What’s a dummy board?
Wednesday, May 4th, 2011
The one that didn’t pass the algebra test?
Not really. When you have a hardwood floor installed and the height of the new floor is much higher than the dishwasher, then you have to put a board in front of the dishwasher that can be easily removed for later repairs to the dishwasher. We call it a dummy board.
I made a repair recently where a contractor forgot the dummy board. Inevitably, six months later the dishwasher needed a repair and it became an emergency repair.
After cutting the boards to allow for clearance, we will re-install a loose board that will fix the problem. If you’re having new hardwood flooring installed in your kitchen and the feet on your dishwasher do not have clearance to go up, then you need to make sure to pay attention. Many wood floor installers do not understand the importance of this detail.
Tags: hardwood floor contractor
Posted in Floor Projects | No Comments »
Home Depot fools you once again!
Thursday, April 21st, 2011
What you don’t know sometimes can surprise you.
I was discussing with a distributor colleague the other day about how amazed I was with the cost of the stair treads that you can purchase at Home Depot and Lowe’s. He informed me that the treads are a veneer and not solid oak and I was blown away.
Take a look at the profile from the side and you will see exactly what I am talking about. The tread on the left is solid oak the one on the right is an oak veneer. My other issue is with the China factor regarding material quality and sustainability.
Regarding sustainability: Oak doesn’t grow in China so the oak veneer had to be be shipped to China for manufacturing (for cheap) and then the tread is shipped back to the US for purchase. How GREEN is that?
Regarding longevity (life-cycle analysis): The veneer tread can likely be sanded 3 times before you burn through the veneer. My other issue is that poorly glued veneer can de-laminate and who wants a staircase that is falling apart. Let’s call the tread on the right what it is… JUNK.
The cost for a high quality staircase is in the labor for installation and finishing. The treads really only represent about 20-25% of the cost on average. If we were to estimate installing a standard staircase with the veneered treads, then the savings would be about $250-300. That’s a rather paltry number considering that an average staircase starts at about $2500 and goes up from there depending on what features you want.
Please investigate your projects from all dimensions, from the contractor to the materials used for the project.
Tags: hardwood floor contractor, sustainability
Posted in Contractor Perspectives, Sustainability Talk | No Comments »
What’s all that chattering about?
Monday, April 18th, 2011
I’m not talking about the latest Justin Bieber album at the high school girls locker room.
This post is about something a majority of homeowners and surprisingly 8 out of 10 “floor guys” don’t see as a problem with floor sanding…. Chatter from the floor sander. Look closely at this picture and you should see what I’m talking about
A contractor’s belt sander or drum sander is the cause of this problem. Typically it is because the machine has not been regularly maintained. It is possible to remove chatter, but this requires a methodical hardplating process with either a buffer or a three disc random orbit sander like the Lagler Trio.
The above photo is a before picture from a recent project we completed in the Alameda neighborhood around Portland. We sanded the floor flat with our belt machine and did a final hardplating using the Lagler Trio. The end result is below.
The point of this post is simply to inform you that if you see this phenomenon in your hardwood floors that it is a real sanding error and you’re not being a picky homeowner. To hide chatter, a number of companies use very low sheen finishes, particularly waterborne finishes because the more plasticized resins do a great job of obscuring the clarity of the floor.
Be informed, be bold in demanding great service, and be a better consumer. You should love your floors, not think they’re just OK when you move back into your home.
Tags: hardwood refinishing
Posted in Contractor Perspectives, Wood Floor FAQ | 2 Comments »
Clearing up the confusion in reclaimed
Thursday, April 14th, 2011
Often I get inquiries from people interested in “reclaimed” floors. As the conversation goes, they have a notion that the material will be cheaper in cost because it is reclaimed. Regarding my definition of reclaimed, I would say give the following:
Reclaimed flooring- material that has been provided from a source such as a barn, old building, or riverbottom (sunken logs) and has been milled into flooring.
Salvaged flooring- flooring that has been removed from a house or gymnasium and later gets re-installed in a different building or home.
Here are a few things to note:
Reclaimed flooring requires someone to go extract the material from one location and sometimes this can be difficult (underwater logging) and milled into flooring. At best, the cost as equal to but usually double the cost of traditional material because of the extra effort to recover the material that gets milled into flooring.
Salvaged flooring is typically picked up from a source where someone donates the material after removing it from a home in order to make way for new floor coverings. Unless the person removing the material is a specialist, the integrity of the flooring is usually compromised. I’ve also previously written about the amount of wear layer lost to the “over/underwood” effect of salvaged flooring.
If you’re looking for the cheap route, then the odds are less in favor of finding cheap reclaimed flooring.
Tags: sustainability
Posted in Sustainability Talk | 1 Comment »
Be very selective when hiring a hardwood floor refinisher… Here’s why:
Thursday, April 7th, 2011
This week in my business has been very busy looking at mistakes from a couple of hasty wood flooring companies. I’m not a certified wood floor inspector, but I try to look objectively at problems and be empathetic to the homeowner. It is not ethical for me to bash companies in an attempt to gain work for the company. Read on because I want to explain a few things:
When you hire someone to refinish your hardwood floors, particularly on a large project with a dark stain color there are a number of things you should know:
- If you provide a company with a 50% deposit to begin a project, then the cost to hire another company to fix and refinish an improperly stained or refinished floor WILL exceed the remaining balance you owe to the company at fault.
