Here’s a VERY in depth article by a brilliant lady in the wood floor industry named Elizabeth Baldwin.

Acacia Article

Here are two photos of Acacia floors from different suppliers. I know some may ask if there is a grading difference, but no grading was assigned to either picture or product spec. They were simply listed as pre-finished Acacia.

I’ll summarize if you don’t have time, there are A LOT of variations of Acacia flooring and buying from one source doesn’t guarantee that three years later when you add on to your living room, that the flooring at XYZ retailer is going to match. This is the practical explanation of the problems that can arise later that people rarely think about today when you pull out your credit card. The only two solutions I can think would prevent a future issue with matching are 1) Luck  2) Buy all the material you need now.

I’m not just singling out Acacia because sourcing difficulties happen in the long run with a number of exotic wood flooring species. I’m simply advising consumers to be aware that when being steered towards a particular product that you need to ask the right questions.

Lagler Trio- This machine is unmatched by any other. No buffer on the planet will sand a floor as flat as a Lagler Trio despite what people say. Here’s a shot to show things.

Glitsa MultiKote- This finish is an anomaly compared to anything else I’ve used it’s so great. We are VERY particular about how our floors look and there are two things that really make this finish stand out. How much it builds above the wood providing a protection layer and how quickly the smell dissipates for it being a conversion varnish.

There are a few things to takeaway from this post that I hope may impact you:

Sanding a floor can be done in a multitude of ways, so really ask a lot about how someone is going to sand your floors. The more your floor is sanded flat and polished to a high level of burnish, the more the finish will stand above the grain instead of fall into it.  This provides a better protective layer for foot traffic.

Despite all the hype, conversion varnishes can be applied and with good ventilation the smell is gone quickly. Gold Seal, the old topcoat of the swedish finish system, used to smell a little after application. The new MultiKote is quickly gone and honestly smells no worse than a waterborne within three days if ventilation is adequate. Conversion varnish is NOT the same as oil modified polyurethane, which smells and takes longer to cure.

Carpet cleaning wasn’t enough for these guys so they figured, why not become wood floor and cabinet refinishers? We’ll market as “non-toxic, dustless, and 1-2 day process”. I’m going to stop there and let readers think for themselves because this is where I begin to get frustrated with people being in my industry that sheerly want profit before ethic.

To top it off, the manager of franchise sales for this company was in mobile phone sales and then dental implant sales previously. So when did he become a floor and cabinet refinishing expert? Seth Godin says that marketers should be responsible for the quality of product that a company produces. I agree. If more companies had to actually use or be the recipient of services that they provide, in comparison to highly skilled boutique companies that make better products I think they would then see what charlatans they really are.

Thinking of calling Nhance and calling Modern Tech Floors to “bid” us against each other? Please save yourself the time and just call a real contractor instead of a franchise that has absolutely NO technical background in wood floor refinishing.

BTW I’ve taken the liberty of including a link to a related company that makes all these claims of making beat up floors look perfect without sanding and all of the complaints against them.

http://www.ripoffreport.com/directory/Mr-Sandless.aspx

Here’s a video where we recently fixed a project done by a similar business.

The real consideration is that this stuff is basically degraded carpet pad mixed with ten years of dirt that the vacuum left behind. As you step on the carpet and compress it, this stuff puffs through the carpet in a very fine airborne dust. You don’t really see it, but you’re breathing it for sure. So the next time you wonder why you have allergies, just pull up your carpet and look at what is below the pad.

Last week we refinished a floor for a customer who had been the victim of a well-marketed franchise. Specifically they swore up and down that the job would be done on time and would be dustless. The opposite was true when they returned from their vacation in Mexico. There was apparently enough dust from the sanding that they dust traveled through a closed door and covered everything in one of their closets. We own a “dustless” vacuum and we found that our Lagler sanders actually do a better job at collection than adding a vacuum can do. Our dustless system has now been relinquished to the duty of dust vacuum in the shop when we use planers and saws. A big part of why “dustless” vacuums do very little is that good floor sanding machines capture dust and send it back to collection at a rate that exceeds the vacuum capacity of every “dustless” vacuum we’ve used. We have used “dustless” machines by Bona (including the trailer mounted vacuum), Clark, and Oneida and found that the extra setup time and equipment yielded minimal benefit in comparison to our fleet of sanding machines by Lagler.

I took this photo really quickly while in traffic. The advertising promises 99% dust free. How exactly do you measure that? This phrase allows 1% of the dust to escape into your house. If you have two trash bags of dust from an average sanding job that weigh approximately 100lbs total, then that is one pound of dust that is allowable. Dust is not dense. 1 lb of dust would occupy roughly one large gallon Ziploc bag. What if I threw that in front of a box fan and told you it was acceptable? Remember, the refinish is still 99% dustless according to the marketing. Yes, this is where the homeowners who seek out information keep reading. The rest will click away and say that I’m a cynic.

It’s not my duty to make gimmicks and sales pitches as an NWFA certified professional. I have a duty to honor what I say. So here’s my take on the hardwood floor refinishing that we do: When we leave your house will be clean. Whatever methods we use to end up at a clean house is our decision but the end result should be a clean house. Hire your contractor based on the quality of their craftsmanship, knowledge, and enthusiasm. Gimmicks lack value and you may end up wasting time hiring companies with a slick salesman who has never sanded or installed a floor and simply passes work orders to the first guy who is available who owns a sander.

Someone asked me again today during an estimate how many years I’ve been in the business and how many years each of the employees have been in the business.

I’ve stated this before, but your knowledge is not different in 20 years versus 10 years if you never try to educate yourself. You will be the same person with the same set of skills.

I just got my renewed certification licenses in the mail today and wanted to take a minute to highlight what that means:

In order to earn these credentials, I had to:

Be an NWFA member in the business for at least two years.

Pass a visual inspection of how to sand, finish, and install a hardwood floor by an instructor.

Take a timed test online that tested my knowledge.

I’m not writing this to gloat, but to suggest that measuring a person’s skill level simply by the number of years in the business is like judging a book by its cover.  The standards that measure my certifications were set by the people who wrote the guidebook worldwide for wood floors. Wherever you live, it’s worth to ask the contractor if they any credentials besides time in business.