Hardwood Floors April/May 2019

WFOY WINNER SPOTLIGHT:

The BC Hardwood Millwork Company was founded in 1904, manufacturing flooring for the rapidly expanding Vancouver market. In the 1960s, Raymond Crompton, father of the current CEO, Ken Crompton, became involved in the company’s operations. During the past 40 years, the Crompton family has guided the growth of BC Hardwood to evolve into one of Canada’s largest hardwood flooring companies. Today, BCHardwood Floor Co. consists of more than 60 employees and provides full hardwood ooring services including supply and distribution of ooringmaterials, installation, sanding, and nishing.When the company took a job restoring the oor of the historicDwightHall located on Powell River, the crewhad no idea theywould also discover a piece of BC Hardwood’s history. “ is hall was a particularly prestigious contract for our company,” shared RichardHook, Technical ServicesManager. “At the time it was constructed, DwightHall was built with no expense spared andwas one of themost elegant halls inBC. e installation required a great deal of cra smanship.” DwightHall is considered “a crowning gemof the town.”With a capacity of up to 400 guests, the venue hosts weddings, private parties, company functions, concerts, and annual holiday celebrations. Built in 1927, the hall’s interior features beautiful arched ceilings, recessedwood panel walls, and, thanks to the crewat BCHardwood, a new5,000-square-foot hardwood dance oor. “ e oor hadworn thin andwas showing its age, and therewere also some sub oor issues that needed to be addressed. Initially, we assumed the oor would be a straight install, but during the site inspection, we realized that there was a 15-foot ‘log cabin’ border.We recognized that recreating the border would bemore true to the historic nature of the building,” saidHook. e installation consisted of nail-down of rst-grade, North/Eastern Canadian, tongue-and-groove hardmaple. During the removal process, the crewdiscovered the company’smill stamp from1927 on one of the boards. “Whenwewere removing the oor, our lead foremanBobHook just happened by chance to pull the lineup board out, ipped it over and it had our company stamp on it,” saidHook. He sent a picture backwith the caption, “Looks likewewere on this job before.” As it turned out, BCHardwood hadmilled and installed the rst oor for DwightHall’s opening in 1927. To come across a piece of ooring from back then is a rare nd, butHook shares that the teamhas had this unique experience before. “It’s happened once before at the EmpressHotel inVictoria,” saidHook about the famous hotel’s Tea Lobby that was built in the early 1900s. “We restored that one almost 10 years ago. One piece had a BCHardwood stamp on it as well.”

All photos courtesy of BC Hardwood Floor Co.

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