Archive for the ‘sustainability’ Category

Sustainability and the homefront

Monday, September 21st, 2009

I have to write this blog as a celebration more than anything. For those that have ever visited our website you may know that we are fans of sustainability from a bigger picture view. I am an avid fan of domestic wood species and local sourcing of material. Domestic species have less of a carbon footprint with regards to transport and they have a great dimensionality with regards to potential for appearances. In addition our domestic economy is strengthened from buying in our borders and as everyone knows right now we need that more than ever.

This is the latest news I received today from the National Wood Flooring Association:

“U.S. House Passes Pro-Hardwoods Resolution
The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed Resolution 81, non-binding legislation that urges American hardwood products be “given full consideration in any program directed at constructing environmentally preferable commercial, public, or private buildings” because U.S. forests are a legal, abundant and sustainable resource. The resolution passed with unanimous support. Integral to the resolution passage was Rep. Brad Ellsworth of Indiana. “We want to thank everyone who took the time to encourage their Member of Congress to support this resolution,” says the Hardwood Federation’s Deb Hawkinson. “The resolution needed 50 co-sponsors, and thanks to the industry’s efforts there were 52.”

Tags: , ,
Posted in Hardwood floor Portland, portland hardwood professional, sustainability | No Comments »

Product expectations and sustainability

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

I was out for a run this morning and I saw a jobsite/retaining wall that looked like a hurricane had come through. In fact, it appeared that maybe the retaining wall was started and maybe the contractor was asked to leave possibly. It made me really think about how many projects, products, or services are partially or fully completed and then torn out for one of many possible reasons. Was the job oversold and under-delivered? Was the contractor’s experience not up to par with the requirements of the homeowner? I know few fellow contractors who would ante up for this one. Was there a good match of product performance with customer expectations?

Everyday I hear the words green and sustainable tossed around in an attempt to create customer buzz and sell a job. If the project was loaded with green and sustainable products, but had to be torn out and redone, this is in no way a sustainable process. I would urge readers of this blog who are contractors or retailers to consider that quality is a willingness to provide the best product and service ONE time for a price that provides a good living without compromising project fulfillment and product performance. In my eyes this is a vastly overlooked component of being a sustainable home services provider.

Tags: ,
Posted in Hardwood floor durability, sustainability | 1 Comment »

To salvage or not to salvage that is the question!

Sunday, May 31st, 2009

One of the latest rages in hardwood flooring materials is to use salvaged flooring materials. As you know we are all fans of the motto “reduce, reuse, recycle”. The word reuse is in play with salvaged materials and there are some things to consider when you reuse material that was already an existing floor.

Most hardwood floors have approximately 6-10 sandings available depending on the type of material and the aggressiveness of the sanding. Less dense hardwood floors such as old growth fir may be closer to six available sandings whereas a more dense material such as Brazilian cherry may be able to be sanded up to 10 times.

Keep in mind that every wood floor is connected to a subfloor, which is connected to the foundation of a home. While homes settle and shift over the years the hardwood floor follows suit. After a few sandings and a number of years your wood floors may be sanded to a thinner dimension in a hallway than in a bedroom, etc…

The salvaging process that we speak of is the removal and reassembly of an existing wood floor into a new area or home. When you remove and reassemble a floor that has been sanded multiple times, the true variances that are exascerbated by the settling process will be even greater. In reality when you reassemble a salvaged wood floor, there is an extreme amount of what we refer to as “over/under wood”. This greater amount of variance requires a greater amount of sanding in order to achieve a flat wood floor.

So what does all of this mean? If you install a salvaged wood floor in your home the consequences are good for the environment and possibly bad because you will need to pay more for the floor to be sanded because there is more effort to remove the necessary material to achieve a flat floor. A second consequence of the additional sanding efforts is that your floor will be closer to the end of its lifespan. This is especially important because with all of the interest in people requesting salvaged wood floors these days, after sanding I am seeing floors that literally have no more sandings available because there is virtually a paper thin wear layer remaining.

It is most important for me as an ethical wood flooring professional to advise you that salvaged wood floors have a lesser value for the life cycle of your project because of the greater reduction in wear layer. If you choose to use salvaged flooring, then I have two suggestions. The first suggestion is to either remill the flooring material or have flooring milled from dimensional lumber. The other suggestion is that if you choose to reuse salvaged flooring material without doing a remilling that you adhere to a very strict maintenance schedule of recoating the finish on your floor. This will greatly prolong the life of the wear layer of your floor and add more value to your efforts.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Hardwood floor Portland, Portland fir floor, Uncategorized, hardwood floor, sustainability | 2 Comments »

Why can’t you sand that old fir floor?

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009

All the time I meet different people for an estimate who assume that their old Fir floors cannot be refinished, so they think that they will install new flooring over the floors. Usually the floors have been covered in paint, carpet, or linoleum forever and as time has gone on people have realized the best looking of their options is a wood floor. One important thing to understand about the floor sanding process is that usually only 1/32″ to 1/16″ of flooring actually is removed during sanding. If you consider that a wear layer on a floor is typically 5/16″ and a quality refinish will endure 10-20 years of wear with proper maintenance, then you can see that most floors ,even those that are 100 years old or greater, have some remaining life. I have seen some of the worst hardwood floors be revived in 5 days to a state of beauty that few would expect. My answer is almost always, “Yes, you can sand that old Fir floor!”. It’s more cost effective and has less impact on the environment because you reuse an existing resource.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Fir flooring, sustainability | No Comments »

|