ...... 7 Be noticed in Lignomat USA Ltd. www.lignomat.com ...... 31 the industry’s National Wood Floor Consultants Inc. www.nwfc.net ...... 68 Osmo North America magazine. www.osmousa.com ...... 2 PG Wood Imports Reach the most qualified www.pgwoodimports.com ...... 75 industry pros in 2018 with Provenza Floors print, digital and social www.provenzafl oors.com ...... 23 media advertising. Saroyan Wood Floors www.saroyanlumber.com ...... 19 Stauf USA LLC www.staufusa.com ...... 9 Surfaces Contact: Kendra Griffi n www.surfaces.com ...... 66 kendra@woodfl oorbusiness.com Top Grade Floors (608) 467-1084 | (800) 722-8764 x 107 www.topgradefl oors.com ...... 68 Tramex Ltd. www.tramexltd.com ...... 53 Woodwise/Design Hardwood Products info.woodfl oorbusiness.com www.woodwise.com ...... 3

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DJ18-Ad-Index.indd 73 11/21/17 9:40 AM ENDExtraordinary GRAIN projects from the industry By Kim Wahlgren Photos courtosy of Universal Floors A historic ﬂ oor ‘like an old saddle’

UST ST EPS FROM the White House is the Decatur House, built in 1819 by Commodore Stephen Decatur, who had little time to enjoy Jit due to dying there in a duel the following year. Today the home endures, maintained by the White House Historical Association, and when the association wanted to ensure its wood fl oors also endured, it turned to Universal Floors, based in Washington D.C. “It’s not a regular job site by any means,” says Sprigg Lynn, president at Universal. “You could not sand the fl oor; you can’t take that patina off the fl oor. It has that look like an old saddle.” Under the watchful eye of preservationists, the Universal crew worked with a buff er and by hand to remove layers of old wax using steel wool, DuraSeal Renovator, turpentine and some proprietary products. Loose boards were fastened by “drilling the tiniest holes you’ve ever seen” in the cracks of boards next to nail holes and injecting epoxy. The showpiece of the fl oor is a medallion that was added to the home in the 1870s by its wealthy Californian owner. Multiple species, from holly to goncalo alves to Spanish cedar, comprise the medallion; the pieces are actually veneer adhered to a yellow pine backing with hide glue, which Lynn says crystallizes over time, losing its adhesive properties. There were so many layers and types of wax that the diff erent species were almost indistinguishable. For now, the pieces have been stripped and resecured to the fl oor, but Universal is also recreating the entire medallion for when individual pieces, some now almost paper-thin, must be replaced. The entire fl oor is now repaired and restored with paste wax, and the historic medallion is protected by 1 a ⁄4-inch-thick piece of glass in recognition of its value, Lynn says: “You can’t replace it; it’s like a piece of scroll art.”

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