Choosing Hardwood Flooring

Hey Good People - Rob here.

Here’s a link to a blog post about the stresses that hardwood flooring undergoes at the mill, and with some very interesting information about how the hardwood floors you buy are actually made. It’s related to both a free educational paper and a lecture at the Hardwood Flooring Summit 2008 this August in Atlanta, GA. The lecture will be given by Dr. Brian H. Bond of Virginia Tech University.

Some of the things which this article brings out for me is the concept of respect - respect for hardwood as a material. And I don’t mean this in a marketing sense (i.e ‘hardwood carries the tradition of centuries, yadda, yadda, yadda…). I guess I mean it in the sense that hardwood flooring is natural, and that it adheres to certain rules. There is something comforting in that, somehow. But, never mind that. Let’s talk about practicalities for a minute, folks.

Hardwood flooring mills and end users- In it together

Hardwood flooring is dependent on the correct levels of moisture for the state of its health and shape. You’ve heard all about where to avoid installing hardwood floors in numerous articles, both here, in the article I’ve linked to above, and elsewhere I’m sure. The article shows that it’s not just the end user - you - that needs to worry about moisture and environments. A lot of that burden falls on the mill, and ultimately on the industry as a whole. The goal is always to deliver a top quality product that everyone can be proud of. Moisture control, acclamation of hardwood flooring, grading, and even judgments made by the ultimate test of the human eye all play into that process.

And of course, all of these same factors remain to be important once you’ve got your hardwood flooring on site. In some ways, the rules that hardwood flooring sticks to (expansion and cupping when exposed to high humidity, swelling when exposed to excessive moisture, cracks and separations between boards when the air is too dry, and more) make it the choice of those who appreciate a material in a property which reflects something of its original nature before it was manufactured. This is at least part of the reason why hardwood flooring is one of the most time-honored flooring materials ever.

OK, maybe that was a little bit of marketing thrown in there. I can’t help myself.

Hardwood floors - a natural beauty

But, I personally like the idea that mills and property owners alike are part of one big process. And that process is about making sure that the best results are reflected when focused on the business of sourcing, installing, and enjoying premium hardwood flooring products. These aren’t featureless manufacturing goods we’re talking about here. In some ways, I think people love hardwood floors because they have the power to add a sense of humanity, and the warmth of the natural world to a space. They have a character because they react to what’s around them. They even ‘age’. In many senses, they retain life in a way that other types of flooring don’t.

Enjoy the attached article, Good People. Let me know what you think. And if anyone is going to the Hardwood Flooring Summit, tell me about that too!

Cheers,

Rob.

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Hi All,

I expected to begin this series by addressing the standard argument that online retailers can’t hold a candle to local retailers when it comes to customer service. I’ll do that, but then quickly move on to a question that presented itself to me over the weekend and actually ties into Rob’s posting below.

Customer service is a corner stone of the online company that I am apart of.  We demonstrate this service by returning phone calls and emails promptly and essentially ‘doing the right thing’ for the question in all situations. That said, we cannot offer the face-to-face experience that a lot of customers fear is disappearing. No argument. We’re simply not set up that way. However, I would like to apply this to the Big Box versus Mom n’ Pop debate.

Which brings me to my experience over the weekend. My wife and I are a reasonably young couple and, recently, first time home buyers. It’s a fixer upper so I’ve found myself for the first time in my life right smack in  Home Depots target demographic- I can do it, they can help. But on this day , I first stopped into the small retailer directly across the street. We walked in to the small store and began looking around. Lots of nice stuff. There was one other couple there being assisted by the lone Sales Representative. We did not receive a “Hello” when we came in, nor a “I’ll be right with you” as we browsed patiently, or even an alarmed “Get the hose!” when we left 15 minutes later with smoke billowing from my wife’s ears. No folks, it was as if we were invisible (neat trick I thought, my wife disagreed).

We then sauntered directly across the street to the Big Box store where there were more Sales Reps than customers and, to my unending surprise, our Sales Rep was not only friendly but…..(pause for effect)…knowledgeable.   This has thrown my whole belief system for a loop as I fancy myself a traditional guy in most respects. So my question to you, dear readers, are Mom n’ Pop shops all they’re cracked up to be? I’m I letting one bad apple spoil the whole bunch?

Cheers,

Tom

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Hey, Good People - Rob here.

Maybe this post should be filed under the ‘tell me something I don’t know’ section, but let’s talk about it anyway. Sometimes, it’s important to stick to the basics, after all.

