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Hardwood Flooring 



NECESSARY WATCHTULNESS ON THE PART OF MANUFACTURERS 



The business activity of every hardwood flooring manufacturer 

 may be likened to a pair of scales, whose balances consist of the pro- 

 ducing departments, which serve to get quality, and of the service 

 department, which must contain definite connection with and super- 

 vision over the contracting force that lays the floor. Of the two 

 balances, the latter may be reckoned as the more important. 



The first consideration, that of quality in production, resulting 

 from a well-equipped and scientifically-managed plant, is what affords 

 the manufacturer his first really strong grip on the field. In the 

 commonly used policy of selling from manufacturer to the flooring 

 contractor who makes a specialty of laying, and who acts as the 

 middleman between the producer and consumer, the contractor is 

 quick to grasp the service of the best-equipped mUl in his vicinity, 

 the one that will produce for him the fijiest grade of flooring or par- 

 quetry, wUl deliver it on time, and the one that is generally substan- 

 tially backed. The manufacturer gains advertisement through the 

 excellence of his product and it is by his works that he first becomes 

 a power in his territory. 



But in maintaining prestige that has once been gained, it is neces- 

 sary to pay attention to the second balance of the scales of business. 

 After the first step of flooring production has been successfully man- 

 aged, the flooring man is practically in his dealer's or contractor's 

 hands. Whatever weal or woe comes to the name of his establish- 

 ment through popular opinion of his floors is directly traceable to 

 influences that are controlled by men who lay the strips. 



Obviously, no matter how good the floor, if it is carelessly laid 

 the house-owner is justified in registering a strenuous complaint, and 

 though it be due absolutely to no fault of the flooring manufacturer, 

 that worthy is bound to receive what is termed a black eye in busi- 

 ness, the unrestrained "kick" of a dissatisfied consumer. If a satis- 

 fied customer may be rated as the best advertiser in the world, 

 certainly a disgruntled patron ranks as the most effective thorn in 

 the side of the business man. 



The flooring stock may be of the finest quartered oak or maple, 

 milled to a nicety and finished even better than piano surfaces, and 

 yet if that stock is laid badly, and it cracks and buckles after a little 

 wear, the owner of the building will forget all about quality in his 

 remembrance of poor workmanship. He becomes a chronic "knocker" 

 on the flooring mOl or dealer who supplied the stock, and he does not 

 hesitate to tell his friends about it. Evidently, through not exer- 

 cising supervision over the contractors who lay his floors, the manu- 

 facturer stands all to lose and nothing to win. 



The hardwood flooring manufacturer who goes ahead in business 

 with the jaunty assertion that he does no direct contracting himself, 

 and therefore is not responsible for the standing of his product with 

 the public, makes a mistake. He should have every dealer safe under 

 his circumspect wing. The time and trouble expended in supplying 

 dealers with definite instructions covering the work of laying floors 

 are amply compensated for by a harvest of satisfied customers. 



It is up to the flooring trade to provide means of tracing the 

 course of its product, and to ascertain the degree of satisfaction 

 afforded the consumer, from the time the finished stock goes to the 

 contractor until it is in actual and everyday use. It is the con- 

 sumer who furnishes the demand, and the contractor, who merely 

 acts as middleman, is energetically hustling for business and then 

 patronizing the nearest and best-reputed mill or wholesaler. 



The dealer in hardwood flooring should watch the conditions that 

 surround the laying of his floor. He should refuse to supply a job 

 that is not just right; that is, when the weather is bad or the struc- 

 ture itself is unsuited to receive the interior finish and flooring, by 

 reason of not being thoroughly dried out. Furthermore, he should 

 not furnish stock more quickly than it can be laid, for hardwood 

 flooring subjected to varying weather conditions about a building 

 that is nearing completion is sure to prove unsatisfactory. 



