Hardwood Floors August/September 2017

Wood

CONTRACTOR CORNER

BY THE BEACH Sanding

• OSHA has announced that enforcement of the Crystalline Silica Standard will take effect Sept. 23, 2017. The standard limits silica exposure from sources like concrete to 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air in eight hours. Crystalline silica exposure has been linked to lung cancer, silicosis, chronic pulmonary disease, and kidney disease. • At all NWFA technical courses, participants are given a “Wood Is Good” T-shirt. Join our contest by posting your picture on social media wearing your “Wood Is Good” shirt and tagging the NWFA. Be sure to use hashtags #NWFAtshirt, #WoodIsGood, and #NWFAtraining. At the end of the year, a submission will be chosen at random to win a new GoPro. Submissions must be posted by Dec. 31, 2017, at 5 p.m. Central Time, to be considered.

Phil Valenti, owner of Valenti Flooring in Ronkonkoma, New York, has been in the flooring business for nearly 20 years. His wife, Julia, joined Valenti Flooring as the manager five years ago. Last year, Phil and Julia joined NWFA and Phil earned his NWFA Install and Sand & Finish Certifications. “I run the business side of things, and Phil does the field work,” explains Julia. About 17 years ago, Valenti Flooring did the floors for the Beach Bar in Hampton Bays, New York. “This year, the Beach Bar is celebrating its 25th anniversary, so the owner contacted us and decided it was time for the floors to get a facelift,” says Julia. FLOOR FOCUS Being in a restaurant environment, the floors had been exposed to lots of wear and tear. “In addition to the high traffic the floors receive, there was also about 40 square feet of severely water-damaged flooring in the middle of the bar that needed to be ripped out and replaced,” says Julia. “The floors have been redone so many times that our crew had to put in a lot of hours sanding down the new boards before they could be installed.”

DID YOU KNOW? If wood flooring is delivered at a moisture content that coincides with the expected in-use (e.g., normal living) conditions of the facility, and these conditions are maintained, no on-site acclimation may be required.

Before

This 2-1/4 inch oak strip floor had several areas that needed to be replaced. After the install, it was sanded down to the last wear layer of the floor.

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