An important stage in getting the best results from hardwood flooring or any sort of building materials is to get the help needed from the experts without fuss.

Here’s a story I read in an opinion piece from Americus Times Recorder about buying hardwood flooring samples, and the importance of making it easy to get them. In this story, the customer simply wanted to take away a representative sample of hardwood flooring from one of the big box stores to continue with a long-term remodeling project. Simple, right? No, as it turns out. What was the problem? The store computers wouldn’t read the code on the sample the customer chose.

With much toing-and-froing from customer, sales, and store management, the customer left without the samples, and without a possible hardwood flooring purchase either. The customer then went to a smaller, local store where he was greeted by name, and took away samples without fuss. He was not made to wait for staff to adjust his request to their process, and the customer ended up buying hardwood flooring from the store who met his needs.

From this story, I was reminded that giving the customer “no hassles” is such an important part of building relationships with them, whether you’re selling hardwood flooring samples, chewy pet toys, or Halloween outfits. Often, the short-term gain needs to be sacrificed for the long-term one. In the case of the big box store, a sales procedure needed to be left behind in order to fulfill the needs of that customer in that moment.

Customer service, which includes making ordering hardwood flooring samples easy as well as providing good communication when it comes to customer claims, has always been important to us around here. Generally, from what our customers are telling us, we do a pretty good job. But, we always want to get better at it. In the coming months, we’re planning on streamlining our processes to make things even easier for customers to get the results they’re after.

In the meantime, this was a great example to us, and to our competitors too, of how things can always improve between a company and its customers when a little bit of flexibility and empathy is employed.

So, Good People; do you have any customer services horror stories/tales of woe of your own?  How might the situation have been made better by those you were dealing with?  Let me hear about it.

Cheers!

Rob.

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Hi there, good people - Rob here.

One of the great things about this age of information in which we’re currently living is that practical information is out there at a tap of the keyboard and a glance - it’s part of the wonders of the Internet!

We’re pretty proud of how much information about hardwood flooring we have on our main site and within the pages of this blog too. But to get the basics in one blast of information, it might be worth your while to read this article from Howitworks.com as well. Some of the subject matter it covers is:

• the types of hardwood flooring out there and how hard each one is
• the types of cuts you can get - solid and engineered hardwood
• types of finishes for hardwood flooring
• tools you’ll need, and
• the right approach to installing hardwood floors yourself.

To this last point, it’s recommended that if you’ve got an elaborate layout in mind or are completely inexperienced, by all means hire a professional. But, it also encourages skilled DIYers to think about doing it themselves.

Baby (by the name of Udo, actually) and hardwood flooring image courtesy of juhansonin

I think that there are many advantages to hardwood flooring - permanence and a certain air of sophistication are two big ones. But, installing it oneself can also produce another long-lasting benefit; pride in accomplishment and a legacy of ones’ own sense of style to last for decades. Remember, most hardwood floors tend to last for a lifetime, and beyond.

Happy reading, and happy installing.

Cheers,

Rob.

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Hi all,

I was leafing through some of the posts I’ve compiled since we started this blog a few short months ago and it hit me like a slap on the face in a dark room- my work has been one sided!

The root of my bias is obvious; I work for an online hardwood retailer and have spent a good deal of time explaining the positive attributes of our business model to those who are just now dipping their feet into the inviting waters of online shopping (See! I can’t stop!).

So, let’s get back on track here and devote a little time to what the traditional store front retailer has to offer- an olive branch if you will. BuildDirect carries Olive flooring by the way (will the shameless self promotion never end!)

Today, I’m turning over a new leaf by beginning a series that will pit online shops versus traditional retailers in a fair and balanced review (to the best of my ability). And I’m counting on you all to to keep me honest!

Cheers,

Tom

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Hey, good people - Rob here!

Being in the building materials industry and being interested in the development of the Internet too as we are around here at BuildDirect, it’s nice when the worlds collide. So, here’s an interesting tidbit which is both related to hardwood flooring, and to Bill Gates and Co too.

Hardwood flooring installers Mackay Flooring based in Scotland have won the contract to provide flooring for the new UK Microsoft Offices in the city of Edinburgh (home of the Fringe Festival, for all of you live entertainment buffs out there). Obviously, this is not just a big deal for the use hardwood flooring being applied to the environment of a major technology company - the traditional meets the cutting edge as it were - but, it also means a big economic boost for the region too.

Ediburgh image courtesy of JCookfisher.