He should also drop in to inspect the flooring whUe the work of 

 laying is in progress, and if this be practicable he will have no diffi- 

 culty in gaining the contractor 's co-operation in eliminating bad or 



careless workmanship. The contractor may not be able to be on that 

 particular job all the time, but he will be glad to assist in straighten- 

 ing out points that are suggested as the result of the competent floor- 

 ing man's inspection. 



The accepted idea of fire-proof construction which prevails nowa- 

 days in ofiiee building, business structure and even in the home, offers 

 unpleasant possibilities to the flooring manufacturer. Fire-proof con- 

 struction nowadays demands concrete floors, but a concrete surface 

 is a cold and forbidding proposition for general utility, however much 

 it may tend to eliminate fire hazard. Consequently, the concrete 

 workers set strips of wood in the floor and hardwood finish is laid 

 over these foundation strips. No matter how imposing the oflice 

 building or factory, it can be beautified and also fire-proofed through 

 a concrete, hardwood-surfaced floor. 



But a concrete floor that has just been troweled off for its hard- 

 wood surface is about the shiftiest material that the flooring manu- 

 facturer could have to deal with. The concrete is still wet and per- 

 sists in remaining damp, so that the upper surface of wooden strips 

 begins to eup within a few weeks after the buUding is heated for 

 occupancy, and the moisture begins to arise from the fireproofing. 



In one of the largest cities of the Ohio valley, where the erection 

 of a big hospital has just been completed, a certain flooring con- 

 tractor laid thousands of square feet directly over a new concrete 

 floor. Two months after the work was completed and the big insti- 

 tution was warmed thoroughly, all the flooring began to cup until 

 the surface in a bedroom or section of hall looked like a miniature 

 "Ocean Wave" or "Eacer Dip" at Coney Island. The board of 

 supervisors of the hospital decided at once that the man who made 

 the flooring was responsible. Although the stock was perfect, they 

 couldn't see that the method of laying could have anything to do 

 with it, and placed the blame on the poor manufacturer of the 

 material. That is only one instance wherein flooring men have been 

 visited with popular displeasure because of the sins of the contractors. 

 The flooring man should watch fire-proof structures that are being 

 finished with his product more closely than any others. The best and 

 absolutely safe plan is to wait several months after the concrete is 

 laid, so as to subject it to all climatic conditions, but it is often the 

 case that a structure cannot be held up so long. In such event it 

 becomes necessary for the flooring producer to specify with his con- 

 tractor that a few coats of reliable, water-proof paint be applied to 

 the concrete after it has set, or that a couple of layers of water- 

 proof paper be laid over the toating between the concrete and the 

 hardwood floor. Such precautions as these preclude the possibility of 

 disaster. 



"It is absolutely amazing," said a prominent flooring man who is 

 an enthusiastic disciple of the doctrine of co-operative inspection, 

 * ' to note that lots of flooring men are willing to have their stock laid 

 as soon as the outside structural work is completed. Sometimes the 

 windows and doors are not in, and new floors are subjected to all 

 sorts of weather. I make it a point to insist that my floors be laid 

 after the house is as tight as a drum, just a few days prior to its 

 occupancy. Furthermore, I burn charcoal heaters twenty-four to 

 forty-eight hours in the rooms to be floored before the work begins, 

 as the result of arrangements with the contractors. The outcome of 

 these precautions is that I never have had an unsatisfactory residence 

 job since I inaugurated the system." 



In dealing with work that must be laid over sub-floors, there are 

 also numerous opportunities for slips in satisfactory execution. The 

 sub-floor is almost invariably very poorly conditioned to receive the 

 hardwood superstructure. Remedies for such conditions exist in the 

 flooring man specifying that the sub-floor be of kiln-dried stock. In 

 illustration of this point may be cited a recent occurrence in a big 

 eastern hotel. The owners had completed the structure and wished 

 to provide a handsome hardwood floor for its big ball-room in double- 

 quick time, so that the opening could be celebrated. 



A big flooring company which is very circumspect took a look at 

 the job and decided that the sub-floor, constructed of rather green 



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