Hardwood Floors February/March 2024

PHOTO COURTESY OF GARY SINISE FOUNDATION

says Somodean. “We had 2,600 square feet of 4” wide, long length, rift and quartered red oak. I am a big fan of sand and finish work, even more than installation, so I was thrilled to learn that would be our task.” A notable aspect of this project is that no local contractor was available in the rural part of Georgia where the home was built. “The location in Savannah, Georgia was a five-hour drive for me; however, I was fortunate enough to own a camper, and I found a campground within 15 minutes of the jobsite,” explains Somodean. “I enjoy camping with my family, so doing it in this situation made sense.”

for hardwood flooring, MAPEI for adhesive, Norton Abrasives for abrasives, and Uzin-Utz/Pallmann for stain and finish. Together, this team and their suppliers ensured the successful completion of this meaningful project. “Thanks to everyone’s incredible efforts, the project could not have gone better, and we could not have had a better experience,” says Somodean. “For this home, we learned that it would be a site-sanded and finished product from Allegheny Mountain Hardwood Flooring, which is one of the highest end wood flooring manufacturers in the industry, and I was very excited to be able to work with that material,”

Somodean says staying in the camper was a chance for these professionals to bond over work and shared meals and conversations, making the experience feel less like work and more like an enjoyable time spent with colleagues. “Being able to spend lunches, evenings, and dinners with the other guys, talking shop, talking about not just business, but life, was the cherry on top for me,” he says. “It didn’t feel like work.” “The official timeline for the project was from Monday to Saturday. However, Rob Chewning from Southern Woods Flooring went above and beyond by driving down a week before to kickstart the project, focusing on preparing the

the magazine of the national wood flooring association

11