- If your state has a contractors board, then it will take generally four to six months by the time the problem is resolved and you are awarded any monies to remedy the faulty work. Usually this is paid from the bond of the company at fault. If you hire an unlicensed contractor, then you are pretty much out of luck.
- Most states have a “right to fix” clause that allows the contractor at fault to fix the problem. Usually this is 10 days. If you hire someone else to fix the work without following this procedure then you will pretty much lose your case against the contractor at fault.
I’ve witnessed a number of pretty defective floors lately. One floor project was a $9000 refinish that was pretty poorly done. It would not be possible for a quality contractor to fix the work for the remaining $4500. Who wants to lose $4500? Not me and I hope you don’t either.
My advice to you is to get references and thoroughly research your contractor’s background in doing similar projects to yours. I used dark stain refinishing in this example because it can be very high risk for failure, but this post applies to any project out there.
If you have any experiences, please share your thoughts.
Tags: hardwood floor contractor, hardwood refinishing
Posted in Contractor Perspectives, Floor Finishing | No Comments »
What are you getting for your money?
Friday, April 1st, 2011
Would you buy a car without knowing:
- The color?
- If it had a radio?
- Whether it had leather or cloth interior?
- If it had a reliable engine?
Would you hire a contractor to refinish your hardwood floors without knowing:
- The name and specifications of the finish being used
- If they are licensed and bonded
- If they have a reputation of reliability
Every week I talk with consumers who don’t know anything about the finish being used on their floors other than if it is waterbased or oil based finish.
In addition, I talk with various hardwood contractors in the field who never discuss the finish being used with their customers. The contractor just gives the customer a price and depending on the cost of the job and material costs, purchases finish that allows them to stay profitable. The customer generally gets the finish that is the cheapest.
In the last year:
- Insurance rates have increased
- Material costs have increased
- Fuel costs have increased
How is it possible that you can get the best floor for the cheapest price?
Tags: hardwood floor contractor, hardwood refinishing
Posted in Contractor Perspectives, Floor Finishing | No Comments »
Community Cycling Center floors restored!
Friday, March 4th, 2011
We had the honor and privilege of being selected to refinish the hardwood floors at the community cycling center in northeast Portland in the Alberta area. The cycling center is a non-profit organization that helps educate consumers on bike maintenance, provide bikes for low income residents so that they have transportation to work, and restores bikes that otherwise would end up in a landfill. Having seen their work, I can tell you that they do an amazing job bringing bikes back from the dead.
Up to the challenge and believing that almost any floor can be restored, we refinished the fir flooring in the center. The turnaround time for our part had to be done very quickly. We used a low VOC hardening oil on the floor that has a 12 hour cure time. The video of the project shows the before and after conditions of the floor.
Tags: Fir flooring, hardwood floor finish, low-VOC hardwood floor finish, sustainability
Posted in Floor Projects, Project Videos | 3 Comments »
Sanding and Finishing – Clear Up Confusion About Maintenance
Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011
This is a completely comprehensive article on wood floor maintenance from THE authority in wood flooring the National Wood Flooring Association.
Sanding and Finishing – Clear Up Confusion About Maintenance.
Tags: hardwood floor finish, wood floor maintenance
Posted in Wood Floor FAQ | No Comments »
Is it in you?
Friday, February 25th, 2011
Gatorade says this.
I also wonder this about some of the guys in my industry.
What am I talking about?
I was doing a whole lot of repairs to an old house in NE Portland by Grant high school today. When the heating systems get switched from oil to forced air, you usually find holes with plywood covering them (instead of oak flooring) underneath the carpet where the old ductwork was located.
Fixing the holes requires installing new subfloor across the joists to fix the holes. My customer thanked me when she saw I had put plywood down to support the oak flooring that goes across the the area of the patch. I was sort of puzzled that she thanked me because this is the proper way to fix things.
Being an ethical contractor is either in you or not. Doing repairs properly isn’t more difficult really, but you would be surprised at the shortcuts I’ve seen when I fix floors. If you’re hiring a guy to do your floors you should really try to pick up on who has a happy internal spirit and is proud of what they do. What are the signs?
- Good contractors listen more than they talk
- They’re happy and not negative and grouchy
- They earn the respect of their crew by leadership rather than yelling at them
Tags: hardwood floor contractor, Hardwood floor Portland
Posted in Company Life | No Comments »
Trust me, it’s not normal seasonal movement
Wednesday, February 16th, 2011
The National Wood Flooring Association says that a gap of up to the thickness of a dime is acceptable for normal seasonal movement within a wood floor. The relative humidity in a home drops during winter because the air is dried out from a forced air heating system. One of the issues with seasonal movement is that it really tests how well the finish is adhered to the boards.
I have recently been talking with a homeowner in NC who is having problems with white lines syndrome and poor adhesion of oil based polyurethane to a walnut floor.
Looking at the pictures and having seen this problem firsthand, the floor is going to have serious issues with peeling finish. This is not a “normal seasonal movement” problem. It is an operator error issue regarding preparation and application of finish. The oil based polyurethane is not sticking to the boards.
Unfortunately, the only fix is to re-sand the entire wood floor. The floor is 3000 square feet and that will not be a quick problem to fix. The wood floor contractor tried to pass these problems off as normal seasonal movement, but that’s just a last ditch effort in hopes that the homeowner will buy that explanation and go away. These types of problems do not surface immediately, so sometimes choosing the wrong company can cause real issues with your time and countless headaches after you have “the keys” to your brand new floor.
Tags: adhesion, hardwood floor finish, white lines syndrome
Posted in Wood Floor FAQ | 2 Comments »
