Hardwood Floors Oct/Nov 2019

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at 36 grit at an angle. I had to angle 60 grit twice. Once at 30 degrees and another at about 15 degrees… then going straight, I finally got the floor flat.” As aggressively as he had sanded the floor, Schmidt was still worried. “I was concerned about getting the floor completely flat and getting all of the 36 grit scratchmarks out, so I went ahead and tookmy belt andmy edger through 100 grit.” Fixing the Final Flaws Content with the floor’s flatness, one final challenge arose as Schmidt began final buffing. “As I began final buffing, I saw that all of the big gaps that I repaired looked great, but now every single small gap that I had not filled was standing out. I was not happy with the way it looked.” To correct these small gaps, Schmidt used 100 grit buffer dust combined with a mixing compound. “I let that dry, rebuffed it, and we stained the next day. I was thrilled with the results,” says Schmidt. “I amdelighted with the way the stain looks, but I’ll be honest, this was a challenge. I had never done it before, but I wanted to prove tomyself that I could do it. I don’t think the outcome could have turned out any better.The clients love it, and we’ve even become friends during the process.” g

MANUFACTURER MEANDERINGS

• The Dubois Equipment Company, a Timesavers LLC company, named Michael Hornbraker as National Sales Manager. • Cefla North America announced the appointment of Kristen Riggs, Event Planner and Communications Specialist, and Sales Area Manager Kyle Grodzinski, who will cover the Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta provinces. • Mercier Wood Flooring announced the hiring of Troy Silveira as the new Southeast Regional Sales Manager. • AHF Products announced the completion of the expansion of its Cambodian engineered wood flooring manufacturing capabilities to offset the impact of tariffs and duties on imports fromChina. Also, the company hosted a grand opening for its new headquarters inWest Hempfield Township in Lancaster,

impossible. Schmidt discovered that the original installer had glued the solid Brazilian teak to the floor. Because of this, he needed to find another solution for fixing the gaps instead of pulling and reinstalling. “I made a sliver jig, and with boxes of leftover wood the homeowners had from the original install, I made around 100 slivers and glued them into areas of the floor that had the biggest gaps.” Because Schmidt was doing the repairs during the summer months, he felt adding slivers was an acceptable fix as the floor had swelled to its maximum. Correcting the Cupping Unfortunately, for Schmidt, there was one last problemwith the floor. “In addition to the gaps, the floor was also cupped and not at all flat. It ended up taking me four days to get 1,200 square feet flat. I started

Pennsylvania, featuring a ‘log-cutting’ ceremony and tree planting. • RollMaster Software

announced the introduction of multilingual documents, made possible by the company’s API technology.

the magazine of the national wood flooring association

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