The hopes that Microsoft’s’ new offices in Scotland, (resplendent in the beauty of hardwood thanks to the guys at Mackay…) will attract more blue-chip business there is running pretty high too.

Here’s a link to the reprinted story on the Mackay Flooring blog.

Happy reading, good people!

Cheers!

Rob.

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Hi all,

Big news out of China this week.

The Chinese government has officially removed the 18% fuel subsidies well before analysts had anticipated (see an LA Times article here for more info). While this is expected to lower the consumer demand in China, thereby improving the global cost of crude oil, it has already begun to adversely effect the pricing of hardwood floors produced in this country.

My coworker in China has already reported being inundated with warnings of hardwood price increases. Our best estimate at the moment is somewhere between 5-10%. This price increase will affect factory direct buyers immediately, and DIYers too once distributors current stock in North America dries up.

Something to keep an eye on: As manufacturing and transportation costs increase as a result of rising cost of fuel, North American goods should become more cost competitive.

How have rising fuel costs affected your livelihood?

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Hey good people - Rob here.

I stumbled across this online press release from Connor Hardwood Courts about their supply of hardwood parquet sports floors for the Boston Celtics basketball team. The company refurbished the court in 1999, and have proudly declared that the team’s recent victory over the Lakers to receive their 17^th national championship was won on one of their floors. Good job, guys!

The original oak hardwood sports floors for the courts in Boston Garden had been installed in 1946. Previously, players played on concrete, before parquet hardwood flooring was installed instead. When the company was asked to refurbish the court, part of the agreement was to incorporate planks from the original flooring from ‘46. Re-using the vintage floors was definitely a “green flooring” practice. But, I think the main reason for the request that this be done was that sports fans are famously nostalgic, and appreciate a sense of history. So, Connor scored on both fronts - they pleased the venue owners and sports fans, but they also utilized some green building practices too.

Read the full press release about the hardwood sports flooring in Boston Garden here.

So, what’s the sports venue that makes you most nostalgic, good people? How did any renovations to the flooring or any other aspect of the venue in later years meet your satisfaction (or not…) ?

Tell me all about it!

Cheers!

Rob.

Boston Garden image courtesy of Just-Us-3.

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Hi good people - Rob here!

A question that has been presented to me recently is the issue of photosensitivity in exotic hardwood flooring like Brazilian cherry (aka Jatoba). This means that many choices of exotic hardwood flooring, and even in some species of domestic hardwoods, will change color when exposed to light over a long period of time. This of course has important implications for those who are designing the look of an interior around a single color.

Plan For Color Changes

When planning an interior design which incorporates photosensitive exotic hardwood, it’s best to think in terms of a tonal range, rather than a single, static color. Part of what this means is finding out what that tonal range of your chosen exotic hardwood flooring is. Ask your seller about it. Generally speaking, exotic hardwood tends to darken over time. And Brazilian cherry, for instance, tends to become less an earthy brown and more a deep burgundy as it ages.

Another part of considering a tonal range rather than a single static color is making sure that your exotic hardwood flooring ages evenly once it’s installed. This has a lot to do its exposure to direct sunlight. Paying attention to where the light hits it the most is a great idea to make sure your floors age evenly. Ask yourself:

• where my flooring is likely to get the most direct exposure to sunlight?
• where is it likely gets the least exposure?
• where should I consider throw rugs to cover certain areas, and where they should be removed or regularly rotated?

The simple solutions are usually the most effective in a lot of cases, and it’s certainly true here.

Hardwood Floors to Grow With You

Color changes in many species of exotic hardwood flooring are a reality, but not necessarily a limitation. An interior design approach can actually become very four-dimensional when you factor in that extra dimension - the passage of time. In this way, choosing hardwood flooring is about choosing a material that will grow along with you, and become a part of your life at every stage.

it’s always best to approach the purchase of your flooring by thinking of them as lifetime additions to a property. This will help you decide on how suitable your choice of hardwood flooring is in the space you’ve chosen for it.

How many of you out there have experienced this thing we call photosensitivity in wood floors? Tell me your stories, good people!

Cheers!

Rob.

Hardwood flooring image courtesy of Chadmagiera

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So, you’re convinced- online shopping is the way to go! But keep in mind, you may be buying online from a traditional store front retailer. If so, how are they able to offer you the best pricing considering the overhead they’re carrying? Even though you’re buying online from samples and photos, you still pay for the retail space and fancy displays they present to in-store customers a state over.

A true online retailer doesn’t carry the overhead of retail outlets and display suites- and you don’t pay for it.

Cheers,

Tom.

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